Well, I used to use Mandrake when I was in university about 4 years ago. All our coding labs were done in OpenBSD and I hated staying at school to do my homework, so I decided I needed a NIX system at home. I went with Mandrake on the advice of someone I don't think I've spoken to since. They said "Mandrake very easy to learn, and won't give you a lot of headaches."

Well, can't say I was too impressed with the whole Mandrake experience, but I was too busy to install anything else. It promptly left my system as soon as I was done any courses that needed me to have it.

After that I went into networking and learned WinNT-based systems quite thorougly. They were ok, until something went wrong, and then you were always left banging your head against things, digging through registries, reinstalling drivers that somehow became corrupted, rebooting, and crossing your fingers anytime you made the machine do anything that might take more that 50% of the CPUs resources.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine from San Francisco, a total Linux-head, came to town. I happened to have a lot of time off work that week, and we talked geek ad-nauseum. After our many converstaions, it became quite apparent I should be using Linux. We talked distros, and it came down to a choice between Slackware and SuSE. He told me Slackware wouldn't hold my hand at all, and I should maybe go with SuSE, since he considered it slightly more friendly.

Since I wasn't about to take that kind of a hit to my geek pride, I promptly toasted my WinXP and installed Slack 9.1

It's been interesting, but fun. I don't mind banging my head trying to figure out how to make something work, as long as it does work in the end. So far, I have a bruised head , but I've almost got my machine running exactly the way I want it, and I don't think I'll be switching anytime soon.

I first installed slackware back when there were only one or two other "distributions" (SLS??). I was finishing up college and wanted to learn about Unix so I bought a SAMS book with the install CD in the back. I managed to get X up after creating a couple of dozen floppies and reading for a an hour or two. I gave up on Windows in 1995. Since then I used primarily Debian along with trying out Mandrake and RedHat for short periods of time. I went back to using Slackware over a year ago (8.0) because I wanted a simple, reliable system on my home machine. Slackware manages to provide reasonably current versions of most packages without sacrificing stability. If there's something not on the CD set, building any additional packages from source is trivial task with Slackware.

Overall, Slackware system just feels "clean". The packages are not significanly modified from their original source (if at all). The init scripts are simple and easy to read. Everything seems to run faster with Slack too, even KDE and Gnome.

I started back in 97ish, when I found OpenLinux at Best Buy. Decided to give it a whirl. Didn't do what I needed, so gave up, but then later downloaded Slackware 7. I was hooked!

Since then, I've downloaded Slack 8, 9.1, Mandrake 9.1, and SuSE 8, all on dialup, and I've stuck with Slack 9.1. Mandrake wasn't bad, but didn't offer what I wanted it to do.

Now my file server runs on Slackware. I still, unfortunatly, have to stick with Windows XP, due to some hardware not running, and some needed software for work. Other than that, I love it!

I've been a long-time windoze user... have experience on everything since 95. Still have the dual boot set up with XP pro (academic -- it's almost as cheap as linux that way!) to use as a crutch of sorts until I have Slack 9.1 fully configured on this box.

Soon after I met the man who is now my husband (about June 2002), I told him I was interested in Linux but had never taken the plunge. We installed RH 8, but I found it to be a bit clunky and had a hard time learning the commands, so when I installed XP over WinMe (I think they call it that because no one would buy it... XP's much more stable), I didn't bother re-doing GRUB loader. David heard good things about the new slack, and he used to use it several years ago. We downloaded it, and so far I've been the one to install it on two of our three boxes (boxen?). This time around, I've had a little more coaching and a lot more will to learn it, and I'm enjoying it so far.

(Still have a few issues with it before I go to it full-time: I need to better configure my trackball so that I have use of its extra buttons and scrollwheel, and I need to get Opera 7 up and running. I haven't had luck installing it so far. Seemed like the package was corrupt or something, but maybe it's fixed now. Enough of these parenthetical comments.)

