Fair enough. If the moderators think this is a trolling attempt and want to move or delete this thread they can do so. I would understand. But, again, it is really not my intention to troll. I have already received a lot of interesting insights. Thank you all for this.

I have opened a similar thread outside of this forum and I thought here I would find people in my similar situation, people who are still interested in Slackware but for one reason or another stopped using it.

I have been on this forum for long. I usually don't comment but I do check the threads and follow the changelog often (at least three times a week).

Very insightful. Thank you.

I agree. This is one of the reasons I still read this forum.

As stated before, I have asked also outside of this forum. This thread was aimed to people part of this forum who are not using Slackware anymore but follow the development and are still part of the community.

You are right about grokking Slackware. I feel the same.

At first, I thought this thread was an attempt to start a flamewar. I was going to write something about it, but decided not to be a prick. Turned out to be an interesting discussion after all.

Thank you for sharing. It was a very interesting read.

Linux did not have proper drivers for my laptop's webcam, and the laptop I was using at the time was not powerful enough. In more recent times, the answer is "games"

yes, thanks , remember this, agreed with a lot of things, especially when I think on the PAM thread, which is a monument of embarrassing for this forum.
and there has some time previous already been an other blog from some one who stopped using Slackware and explained why and talked about the community, but I do not find the URL,
also, not to forget, Kiki's blog, which was on French, when I remember correct, so basically ununderstanable (for me

beside that, I think it is good from time to time to reflect about shortcomings to improve, so I think it's good to have this thread

For me, I haven't stopped using Slackware, but it has taken a backseat to #2 in my personal choice for Linux distributions. Fedora has taken its place as #1 on my personal laptop. I did have Slackware running on my AMD tower but, since that now belongs to my sons, I've put Fedora on it just for their ease-of-use and my piece of mind. I've also taken to tinkering with the BSDs more, something I owe a lot to my Slackware experience. I do have Slackware running on an old laptop that I use at work from time to time and it does the job as it's always done so for me. If I get myself a dedicated desktop system again, Slackware will definitely be going on it.

Not in the 'stopped using group' but ...

1. Why did you stop using Slackware?

I never have stopped using Slackware for my Work Laptop.

I've tried a number of Distros for the laptop I use for Dev Work at my job.

Slackware is the only Distro that gave me a reasonably up-to-date set of tools and the version I have started with has always outlasted my HardWare ( or about four-years whichever comes first ).

2. Are you going to switch back again and why?

While I have tried other Distros, I've always come back to Slackware.

This is my Sixth Personal LapTop ; the last five have run Slackware ( Versions 7, 10.0, 12.2. 13.37 and now 14.2 ) -- that's about 18 years or so ...

3. Which distribution did you switch to and why?

n/a

Comment:

While I run Slackware as my Development Environment, I have to 'go with the flow' at work.

We've been installing CentOS 6 for our Application Appliances where we have to integrate with AD ( PAM and all that ).

We have started installing CentOS 7 now but if there was any way to avoid systemd and all the scary and dangerous changes it brings we would.

We do install Slackware for small Customers where they don't run AD and all we need is Local SAMBA User Accounts -- it works GREAT in that Use-Case.

If PAM was ever included as an official Slackware Option, we would switch over from CentOS 7 to Slackware for our AD Customers in an NY-Minute

Thanks for asking

-- kjh

1 members found this post helpful.

At least there is a version in English: https://blog.microlinux.fr/slackware-centos/

As an aside, I am still ashamed that Nicolas, born in Austria, still writes better than me not only in English but also in French, although French be my native language.

@kjhambrick:

Be ready to migrate your AD customers, just in case

5 members found this post helpful.

I first used Slackware around.. 2004 or so, I was just learning about Linux for the first time and was wanting to try it out because it sounded cool and different. I tried whatever version of Slackware was out at the time. I only used it for a week or so.

I want to say I stopped because I ended up losing interest in the extra work that goes into getting some things working and just wanted things to 'work'. That and the time it took to compile software on a 300mhz Pentium II was wearing on my sanity. I dabbled in other distros before returning to Windows. I left Slackware feeling it was a really cool operating system with lots to learn from, but my teenage brain was not a very patient one.

I ran Slackware again a few times over the years but got frustrated when things broke during updates..I've come to learn it had something to do with the nvidia proprietary drivers I was always installing, having recently experienced that again on my desktop. I guess it's related to the nvidia proprietary drivers as the behavior is only replicated with them installed.

I started using Slackware (As in Linux in general, wasn't running any flavor) again about a month ago. I got some sort of bug in me where I just didn't want to run Windows as my main operating system anymore, sick of seeing ads and other junk evident of Microsoft's transition to the software as a service model. It exists on another partition at this point, but it's not even the default boot option anymore.

So.. I'm running it now, but only as of the last month. So I might not entirely apply to the question this thread is asking but it has applied to me before.

