True, although current has moments after a stable release where it's not that stable, being a development release, and all. I have no idea how one would support the infrastructure for a 3rd distro between current and stable, either, unless it were a fan project, not an official one.

If PV were to say "f#ck it" and release what's in current right now as 14.3-rc1, how bad would it be?

Indeed. I run -current as my daily driver, and very seldom do I run into issues. It has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum, but -current is far more stable than the release versions of other well-known distros. My computer is configured exactly the way I want it to behave, and I don't have to worry about an "update" from some mega-corporation <hint, hint> breaking my computer in numerous migraine-inducing ways. The only changes made to my computer are ones I initiate myself, and I know full well what changes I am inducing.

I like Slackware, and intend to stick with it for as long as it is being actively developed (which, I hope, is for a very long time!)

Happy Slacking!

I'm anxious to read your response to any of the comments posted, if you aren't trolling
I'm totally against systemd, so Arch isn't going to be on my machines. Yes, I used it for some time before it switched.
Besides all the compiling time on Gentoo, I find the USE flags a real pain trying to understand which ones to use for every package I want/need. At my age, I just want something that lets me get done what I want. I don't get a feel good attitude from letting a computer run hours on end to just compile something I need. Years ago, it was interesting seeing what all was involved, but that was years ago. Not now I'm retired, so much more fun doing what needs to be done, then play

Hear,hear!

Yup. I did try to switch. Really. I was saying to myself "ok, now give up, I mean give up ALL!" So, I took a modern and well backed distro (with a lizard, you see), with systemd and all. It was slow to boot, and slow to update, and some things were a bit strange (e. g. why is the XFCE session still getting a default QWERTY keyboard while you have defined the system keyboard otherway?). But I was ok, I know it was a bigger thing than my Slack polished by the years, with far more services to run and far more software to patch. So, I had to be fair and patient. Then an update broke my ethernet. Reconfigure, reboot, no way to get it working back. I don't know systemd or the thing handling this enough to dive in the system, and I should not have to know anything about it (what made me fair and patient). So, so long. I'm reluctant to go -current mostly because I do the admin for other peoples and it is not possible they have to wait for me to get their system working back if something breaks. And this is typically the nightmare scenario I want to avoid.

Really, it seems we are still where we were 15 years ago when I switched to Slackware: spending time in understanding and configuring bottom to top a stack according to your needs, or spending it in fighting top to bottom a one which tries to cover all what you are meant (and sometimes it sounds like an order) to need.

The best thing I've seen so far is Alpine (APK is very impressive). But... musl. It's a sensible and respectable choice, but I want to keep the option to use pre-build things.

It seems the evolution will eventually wipe me with my -stable. Bah.

Me too, but it turns out that it's impossible. Cannot be done.

For you guys apparently concerned for whatever reason at 14.2's age but feeling afraid to move to -Current, why not try a parallel install? Hard drives are really cheap if you don't presently have a few spare GB of space. If you don't have enough space and your budget won't support a new hdd, perhaps consider running Slackware Live on a USB stick? Really, -Current as almost everyone has reported is as stable as most "Big Budget" distros stable and while it isn't exactly in the spirit of "Testing" there's no law saying you can't use -Current as a "snapshot" system. You aren't forced to continually upgrade.

Because I put the same system everywhere I admin it. The cook first eats what he provides. IMO, it's far easier to debug, test, and build things this way.

Indeed. At the end, it just let you know better why you chose and love Slack.

Yeah, Slackware really is the Hotel California of distros.

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I do regularly use some build scripts from Gentoo and Arch, which i have made into SlackBuilds. It is amusing indeed.

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When you mentioned Hotel California, I just had to go and listen to the song. 'Tis true, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

I like the song, but it is one of the most overplayed songs ever written.
Years ago I was on the other side of the world, literally, in an "emerging country." As I was walking along a road, across from the beach, I came across a sandwich board sign in front of a business that said, in English, something to the effect of, "Hot Food, Cold Beer & Good Music!" and a few other things and then
at the bottom it said, "Absolutely NO Hotel California!"

Let me see if I can find the photo.

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Stability is not diminished by releasing less frequently.

(As an aside, note that there was a five-year gap between the release of RHEL 7 and RHEL 8 (which is not that unusual for RHEL). Nobody cries doom and gloom over RHEL's release schedule.)

Dropping support for older releases is the opposite of stability.

Rolling releases, too, are the opposite of stability.

The only way this post makes sense is if the meaning of "stability" is unclear.

"Stability" implies a high degree of reliability and avoiding unnecessary churn. See point #2 in my previous post on the subject for a short take on Slackware's reliability:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...3/#post6126204

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I read through this entire thread and OP hasn't responded once. I suppose that only reinforces the troll idea...

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