Ohh i rember the day i decided to try slack.. I was at a freinds house and windows (for like the 10th time over just a weekend) just shit all its parttitons and i was ready to take a shotgun to the HD. but my freind saved my poor comp (it isnt its fault its just a piced together frankenstine type machine) soo he was like lets try to install linux its great stable and free. I had been eyeballing linux and wasnt quite ready to depart with windows so i asked my freind if he had done it before... he completely lied to me and told me many times.. so we tried debian... we tried 3 times and on the third time debian finally was able to work though my crappy hardware but X didnt run right and it was overall not likeing my machine.
He said HOLD ON on got tourbo linux.. it didnt like my network card and the installer hated me. soo he was thinking and went to take a drink and I asked him what that drink coaster was, and he was like "its a distro called slackware I heard it was a pain in the ass to install but the cd was free at a convention so i took it" well I love challenges and I was dissapointed there it went on with out a hitch.. i had to fight a bit for my network card and sound card but it worked... I plaied around most the week and confined windows to a small 10 GIG partiton so I could still play games (honestly wine is almost there but not quite) needless to say that cd that my freind was using as a coaster was never returned to him either, sadly I cant get him to try and convert hes addicted to XP *shudders* he seems to think its the best thing since sliced bread... ohh well linux isnt for every one YET

Seems to me that everyone here has has similar experiences leading to their love of Slackware.

I first downloaded slack from Sunsite in 1994, around March I believe. Downloaded onto a computer in the Computer Science association room, and copied all of the diskettes (no CD burners for us then) and promptly put it on my computer at home. X didn't like my video card, so I was stuck with the CLI (not a problem) Managed to find some hacked together drivers for my video card and got X running. Since then I have had my computer multi-booting Win9x, OS/2, Redhat, Debian, SuSe. I even forced myself to run completely on other distributions so I can learn them well enough.

I always came back to Slackware. Now with Redhat shifting away from the regular guy, I am working on relearning Debian, as many local companies are shifting to it. But my main desktop and my laptop both run Slackware 9.0 & upgrading to 9.1. The big thing I really like about Debian is apt. I would love something similar for Slackware. Just a single command to update to the next release.... But I will admit, I have no problems compiling from source to get the best setup for my system. And I know that I learned more about Linux by using slack and working with tarballs and Slackware packages than I would have using RPMs or even apt.

My only re-curring problem has been with GNOME, it always seems to have something messed up on install. I'm working on installing Dropline GNOME, but I will be just as happy if I end up using just KDE.

Logan.
--
Proud Slackware user since 1994.

Wow Women using Slack. That was surprising. Hehe :P. Cool

I only started using Slack two days ago. When I found how stable Linux is comapred to Mycraposoft Windows.... Someone told me to install linux as I was Windows was a pain on the University network with viruses..Finally Got X and Network configured. Slack wasnt that much of a pain. Actually now I love it...:P:P

Had on old Celeron 366 with 96 MB Ram running Win98. It sat in the living room, hooked up to my stereo, collecting dust. Every once in a while, when I wanted to play my old mp3s, I'd fire the old warhorse up, start Winamp, play a few tunes, and then shut it off (or wait for windoze to crash).

Today that crusty old relic is a 60GB, home networked, mp3 server and jukebox. Not only does it serve my vast multimedia library to 3 other computers in the house using Samba, but also it's run completely headless (no mouse, monitor, or keyboard) using VNC or any number or Windoze X-servers. It now sits on the floor, next to my largest (of 2) subwoofers, with only an Ethernet cable and a mini-stereo cord (from my SB live mp3+) coming out the back of the box. Since the uptime is whatever the interval between power outages happens to be, the machine stays on all the time.

Oh, and did I mention that I'd never typed a single digit in a Unix/Linux environment in my life, prior to two months ago. I actually came to this very forum with the idea to salvage my machine and create a networked mp3 server/jukebox using that geeky "Linux" thing that I had heard about. Wary of such an uninformed plunge (my MS days go back to Win 3.0, but I knew jack about other OS's) I tried the pretty, dumbed down, Win-like distros (Lycoris, Ark). Pretty much hated them. Couldn't control anything (the whole purpose of Linux), and I couldn't get much to work on a stable, consistent basis (just like Windows!). Worse yet, I learned NOTHING, save for frustration.

