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Originally Posted by sahko
While i mostly disagree with CM's comments again, i disagree more strongly that Slackware is a distribution to watch out for in 2013.
While Slackware is the best linux distribution, even today, it is true that is partly stuck in the 90's.
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How about backward compatibility up to 90's?
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It contains many applications, like xxgdb for example which haven't been touched since 1995
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Agree, the necessary "bloat" may fool some newbies into using old,unmaintained applications.
However, it should be a corner/minor issue.
To think anyone would eager to touch any application which is far from "modern",
he/she must have some knowledge on behalf.
User-friendliness shouldn't be a problem, it is just marketing fail.
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, while at the same time lacking some modern applications/features most other distributions have had for years.
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Maybe i miss something but tetex->texlive is the only one i can think of.
I guess that the policy(if any) of the official package tree is to add the general purpose applications only.
If you want "modern" but profession-specific tools,
say,if you want CAD,Blender,Sage..etc. These can be done in slackbuilds.org.
The official tree seems to provide something like DE,emacs,*nix-ish tools,
common setup of mail/http/ftp server and such,that is,general purpose.
On software development,it shouldn't be lacking.
First of all,it is the most friendly source distro you can have.
Secondly,cant we see the trend today?
python->pip, ruby->gems, Common lisp->quicklisp, Haskell->Cabal, Emacs lisp->ELPA ...etc.
Jeez,doesn't a package manager become far more friendly for rigorous development/testing if it is more "barebone"?
At the end of the day, Slackware maybe a perfect solution for modern development.
Package manager like Nix, the complete opposite, while trying hard on consistency,
not only complicate the management even further, but may also show add more constraint or unnecessity.
Yet, cant agree more with that,
On the marketing point of view, completeness is crucial.
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IMO this is the most important fact that prevents Slackware from reaching a wider user base which would lead to much better and more frequent press coverage.
It is a fact that Slackware today is a follower of every innovation or advancement that comes out of linux. While most things that happen today are leading towards Windows or Mac behaviour emulation, Slackware is eventually forced to incorporate some of them. Due to the fact that Slackware is diverging more and more from every other linux distribution, it makes it harder and harder to maintain, not to mention its slowly but gradually moving away from its roots, goals and philosophy, without it being entirely its fault.
That's why Slackware as it is now is not 'watch out' material, but the exact opposite.
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Regardless, it is so uncool to keep bringing up this matter...
Squeezing out as much good,slackware-ish applications as we can, seems to be the best strategy?
Edit: grammar