Hi,

I come from academia, engineering to be exact. I'm now retired but still use unix/linux for a lot of tasks. We used unix/linux in the labs all the time, be it on Sparc I/II SunOS or little 3b1/3b2 with unix. I used Slackware Linux on several PC machines and that was over 11 years ago. Even I won't pay for a unix license any longer, no need with Slackware or BSD available.

As for your statement about 'I'm quite proud of using a system that feels old-fashioned', I would put a little salt on it! I am proud to use a system that was old fashioned but zings like a new one when I use Slackware.

As for Steve Ballmer's statement, he has to spice up Apple somehow.

BTW, VMS had it's place. Laughing all the way to the bank.

There is an unofficial port of Slackware to the 64 bit called Bluewhite64 ( http://www.bluewhite64.com ) and the man behind the project is following step by step Slackware development. I have already set up 10 different servers here at my job and to others with Bluewhite64 (LAMP, file server and email server with Qmail). All I can say is working great!

Hi,

I don't think that I could recommend the use of Bluewhite64 knowing the history behind it. I could recommend Slam64 knowing where and how it was derived with the libs.

Maybe you should read some of the history of Bluewhite64 with libs and 32/64 bit. I should go back an look at it again. Do you do any 32 bit on those servers?

On the servers I'm using only 64 bit software. 32 bit software, like the Flash Player, I'm using on my work station without any problems.

I have used Slamd64 before but is not maintained anymore. As far I can see, they have not released the version 12. I need up to date software, support and security updates. Bluewhite64 is offering all this.

I started using slackware on my home firewall here in Jan, I simply read a how-to i found on the web and haven't touched or rebooted it since . Since Vista occupied space on my hard drive at the time i decided to try slackware out as a home system and have loved it ever since. I have seen a couple of slackware systems being tested out here in the schools in indiana and I trouble shot a couple of systems at work using it although they do not use the server apps yet. They have switched entirely over to Open Office.

Here's your salt: You said it better than I did. As I've said many times before, using Unix-like systems makes me a little nostalgic for my early computer-use days: when I was 13 my friends and I had school district accounts on the university's server, and it was really cool. This was before the computing landscape was a monoculture. When I found out that Linux was free (I'd heard of it, but not that it was free) --- I mean, that I could have Unix at home (!) I jumped at the chance. I love using Unix; and Slackware, even more than FreeBSD, makes me feel like I'm using Unix.

To say it's a thirty year old system is just way off the mark. My point (which I'm sure you got, but I want to say it again, just to say it ) was that Microsoft could be accused of the same thing. However, that's no indictment of Linux because

• Linux itself is not thirty years old, it's the most modern computer system out there
• The entire software industry, according to Dennis Ritchie, is still developing software the way they did in the 70s.

Also, the idea that Microsoft is competing with Linux (Ballmer holding up a RHEL box in front of a congressional committee) is totally preposterous: Linux does the job, Windows sells.

Joel

@roreilly, it's okay if you prefer not to mention where you work with the 80 servers using Slackware. That's why I asked if anybody knew of any businesses or websites: a nice side-effect of the discussion would be being able to say "Well, ya know www.flippinstiltbikes.com uses Slackware."

Thanks,
Joel[/QUOTE]

I would like to, but I'm not sure how my employer would feel about it. We have a lot of competition that is trying to figure out how we do some of the things we are capable of.
Hint: Windows just doesn't have the capabilities

As for 64-Bit, what I really want is the ability to properly address large quantities of ram.
We have some very large db's that need as much as we can throw at them.

R.

We're not exactly Fortune 500 , but w00tz! (w00tzgames.com) uses Slackware 11 internally as our PDC (with Samba), internal app server, internal DNS, and file server.

The web site is co-located and I'm not sure what distro it's running.

Hi,

Ya, my Steve Ballmer statement was one with tongue in cheek. He is always finding ways to reflect from M$. Be it Apple, Linux or whatever. Just his style, that is what make him an Billy Boy compatible.

Yes, M$Windows sells but that picture is changing. People are getting smarter, the ones that aren't will just roll with the flow of the M$ wave.

Linux is getting better daily, I too remember the early 70s' when the micro revolution was just starting. Well Linux is now 15 and you know what happens when something hits the sweet sixteen. It blooms! Take a look at the Linux Timeline.

Agreed.
Linux is indeed improving. I'm reflecting today on being a user of Linux for 5 years; I started using Linux in August of 2002:-) I've seen huge improvements in the short time I've been a *nix user.
My first Linux distro was Caldera 2.3 which was created by the evil entity that is SCO:-)
I'm thrilled that Slackware has exceptional hardware identification with plugdev. I can now plug in my SD memory card from my Nikon Coolpix camera into my portable USB reader and an icon pops up on my XFce desktop. Easy:-)
I'm encouraged that industry heavy weights are starting to get behind Linux. In my opinion I think that Vista has encouraged people to explore other options.

I have tried to get my employer to allow me to setup slcakware for various things but he always falls back to RH based distros (for the reasons mentioned).

I feel the same way, I started around 2001 with Mandrake (now Mandriva), I also at this time had a laptop with no floppy and only a dvdram? drive, huge 5.x" sorta floppy looking thing hid under a flip up keyboard, that I tried to install slackware 8 onto thinking that older distrobutions dealt better with older hardware (newbie flame torches out please). :]

DVD-RAM?? Surely you're thinking of 5.25" floppy disks?

Hi,

The 5 1/4 floppy was a big deal in it's day. Heck I remember the 8" and thinking I was in heaven to have that much storage on either.

My first computer system was a Intel 8080 design system with 256 B, yes that's bytes. The I/O was an ASR-33 teletype with tape reader (punch tape). I built a cassette interface to get more storage. I added 1K and thought I had finally had enough to do something. We had to write some tight code to get anything done. Unlike today were a gig is looking small to most programmers.

The 4004 really wasn't more than a calculator, that is why I built the 8080. Down the memory lane again. I really should clear out some of that old hardware. Yes, I have most of my early systems. Some are probably older than some of the LQ members that I communicate with.

I no longer have the ASR-33 because it was to big to get around. So I built a monitor w/video interface for the 8080 that was smaller and much easier to move around. Then the Z80 came out, that's another story.

What an odd reaction.

If using the most flexible and customisable distro out there is "old fashioned," then I guess I am too...

I'd like to know precisely what makes Debian so "new fangled" by comparison.

My first computer had 5.25" floppy disks too. It was a BBC Master. I think mine has 2 KHz processor and a 128 KB RAM, with 128 KB of ROM (for the OS - which only occupies 16 KB!). It came with a 3 colour monitor - light green, medium green and dark green, but you do get that Matrix-effect glow after a character has gone. I've still got it at my mum's house, and it still works - I wrote a little BASIC program on it the other day It's weird using it; you don't have to wait for it to boot, you just turn it on, and bam - a command line waits for you. Ditto for shutting down, just hit OFF.

I had a series of games on 5.25" floppy disks - Repton Infinity, Chuckie Egg, Snake - ah, the memories!

Anyway, enough off-topic talk.

I've got Slackware 1.01 somewhere that someone posted a link to on this forum, and I want to see if I can get that running in a virtual machine - it'll be interesting to see how much has changed!

I think people equate "new-fangled" with "easy-to-install-applications".