I have no idea what kind of specifics to document about Slackware. It's primitive as digging stick.

Erh... what? You haven't posted in wrong thread?

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Tell me you haven't used Slackware without telling me you haven't used Slackware

Primitive... HA!

EDIT: Oh, wait... I remember you. You were the one who didn't like that slackpkg was operating as designed, but not as you expected and said it was broken.

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Hmm... is someone possibly confusing the adjective "primitive" with the more accurate one... "simplicity"? If someone prefers all that fancy shit (SystemD, etc.) you'll find in RedHat, then enjoy. Many of us here have run Slackware Linux as our primary OS for decades. We find that simplicity to be divine.

Oh, and if someone's purpose is to just troll here, well then... I'll use one of Pat Volkerding's comments to just say, "What an asshat!"

Everyone has their opinions about Slackware, and GNU/Linux in general. Folks coming here should try to be a bit more constructive in their comments or ply their trade over at the RedHat or Android support websites.

By the way, while I'm not super-active there anymore, The Slackware Linux Documentation Project is close to my heart. I was one of the first editors there when Eric H. and Kiki started that project. I'm STILL an editor there, actually. All "constructive" criticism is welcome regarding that project; trolling is NOT.

Regards,

V. T. Eric Layton

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Water is simple, I like water

Best drink.

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It wasn't a useless post, though, since it me reminded me that Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a Slacker at heart:

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@fido_dogstoyevsky... EXCELLENT!

Slackware is the most primitive distro, and it's perfect for learning Linux. That's why students, old farts with dementia and autists love it. It has some "local" strength, but in the real world Slackware is deadend. Interesting, but ...

Ok, I'll play... What makes Slackware primitive?

Lack of dependency resolution? Most Slackware users find that a benefit.

Lack of systemd? Again, most Slackware users find that a benefit.

Is it that it includes most development software and supports most build systems out of the box? Wait, that wouldn't be primitive.

Is it that it has a sane base install and doesn't try to limit what its users are able to accomplish? Wait, that also wouldn't be primitive.

Is it that things are designed differently than you expected, so it is primitive to you? Ding, ding, ding... I think we have a winner.

===============================

Point blank... there is not a perfect distro for everyone, but many have their own perfect distro for them. It is perfectly fine if you've determined that Slackware isn't for you. However, slinging mud at it just because it isn't your cup of tea is a little pathetic. If you don't like it, just move on. There are plenty of distros in the sea.

I've done my share of distro hopping over my 20+ years of using Linux. There are a lot of distros that aren't for me, but that doesn't mean that they still aren't the right distro for others. Either way, I don't feel a need to call them names just because they don't meet my requirements/desires for a distro.

Best of luck in finding your preferred distro!

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Thank you. You have proven my point.

How did I do that? None of what I said indicates Slackware is primitive. However, I did infer that users might be primitive (although, I actually used the word "pathetic") if they dog on a distro just because it doesn't fit the requirements of their ideal distro.

If you have an actual reason to state it's primitive, please share! Otherwise, please find another distro that does actually fit your preferences. There's nothing wrong with believing a distro isn't the right one for you.

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Absolutely! I feel exactly the same way about this topic.


___


Oh, and re: the comment from PartiZan...


> ...old farts with dementia...


Heh! Not all old farts have dementia. Either way, though, I'd still be running Slackware as my primary OS.


___


General comments to follow:


When I started my GNU/Linux adventure nearly 20 years ago, due to extreme aggravation with MS Win XP, I installed and ran nearly every mainline and branched distributions of GNU/Linux. At one time I was multi-booting 18 of them on my main system.


Why? Well, simply because I was looking for the one that suited me best. It took a few months, but I eventually settled on Slackware, not because of its "primitiveness", but because of the beauty of its simplicity.


When I say "simple", I definitely do NOT mean "easy". Slackware is not for everyone. It's somewhat difficult to learn as a neophyte to Linux, but, as the poster above says, it is "perfect for learning Linux".


I have no ill feelings toward any distribution of GNU/Linux. I think they're ALL excellent. I may agree or disagree with how their developers/maintainers do things every now and then, but that doesn't take away from my love of the operating system itself.


The MOST WONDERFUL thing about GNU/Linux (and BSD, actually) is that it allows choices; this was something that MS and Apple never did. It was their way or no way.


So, that being said, I guess this "ol' fart" will move on now. It's Caturday and I have other things to do.



Regards all...


~Eric L.

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It would be fun to have an actual book for Slackware 15. It would also be fun to have a quarterly magazine--monthly is too often, I think, and might degenerate into something like the last days of the Linux Journal: overspecialized feature articles, boring and useless columns, hardware/conference adverts, and, arguably the most entertaining part, Doc Searls grousing about the demise of privacy -- documenting new or interesting old Linux software.

Of course, I just got done reading my old man's paper copy of last month's Time Magazine so I'm feeling quite the hipster ATM, LOL. Who would have thought electronic media would become The Establishment: the domain of Orwellian thought control/groupthink and Huxleyan entertainment anesthesia? (Or that shitty sounding vinyl records would cost more than (nearly extinct) new CDs?)

Getting back on topic, I just bought a 1999 copy of "Unix in A Nutshell" for $1 at a junk shop. It's still useful even though it says it's for Solaris 7 and SVR4: people still use sed, awk, troff, csh, ksh, etc. Maybe revising an old Slackware book could be the starting point? What was the last one?

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> Maybe revising an old Slackware book could be the starting point? What was the last one?

Heh! Well, that would be cool. However, many of us nagged and nagged the original authors of Slackware Linux Essentials for years to update/upgrade. There were promises made and so on, but nothing ever happened. That's OK, though. People have their own lives... they move on and find other interests. That's probably what happened to Chris Lummens, David Cantrell, Logan Johnson, and Allan Hicks -> the authors of the last known Slackware book (2005).

http://i.imgur.com/vOGtHTN.jpg

As with anything else, it would be a serious undertaking to do a new Slackware book from scratch and/or the quarterly you mention. While there may be interest still, I don't think there are enough people willing to assist; similar to the inactivity at the Slackware Documentation Project.

Anyway... Keep on Slackin'!

~Eric L.

It’s 2023 and as a returning slacker, I’m curious what is the most detailed Slackware related information available - preferably for Slackware 15? I don’t wanna cry about any lack of info, I just want to find the good stuff and don’t want to waste time where I shouldn’t. Is the documentation project the best available or is a great blogger making more recent and deeply informative posts out there somewhere or what?

Will