So I spent a lot of time on google and at various forums, and I discovered what I call the "Slack Paradox:"

Despite being unanimously designated the most "unix like" and often referred to as a "beginners need not attempt" distro, nearly EVERYONE who had anything to say claimed Slack was actually one of the easiest, cleanest, and most stable distros ever.

Downloaded Slack, burned an install disc, and fired the old PC up. Then, with my laptop and Slackware's "Book" in hand, I let the "verbose" install teach me more about my machine, Linux, and various apps/services than I had learned in 10 years as a Win user.

Long story short: One week's time from a know-nothing-Linux-newbie to the sweetest home theatre system this side of college life (My girl gets a kick out of queuing up tracks from the kitchen using her wireless laptop and an x-session!). Slack has been bullet proof, and despite the "not for the novice" admonition, has made my Linux transition an absolutely stellar experience.

First tried Mandrake, it was fine for a while...installed Red Hat 7.x something. Oh what a crappy distro!
Changed back to Mandrake, then I wanted to try something different, installed Debian. I didn't like it (but better that Red Hat). Tried newer Red Hat, worse than earlier, and back to Mandrake again. But I didn't like Mandrake either, so I tried FreeBSD. Great OS! It was so "pure". After FreeBSD I installed Slackware 8.1, first Linux distro that I really liked, since then I have used Slackware, and got few FreeBSD servers too.

lol ok it's great we're all sharing stories here well...first my story:

I'm only really using slack to get familiar with linux. up and coming programmer and thought I should prolly get familiar with it. now I haven't fully switched to linux yet because mostly I just use windows for simple stuff(web-browsing and games) technically I haven't even installed linux yet(today is my install day and I was trying to get as much info as I can)

well here's the question: Why slackware? I have an uncle that raves about it and I can understand a little of why he raves about it but he talks about crap that is way over my head when it comes to linux. also what are some of the things I'm gonna need to know/do when I first boot up slackware I'm mainly using it as a router any help would be great

Three words for you:

Stable. Slim. Simple.

Slackware.

'Nuff said

I started using slackware because of a game... Tribes2.
Now... Tribes2 has been the only game I have ever played and I dont think any other game has been on my hd longer than T2.

But, when I bought tribes2 two-and-a-half years ago I think, the first version of the game was SO buggy that if you put the game box on the floor, it would crawl away.
I was looking for a way to play the game being a tribes1 vet and wanting to try tribes2. And the now dead loki had ported the game! Well, I bought the game from loki, and then decided I needed a distro.

I tried mandrake as my first distro, and after 5 reinstalls and configurations, I got it up and running on my own without any irc/RL help. I installed tribes2 and lo-and-behold, It worked! No crashes, or Unhandled Exceptions (tribes2 runs off of the Tourque game engine and is famous for Unhandled exceptions that would crash the game in its tracks without any warning.)
Well, I was getting tired of rpm dependancy hell, and I had a friend at hewlett packard who ran redhat 6.1 (now 7.3) at work, but he used slackware at home. I promply downloaded the slackware 7.0 disks and then burned them to a cd using "company resources " (I didnt have a cd burner at home.)
The install worked fine and I fell in love. The .tgz's have no dependency problems because they arent dependent on anything.
The entire os is clean and uses a non-modified kernel.
When compiling programs, it is the only distro besides gentoo that compiles anything right "out of the box."

I once did a test on my machine and tried to crash the xserver. It took me 120 programs running at the same time before my swap and ram filled up and then it just crashed the X server. So needless to say, it runs VERY stable.

When I built my new box, I couldn't use brand-spankin-new hardware, but I didn't mind because bleeding-edge technology never works anyway IMO.
But when I built it, I built it so It would run with all my hardware perfectly. And you know what? The first thing I installed on my brand new system.. was tribes2

My first exposure to Slackware was in the mid 90's. I played around with it dual-booting with Windows, but my HD just wasn't big enough for a decent distro AND Windows, so I removed Slack.

