SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
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View Poll Results: What is Slackware's most enduring virtue?
SlackBuilds / The ability to compile from source
73
36.14%
BSD-style init system
82
40.59%
It just works!
145
71.78%
Text-based installer
44
21.78%
Other (comment in posts below)
25
12.38%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 202. You may not vote on this poll
Slackware linux just works. I started out with many different ones. in the beginning we had to compile "modules" and Slackware with a full install opened the door to the opensource world. Keep it simple configure that.
Did your wife leave you? Sometimes. No All the time remind people they are loved . Get it. TFFT . What is free? mmmmm
No sir, she's still here and so are my kids. And as I was taught, will teach my kids to be leaders and not followers. My kids won't follow in my footsteps because I'm teaching them to be greater. Not to have a one track mind like most of the world. If you are a failure and teach people to follow in your steps, guess what? You got a flock of sheeps whom all failed.
Last edited by PROBLEMCHYLD; 09-02-2017 at 05:52 PM.
I don't really remember why or when I started using Slackware. Maybe it was ripping CDs to mp3 when DOS 6.22+Win3.1 couldn't do it. Maybe I was able to d/l via 14.4kbps dial-up and Debian took too long. maybe it was the only one that ran well on my AMD486DX-100 40MB HD, 4MB DRAM, S3-trio64 system. Perhaps the one-man-show of our BDFL - no committee/group/foundation. Later on, with magazine CDs for Redhat (ugh) and others (can't recall the names), or spending a quality 3-day weekend with Gentoo and 256K DSL (double ugh); somewhere I just started using Slackware more and more as my daily driver, with SLAMD64 for a bit on my new Athlon64 800Mhz (20 GB HD, 4 GB DRAM, Geforce256 DDR AGP, wooo! kudos to fred e.) for multilib and WINE, and booted windows 98/2K only for a a few games. Then, one day, ages ago, while building a new box, I didn't bother to install WinXP. With Slackware, WINE, native linux versions of various software, I was set. When SBo came on line, it didn't take me long to volunteer to assist and give back to the community. Be aware, MIS/IT/computer science is not my field of study. These gadgets are just tools (and a hobby) for me.
Sure, Slackware is just an OS. Run whatever works for 'you' ("whoopity doo"). For me, Slackware launched the "year of the Linux desktop" decades ago. It is stable - uptimes measured in months (try that with any Win version, even server, man-how I hate supporting real time instrument data acquisition on Windows), plenty of 'good enough' software, it just works, it has a low stress and friendly [core] community (no 'drama queens' as far as I know), runs on any atom/intel/AMD cpu I throw at it, etc etc. Best OS anywhere, no stupid frills, no "look ma, no hands" cheap antics, and gets the job done.
Nor was the idiot comment. But thanks for being fair. I have always said and even the member wigums pointed out, you guys pick and choose. Some members can say what they want and it's ok but when I bust back I'm the bad guy. I'm done with it, we can get back on topic. Sorry for the hijack.
Last edited by PROBLEMCHYLD; 09-03-2017 at 12:11 PM.
After removing the bloat and the outdated stuff from Slackware, you can still find an up to date tool chain, xorg and a good enough package manager. So you can build something usable upon it. It saves you a lot of time compared to LFS/BLFS.
I voted Slackbuilds and it just works. It even works when I do stupid stuff and need saved from myself. Case in point:
I flashed the bios on my office rig, and when I did, it erased the uefi menu entry for Slack. System wouldn't boot. Uh-oh. Gotta re-install, right?
Wrong! Used the USB drive I made during the installation, booted into the installation, ran pkgtool > settings > reinstall elilo, reinstalled the menu entry and I was back in business.
BTW, am I the only one who didn't know that flashing a bios clears the UEFI menu? I wouldn't doubt it.
Yes, I could have probably done something similar on another distro, but the point is that Slack is built so that I can understand how stuff works. I can't write an Arch PGKBUILD or a Debian package file. I've never tried to write a SlackBuild, but from all the ones I've edited and adapted, if I had to, I could probably write a simple one if I had to. Everything just makes sense, and when I have a problem, the solution makes sense, too.
If that makes me a fanboi, mea culpa. All I know is that I'll never be satisfied with one of the "do everything for you whether you want it to or not" distros again.
And for the record, a full install isn't 15 gigs. It's only about 9. Just sayin'.
BTW, am I the only one who didn't know that flashing a bios clears the UEFI menu? I wouldn't doubt it.
Flashing the BIOS (to be picky, the firmware) indeed clears the firmware's menu (the one written using efibootmgr by the script /usr/sbin/eliloconfig if asked politely), but not the UEFI menu in the ESP (EFI System Partition) that lives in a hard disks partition equipped with a FAT32 file system.
So, my assumption, is that the boot menu in /efi/boot/Slackware was also not working for some reason.
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