The thread "What did you stop using Slackware" makes me hope that this one can lead to interesting responses too.

To feed the pump, we already have one here.

EDIT 25 August 2009 23:0 CEST 2018:

Answers already posted make me think that I need to elaborate a bit (already done in a further post but not every one reads all posts in a thread):

Some people could have heard about Slackware, considered installing it but eventually didn't for some reason. Or actually installed it but didn't keep it for some reason. These reasons can be interesting to know. Maybe it's about something that Pat can't or doesn't want to change, but may be this is an obstacle easy to overcome, possibly with some help.

So I'd be glad to know these reasons first hand, stated by the people in concern.

Hmm, I wonder what installation instructions the poster was referring to and where they might be found

Which brings up another potential reason: lack of quality documentation. Not that I'm complaining, because I know a lot of people have put in a lot of time on the SlackDocs project, and much of that documentation is very good and helpful, but it's not anywhere near the level of Arch Linux or some of the BSDs. That is even more true with the website. But to get there full-time work is needed, which Slackware doesn't have the manpower for.

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Well, really, one should propose some kind of antitheses to the OP of the previous thread's questions, being:

Why did you stop using Slackware?
Are you going to switch back again and why?
Which distribution did you switch to and why?

Therefore, we should posit:

What is preventing you from using Slackware regularly?
Do you intend to try to use Slackware again at some point in the future?
Which distribution do you currently use and why?

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I'm looking forward to write something in "Why didn't you stop using Slackware?" thread.

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Possible answer: Because if there is a enterprise that has 11000 employees, with 2.9 billion dollars in revenue and this corporation has a linux for the enterprises with paid support, the same product if you don't want pay (CentOs) and another distribution for the enthusiastict people (Fedora) and this corporation also defines the way linux will have in the future, then, what is the point of choosing something else?

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The quality of the documentation never stopped me from doing anything I ever wanted to do. Was further research required at times? Yes. Sometimes
I have had to go directly to the upstream project to get information that was, clearly or not so clearly, outside the scope of Slackware documentation. Not a big deal though. If that small effort is too much for someone, than maybe linux, generally, is not for them.

I agree Arch has some excellent documentation. Many times I read the Arch docs for something I want to get done in Slackware. The information carries over directly to almost any linux distro you are using. Kudos to the Arch documentation writers & maintainers. Not sure what reduplicating that same page/effort/information with just some Slackware branding superficially slapped on top of it would accomplish. A funny judgement call there.

I still think Slackware as it exists right now is 98-99.99% on the right track. No distro, even the most popular ones are 100% right for all users. There will always be those who kvetch about this little thing or that- the "dated", "90's" appearance of the slackware website.. etc.

I also think about the huge volume of websites out there with "quickie" advice for things like dropbox, or twitter, which may well just be flash in the pan products. Those are also informal and ad hoc sources of documentation. Which ones do you devote time and resources to? Which ones do you not? I've been happy and have had good results with the slackware documentation as it exists plus a little g̶o̶o̶g̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ duck-duck-go-ing I consider that the pragmatic, optimal, happy medium.

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Interesting question. But I can't answer as I have used Slackware since it came on floppy disks. It has always seemed to be a distribution that requires a more hands on approach, so that may put some off. I also have a degree in Computer Science and have used Unix and Aix in a production environment (Systems Engineer) so Unix has always been something I have had to use. I think a lot of people just want to install and click to add software so Slackware is not going to work for them.

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Even slackpkg update && slackpkg upgrade-all is too much for some people.

Fine tools though they are.

The good news is that there is this thing called "Android" that runs on "Smartphones" for such people.

I think slackware is pretty much at parity with all the other distros as far as tools and utilities go.

For 1-3% of people nothing will ever be just right. Hence, Android. Let them be annoying & whine on
the android forums.. or Windows 10...

Not sure what to think about this either- but it's funny how we are all so mildly apologetic about having been
long time slackware users Thoughts and remarks often get prefaced with how long we've been using slackware,
and it seems like the farther back in history someone has been using slackware, the more apologetic they become.
Always makes me smile a bit. I think the long term use brings aspect and perspective that maybe newer users lack.
Smartphones changed a lot of things about computing.. and for the common man (and woman) increasingly the smartphone is their primary laptop/computer/whatever.

Funny times. I shy away from letting the smart phone tail wag the computing dog. Maybe I am stodgy & out of touch.
I do hope that some day desktop linux & smartphones will converge once the hardware situation in the phone world
standardized and becomes generic & commodotized the way PC's did after IBM clones came along.

God knows the world could use a better phone OS/experience than android offers

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If the enterprise you're referring to adopted that attitude it wouldn't even exist today, because what you say about RH today could have been said just as truly of Microsoft in 90s and 00s.

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You probably should ask to move this thread to somewhere like Linux/General so that an audience who is not using Slackware will see it more readily.

Preventing me? It was non-amazing.
My future intentions? I just gave it another quick go, it was still non-amazing.
What do I use now and why? I use Mint for my desktops.

I load up the ISO I downloaded and it's command line root login. So I have to take some next steps. Not interested enough for my desktop. I'm fine with something canned where I can tune it.

I use kernel.org and buildroot to make custom Linux distributions for embedded boards. That's where I do all my tuning

I'm not all fussed about Window managers and I'm not going to fight about them.

I'm not interested in arguing about package managers, I've used several and continue to do so. They work, that's all I care about.

I don't care about SysVInit vs. SystemD, I use what is available and learn both variations. I don't want to fight about it.

Same thing with editors, I'm not going to fight over vi, vim, nano. I've learned several and I use what is available. I'm sure I'll learn more over the years.

I'm not going to fight over the shell, bash seems to be most prevalent, but they all really aren't so very different.

What I need are gnu tools to build code, tools to securely copy it over to a target, and tools to securely attach to a target and work on it. I don't care about IDEs, I'm writing code. Meanwhile on my desktop I do need multiple workspaces and windowed xterminals so I can do multiple things while I do my development, as well as read email and surf the web for everyday news or solutions/information about my work.

Slackware seems to be privately maintained. While that's cool, I'm not interested in that.

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I don't know if you are referring to me or to the user "onebuck". I never mentioned any installation instructions. I used the official documentation and read the installer instructions every time I installed Slackware. It was enough.

He's referring to petelq, the user whose post was linked to in post #1 of this thread.

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I like this thread conceptually better then I like the thread that inspired its inception. I can't really imagine a decent post to make in either of them, because I use Slackware; never really chose to stop using Slackware; but had a brief period where Slackware use lapsed because I was unable to install it on a Macbook pro... anyway this is the wrong thread for this digression -- I just wanted to say thank you for this thread.

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Aaaaah...it was the post before the one I mentioned. Makes sense now. Thank you.