By 1999, I had a machine with enough space to dual-boot, but this time I tried RedHat. I liked it, but it still didn't quite cut it. I tried Debian, and after much effort & bad language I had it working. The software was old, but I upgraded to unstable, and it seemed to work. Until I apt-getted at the wrong time and foobared my system, and I REALLY didn't want to go through that install again!

But I heard rumbling that Slack 7 was much improved over earlier versions, so I tried it. It worked great! I had to do some fiddling, and learn how to compile kernels, but once I got something working, it worked consistantly! About that time, I got broadband and no longer had to boot Doze to use my "LoseModem". Then I got a new machine and wiped Doze off it completely, with Slack as my only OS. I still try other distros, but I always return to Slack.

This has been an interesting thread to read. I guess I might as well share my experience as well.

I have had an interest in home computers since I first saw a Commodore Vic 20 commercial on television, but (being a kid at the time) I did not have the resources to pursue my interest very far. My uncle also had an interest in home computers (fortunately) so I got to fiddle with his TI 99/4A first, and later his Commodore 64 (great machine at the time). He happened to get a Timex/Sinclair 1000 free with a microwave oven and that became my first computer. I took computer science and programming courses in high school and programmed in Apple Basic on Apple IIe computers.

That was basically it until several years later when I had the extra money to pick up an IBM PS/1 computer with a 486SX 25MHz processor. It was around the time that Windows 95 first came out, but that box came with just DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1. I became pretty familiar with DOS, which helped a great deal when I was out of work and decided to go to college (though I was approaching the ripe old age of 29 :-)) for a CIS degree. It was there that I first heard about Linux. "What do you mean free? All those compilers? Powerful networking? What's the catch?"

I did my first Linux install during a basic course about operating systems. This happened to be Slackware 4.0 (I think that was the version). We didn't do much with it at the time (we didn't even bother to set up X Window), but I still thought it was great, simply because of how much more serious it was about networking and programming than any version of Windows.

I still didn't understand what Linux was about from the philosophical side until I was given an account on the CIS department's Red Hat 5.x Linux server (for email and a learning opportunity). I discovered what was going on when I decided to learn how to use emacs and read about the GPL in the emacs tutorial.

Of course after I left school and started working in the computer field, I just had to try Linux at home, so I picked up the handiest distribution I could find at Electronics Boutique, which happened to be Linux Mandrake 6.0. I used Linux Mandrake at home up to version 8.0 while I experimented with different distributions on my laptop and on test servers at work. I didn't like Red Hat as well as Mandrake and I tried TurboLinux, Storm Linux (briefly since it became defunct), Progeny Debian, and plain Debian (I have since toyed with several other distros). I still have Debian on a test server at work and it has been just great. However, I ran into problems with Mandrake at home at times when I wanted to compile things, including the kernel. I also had trouble with Debian on my laptop when I wanted to compile drivers. I had played with Slackware 7.1 a little on my laptop, and it had worked the best except for apm support (which a kernel recompile could fix). I decided to try Slackware 8.0 on my desktop. It was just great for compiling everything and also for tweaking everything the way I wanted. I figured out that apm was a module in the kernel that came with 8.0, so I didn't have any problem with it on my laptop even without a kernel recompile.

I still check out other distros (Crux is one of the top candidates right now for my next experiments), but I always return to Slackware. It is my favorite because of its simplicity, generic quality (nothing unexpected), speed, and stability. I love the BSD style init system. I like to be able to do exactly what I want with a system, and Slackware makes that possible.

SuSe then Mandrake then Slack, used to keep some spare partitions and check out other distros but after a year and a half on Slackware, an install of Mdk-9.1 felt real uncomfortable.

Tried Slackware because I was looking for something that was hands on and for some reason Debian didn't appeal to me.

Not really interested in installing other distros anymore but last night I did have a look at a FreeBSD cd off of LinuxFormat mag.

Just too lazy though and in any case I should be working on a presentation for the end of year meeting of MLUG (Melb. Oz) on nothing other than....... you guessed it.....Slackware.