Right now it's in need of re-installation on my desktop, and I'm considering switching to another distro on my Dell laptop as I have had no success in getting BumbleBee to work (or even the NVIDIA drivers in general, my poor 960m has been idle)

The install is not smooth any either of these machines. Out of the box Slackware 14.2-64 will not finish booting on my desktop until I blacklist the nouveau drivers, frustrating since I have to either find a way to mount the file system from the install media or boot into another OS and modify the modprobe file.

Then there's my Dell laptop, X does not work at all out of the box until I do the same thing.

It's the whole 'things are already broken???' experience of Slackware that sometimes makes it hard for me to recommend or sometimes feel a desire to keep using.

I like it.. but sometimes I have to be in the mood for it. That said if I'm not running it anymore by the time 15 drops, I will be installing it and checking it out.

2 members found this post helpful.

Preamble:

I didn’t stop using Slackware, but rather changed how I use it and which machine I use it on, for reasons I haven’t seen anyone else here list, so believe it has relevance to this thread.

My use case: a home user that wants a stable OS but who likes to tinker, a bit, and always to learn new things. Not for work: I’m not in IT, and my industrial megacorp employer and most of our customers will not use Linux on desktops in the near future - they use mostly Windows, some Mac.

Why did you stop using Slackware?
I started using Slackware64 at 14.2 dual-boot after getting comfortable with Xubuntu on an AMD Athlon single-core tower. Slackware worked well, but I wanted to try KDE and got strange display errors. I gave up on KDE and just used Xfce.

Later on a new tower, I installed 64 14.2, running KDE, multi-boot with Win 10 and two other Linux distros. I removed Slackware from the old tower [ that’s the sort-of stop using Slackware piece, part 1. ]

I’m trying out using the distros in a different way: instead of using each distro for everything I do, I’m using each for specific things, so one distro for anything that I want to use a commercial vpn for, another for home design and multimedia, Slackware for everything else [ that’s the sort-of stop using Slackware piece, part 2 - the things I’m doing on the other distros I’m no longer doing in Slackware, maybe only for a trial period, maybe for good. ]

Are you going to switch back again and why?
Already have, but my usage has changed, as explained above. One other change I would like to make is, if I eventually gain enough fundamental understanding of how vpn works, use Slackware for anything I want to use vpn for as well.

Which distribution did you switch to and why?
Partly to trial using different distros for different functions, and specifically:
Ubuntu 18.04 minimal install option, for two reasons: I wanted to know my way around one of the most popular distros, in case the opportunity ever comes up to demonstrate Linux to someone curious about it; and it’s easy to install the commercial vpn gui I want to use. I don’t like Gnome DE, but again, it’s good to know how to get around it since it’s used so much.
A “pretty” but functional distro: elementaryOS Loki is slick and stable for me (after being buggy for awhile), for home design and multimedia. Tried Kubuntu 16.04, liked their take on KDE, but decided to wait for Slackware 15, anticipating it will come with Plasma 5.
Portables: Puppies Xenial and Slacko, TinyCore
Everything else: Slackware64 14.2

I’ll add that my favourites, that just feel the most comfortable to use, are Slackware and the Puppies. Tied for 3rd, for very different reasons, are Xubuntu and elementary.

TKS

2 members found this post helpful.

I'll answer your questions in paragraph form, in no particular order.

I've never given up using Slackware. At least, not really. I like to try new things, sometimes for the sake of just saying that I did. I've used a few different distros like Arch and Debian and its derivatives, and every time I feel weird not using Slackware. I like being able to have bleeding edge software without things breaking (I've never had a problem running Slackware64-current from the very beginning).

It's also great having SlackBuilds, which allows me to install anything from source. I've used them to exclude features I don't want from a package, or modified them to use the latest source code. I've even made my own SlackBuild, which I admittedly haven't uploaded. With all of that said, my biggest complaint about Slackware is the installation process. There have been times when I've wanted to yell obscenities when installing because it is so tedious deselecting packages I don't want. Maybe that's an incentive to stay with my current Slackware install.

tl;dr
I enjoy using Slackware and probably won't switch again, but I can say that I've used other distros and decided that Slackware is a better fit for me.

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1. For special business needs / software

2. I always try hard to keep all my personal affairs on Slackware - i trust no other distro more than Pat's.

3. I tried many a Linux distro, and can only say - Slackware works the best for me:

a) the amount of work+effort to accomplish any feature is finite on Slackware and the least compared to any other platform I tried.
b) since i found sbotools i never looked back - they belong to slackware's extra (or let's be bald and make /ports dir finally? ) ASAP IMO
c) the integrity of the system is simply to be matched yet with any other platform I used.

- Since the virtualization become mature tech, I solved OEM locked scanners, printers and what not
- There will always be some areas (game development?) that will mandate a non Slacware bare metal installation, but we have dual boot for that scenarios

Yes PAM and co would be very welcome and my bet is it would open quite an segment for Slackware, and I believe especially on the ARM port.

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