Some explanation - I lived in the USA for about 50 years +/- and now by my personal choice I live in Beijing.

China is an irregular patchwork of cutting edge technology and obtuse traditionalism. In most situations there is a firewall that blocks access to some websites particularly Google. YouTube, Facebook but many other things also. The rules are applied inconsistently and are in a state of flux.

There is also local blocking of outside IP addresses by some websites in the name of "security". A friend recently got a speeding ticket in California while on his way back to China. It can be paid online but the Santa Barbara court website blocks some non-USA IP addresses. We got the matter resolved by using a VPN tunnel to LosAngeles which spoofs a USA IP address to the open arms of the thieves that populate the Santa Barbara court. So the Chinese paranoicracy cannot be blamed for all of the website access issues. There are terrified managers all over. Hence the need for a VPN if you want something other than Tencent and Baidu.

Add to this mix the fact that the central ISP's will from time to time introduce new tricks to block VPN providers, which may indeed block VPN access for a few hours or maybe even a day or two.

Enter OpenVPN Inc. They are providing the PROPRIETARY Backend for my VPN provider. OpenVPN Inc. provides an app that works great in Android and on systemd Linux and Windows but does not support pure Linuxes like Slackware. I am indeed looking for alternatives but OpenVPN Inc. does provide a quite agile way to circumvent the global paranoicracy and I have not yet found a viable alternative.

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Off-topic, but since you're a brave Slacker - here's a hint on getting you on the "international" Internet trough a VPN. I never used the commercial OpenVPN stuff, but only the free community version, so I'll focus only on it. OpenVPN - community is already shipped with Slackware, set it up over TCP (tor won't allow UDP), then use tor ( get it from slackbuilds.org ) as a carrier for your VPN traffic. Note that the bandwidth is not really great, tor gets you around 10Mbit in the western world and you most likely won't be able to do any voice/video stuff because of the high latency.
https://blog.torproject.org/closer-l...firewall-china
(the article is a little old, but it contains some valuable info/comments)

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Thanks for the helpful comments.

Indeed I have used that "Open" version of OpenVPN but it is blocked now and only the proprietary app version works here.

I have tried tor and found it interesting but primarily attracting the cryptocurrency crowd.

...and all of the links to the torproject are blocked and inaccessible unless one has a...VPN.

My wife is unique. Ok Im joking. I don't have a wife. Because I sppose my behavior and quite unique personality. I think this partially answers OP question.

Slackware is unique for quite few of its design features:

1. Run by an extremely competent BDFL (Pat, you don't read this please, okay?)
2. On release it's bleeding edge but not shy to roll back a package or two for stability (due of #1.)
3. Once released is rock solid stable with extraordinary long-time security support that has a track record of being top notch
4. Is managed by a tight core development team that is proven to be quick and efficient to respond on urgent matters
5. Has community that is actually coupled with the core dev-team and has rich interaction with each other
6. The all above lead to a track record that excellently suits my needs when i work with my computer(s)

Some of the above might be due to excellent forum leading by our host Jeremy tho

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As far as I know, Slackware is the only distro that still uses fortune.

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"For a man to truly understand rejection, he must first be ignored by a cat."

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Unique means 'one of a kind'. Nothing can be pretty unique or most unique. Something is either unique or NOT unique.
I'm pretty sure that I can do everything on my setup that I could do on slackware. I can even compile software from source but I choose not to.

Indeed, but where does the OP say 'pretty unique' or 'most unique'? The topic title is "What makes Slackware unique?"

It's not just about what you can do on your setup, but about stability and community. I have personally found myself able to do everything I want to only on Slackware. As well as that its stability is better than any other OS I have used and the community is first-rate.

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Add software from outside the repos, upgrade key parts of the OS on your own by modifying build scripts, etc... Now go do that on another distro and watch how fast it crashes and burns... In a sports analogy, Slackware is that utility player that can handle any position on any given day, similar to Babe Ruth being a great pitcher and home run monster.

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it dose not use that init who's name we are not allowed to say

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Yes, you could (ex OpenSUSE user here). It's a matter of what you want to do and how much you have to fight to do it - YMMV

Same here, pretty sure I haven't had to build anything since converting.

I was going to respond, but I think I should wait more than a couple of days into the new year before triggering a moderator warning.

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Take your rage out on SOMA.

Vivid analogy there...

My perception is a combination of features, each inter-related...

Big core (a default Slackware install has an amazing range of stuff including idle, guile, a FORTRAN compiler, common lisp, a wide range of command line tools &c).

Loose coupling (no dependency resolution in default gives you the freedom to add and adjust without fighting against automated tools, package management tools are available but their use is not mandatory)

Conservative design (configuration methods change slowly and as little as they can from version to version allowing experience and documentation to build up over years)

Extensive support outside of core (SlackBuilds and other third party build scripts, a choice of dependency resolution layers, a choice of binary packages, and a choice of ways to manage extensions from rsync upwards in complexity...)

Open community (here you all are, no gate keepers, forum independent of core project, input from other perspectives considered on its merits &c)

The first three features are down to PV's experience over the decades and decision to keep going with the way it started. The last two are down to other people doing an amazing amount of work collectively to support software they needed. As an end user I'm grateful to all of them (you).

Very glad that you have found a system that meets your needs.

I'm not seeing the situation as a static logical decision like some kind of Venn diagram or syllogism. I'm choosing to analyse it as a set of conditions that allow and to some extent govern a developmental process. The way you apply logic to systems that change over time and that react to changes in the environment is - er - tricky according to my reading around the subject.

Happy new year all.

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