Why?

As far as I know, Development has progressed pretty much the same way for more than thirteen years. That's a good sign to me that everything is fine just the way it is.

Steve, lighten up and live a little. Slackware is the oldest still existing version of Linux out there. I guess things have been working okay so far. Part of being a Slacker is not being so uptight.

I think the release this time is further apart because Pat was thinking that 2.6 would eventually get stable enough to make it the production kernel. That hasn't happened, so he is going ahead with another release without it (probably). I don't know any more about it than anyone else, it is just my take on it.

As for:He dead.

I run him over at the Burger King last night.

He REAL dead.

As for:Ah. Yes. The ultimate answer.

But what's the question?

And for:If you want immediate updates, and ontime releases, go to Windows.

Wait, no. It takes YEARS for that, with a paid staff of hundreds/thousands.

Not 'abandoned'. It comes out in 'Slackware Time'.

You can always compile your own updates, and figure everything out yourself. That is the beauty of GNU/Linux. If you need it, do it.

Otherwise, wait.

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Why? In case you didn't know, Slackware is a commercial distribution. It's what Pat does to feed his family. It's his project, not a public one.

yeah, it's commercial... and yeah, i agree that slackware is better-off with patrick as the sole maintainer (with several contributors)...

but are you sure it's what he does to feed his familiy?? i mean, i wouldn't expect him to be making a lot of money selling boxed CDs and logotyped pots and pans... i had imagined him as a freelance gnu/linux server administrator, which can indeed provide some decent cash - specially when you have such a great reputation (slackware maintainer)... can anybody provide some factual insight into patrick's sources of income?? Alien_Bob, perhaps??

stevesk,

I don't know if you are just trolling or don't understand the F/OSS development process. While Pat may be the only official maintainer of the Slackware Linux distribution, there are thousands of programmers, sys admins and users involved in the development, testing and upgrading of each and every program that goes into Slackware and many other distros as well.

Like the conductor of an orchestra Patrick puts the pieces together in his own special style with an emphasis on simplicity and stability that has made Slackware the enduring distro that it is.

And we reap the benefits. No one else here is worried about the numbers. Just chill & enjoy.

dennisk

Betcha there's more money in those activities than both of our wages together.

Even if he only sells 2,000 copies at $39.95 each.... CHA-CHING!

yeah, that could definitely be true - i have no idea how many subscriptions and merchandise he sells... but still, don't you think it would make more sense for these to be like an "extra" thing, while his main source of income would be something more, ummm, stable??

I don't think you can get any more stable then Slackware

and also
I wonder what the ratio of Linux Users to People that get this reference is

...drkstr

In my neck of the woods, it's similar to the ratio of people who prefer the book or TV series to the movie...

Book? Singular?

Forget that, and thanks for all the fish...

Another fish reference for Eric....

heh, I didn't even know there was a movie. I just knew about the books.

What was this thread about again? ...oh yeah. Slackware works for perfectly for what I use it for, that's all I care about. As far as I can tell, Pat is doing a wonderfull job flying solo.

...drkstr

to answer the original question, does this help at all?

from an interview (sort of) with Pat
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...n&lr=&strip=1|
by nullspace
I have been a loyal user of Slackware for many years. I have always wondered why isn't the development process more open. For example, Debian has a very open process in which volunteers can contribute to the packaging of the distribution. Slackware does not seem to allow for that, that is, you seem to be in complete control of what goes out the door. Do you plan to allow for users to assist in development or do you wish for things to remain the same?

Patrick:
There's a trade-off there. Being pretty much the Slackware czar, I can make sure that there's a high level of quality and consistency. Keeping the source open is one thing, because then people will help find bugs and send in patches, but having people making changes directly is a lot harder to manage. That said, we have added more developers to the team over the past year, but so far everything still goes through me so I can check it over, and I still do most of the development myself. I'm hoping to start distributing tasks more once I'm satisfied that the quality will stay the same or improve.

Ok drkstr, your last post was a good one because it helped to answer my question. I just would like to know when did this question was asked, if it was 1 month ago, 1 year, 10 years...anyway I like so much slackware and the many answers in this thread may be even a proof it is not dead. But there are some guys telling me that most part of slackware-advanced people are changing to Gentoo, so it really kept me worried about Slackware being abandoned or not. Maybe I should know better the Slackware community to find a better answer, but, where to begin? I know that here is a great place to find answers for problems, but aren't there other places where I can contact slackware people just for fun?

Nahhhhhh! He should receive 500+ mails/day. I don't think he would care too much for a question "Is Slackware alive?"

I half agree with you and half disagree. This can be done good until know, but maybe a change would improve even more?

Slackware can be the oldest still existing version of Linux, but with so mmany people saying me that they have changed to Gentoo, isn't its future a litte "unclean"? Or there are still many people working on Slack?

I don't need to go to Windows to find it. MANY other Linux dists. already do that. Things can be slow, but not too slow. There is a balance for everything.

So what would be then the main difference between Slackware and LFS?

I believe that making the development a little open wouldn't hurt Patrick's incoming. He would still be the "big boss", just not the one responsable by every package or update that comes to the ftp. But he would still hold the "power".

Are there still thousands? Or is a good part of them just moving away to another dists.?

Finally, what you need to understand, is that I am not criticizing Patrick's work. He surely do the things very good solo. I wouldn't do as good as he does. But maybe "spliting" a little the main work would make the things to just go faster. Because he is slow? No. Because he is human, and he is only 1. Maybe he is one of the most capable people to maintain a dist. "alone" (and when I say "alone" understand it is only he upgrading the packages, making the installer, taking the decisions, etc.).

It was said to me that if I want an updated O.S., I should go to Windows. I am sorry but there are MANY Linux dists. that make the things even more "updated" than Windows. I like Slackware, but I fear that some people are just leaving it because on other dists. things just go faster. And we live in a world where things change fast. Every day a new technology, a new release of something, a new way of doing stuff, the best way is indeed to keep ourselves in synchrony with this world. When was the 2.6 kernel released? And why isn't it "stable" enough? Tell me any other popular dist. who still uses 2.6 kernel in its last release?

Well, for not making this post too long, I will end here. Don't take me wrong, I love Slackware! I am just worried about its future. For me, there is no problem in compiling my own 2.6.17.4 kernel and using ./configure, make, make install, if I want a newer release of some package, because I still have time for that. But what about the people that don't have time? Will they "resist" for much time yet?

Just to add one more thing: I am not using KDE or Gnome, so as you can see, I am having to browse many project pages to find good stuff to replace programs like konqueror, gedit, etc. In 90% of the project pages, I find releases for the main dists. like Red Hat/Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, Ubuntu and even not-linux ones like FreeBSD, etc. But it is very RARE to find packages for Slackware. Tell me, if Slackware is not a little "abandoned", why is it so easy to find .rpm, .deb, and portages for another dists. than Slackware? There are pages where I can find packages for 10 different dists., every "popular" dist. but not for Slackware. So most part of the times I have to download .tar.gz . Why does this happen? An answer comes to my mind: because slackware users always like to compile they own .tar.gz . But would that be true?

Edit: I am not talking about project pages that have a source and a package for they favorite dist., like one .rpm and one .tar.gz . I am talking about project pages that have packages for 10 dists. but not for Slackware. Because most part of the time it is that what I find. Very rare are the exceptions.