A Slacker is just someone who runs Slackware.

They have varying abilities and knowledge, they have varying opinions. They express these frequently in LQ or they just lurk and read. They spend most of the time configuring their desktop to be pixel perfect or their Conky to be the most geek or their installation to be the most stripped down or they write code or they write music or they write books or they write poems or they write letters to the council about the potholes.

They run it as a server or they run it as a desktop or they run it as a router or they run it as a virtual machine or they run it as a recovery tool or they run it as a matter of course without even realising it is there.

They welcome newcomers, they welcome strays, they welcome the curious, they welcome Windows users, they welcome returning Slackers who have strayed from the fold. They welcome a Changelog update.

They upgrade it, they downgrade it, they break it. They complain about it, they curse it, they read the docs, they read the forum, they ask in IRC, they ask on USENET, they say never again. They reinstall it.

They post packages, they post suggestions, they post fixes, they post HowTos, they post their thoughts, they post their worries, they post their concerns, they post their praise, they post donations.

In short, Slackers are who they are because one man once had an idea that he might be able to do something that may prove one day to be worthwhile doing. He continued with that idea then and he continues with it today.

Every single person in here and every single person across the globe who runs Slackware should be proud to call themselves a Slacker.

2 members found this post helpful.

Ditto at MCRD, but they called us much worst than "slackers."

Not taking Slackware into consideration, as far back as I can remember, a "slacker" was a negative term for someone who slacked off, i.e., couldn't do the job for a no other reason than not making a effort to do so. Some would call that just plain lazy.
Maynard G. Krebs comes to mind for some reason.

Indeed they did!

and then there is slack waterWe become stream enterers after our first Slackware install and begin a personal journey towards slack where there is no tension and no movement.

Best example of Slack or Slacker to me is the Taoist Wu Wei or Wu Pu Wei.

If one looks at the characters for either it represents a monkey clawing away at something and jumping all over the place. In other words Wu Wei, Wu Pu Wei means to not monkey around, don't do anything that's unnecessary, minimal effort for optimal achievement. Then as Lao Tzu said, when nothing is done, there is nothing left undone. So to Slack is to not monkey around and a Slacker is one who does not monkey around, does not do unnecessary things, one who strives for no monkey business etc... Software with Slack does not monkey around etc....

Sounds a lot like "do one thing and do it well".

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And the mystery deepens
layers and layers
Slacker