I have found this thread very interesting for a number of reasons.

For reference, I use Slackware to run E2guardian (a web filtering product that is virtually an UTM device). The reason that I use Slackware is because it's rock solid stable, light on resources and basically just works. In addition, I am able to install the distro without a gui which is unnecessary for a server running web filtering and vpn services. I also like the simplicity of installing Slackware using a simple menu interface. I only install A, AP (only 3 programs in this folder),D L and N. I don't need any of the other packages so I was able to install a fairly minimised install. When I have time, I will be going through A, D, L and N to see what I really need to install to run Slackware, Openvpn, E2guardian, Clamav and SSH which is all I need. It would be interesting to see how minimised I can get it as I can see it's installing quite a few packages that I simply don't need.

However, I have always used the apparently despised Windows as my home computer from Windows 3.1 to 95, 98, 2000, xp, vista, 7 and now finally W10.

The reasons that I use Windows are the following:

Programs only supported by Windows

I use programs like Em client (a really good email program), simple help (a remote support program so that I can support my clients remotely), Vehicle Manager (which allows me to record all my car expenditure in a very user friendly way in a database). A few other programs like this. Linux just doesn't have any equivalents that I am aware of. I find it surprising that so many people can run Linux completely without Windows at all, but I guess if you only need Internet and Open Office, then you can do it. I on the other hand have about 5 or so programs that only work on Windows and you can't find decent Linux equivalents. Em client in particular is an email program that I really love and would not give up for the world. Yes I could run Wine or something, but Windows works well for me, so what would be the point.

Ease of use

Slackware is not difficult to install and is fairly easy to use, but I can't see how Slackware or any Linux distro could be considered easier to use than Windows. Windows is almost idiot proof. In addition, all my clients run Windows servers and desktops, so it helps if I am running the same to be as familiar with the OS as possible.

Lack of time

Like many people on this forum, I enjoy learning how things work, but I just don't have the time to get under the hood anymore and also it's not necessary anymore. Computers running Windows have come a long way in the last two decades in terms of reliability that it's very rare to have to fix anything Windows related. Slackware still requires spending time to know how to fix things - like for example knowing how and where to change the hardware and software limits. Why this is necessary, when it's not in Windows I will never know.

Windows Blue Screen of death

I find it very interesting that people talk about this still as if this is relevant. Using my own computer and laptops as well as supporting my clients computers, I cannot recall the last time I saw a BSOD or windows crashing all the time. This used to be a problem with Windows versions up to XP. With Windows 7 (especially SP1), we only ever got blue screen with faulty memory or some other hardware issue. Windows for me and my clients has been extremely reliable from a freezing or BSOD point of view over the last decade and more. The only proviso is that you are not running your computer 24/7. Also using your noodle and not upgrading to W10, five minutes after it is released helps! I only started rolling out W10 in mid 2018 when I felt it was matured and ready for production use! W10 was bloody awful when it first came out, so I let the people who like to upgrade to new things to be the guinea pigs for getting all the bugs fixed! I and my clients were happy on Windows 7 for that duration.

Conclusion

I am very happy with Slackware for running my proxy servers and really enjoy working on those boxes when I am updating either Slackware, E2guardian or doing some other work on them. Slackware is the best Linux distro out there and I wouldn't touch the others with a barge pole. But I am equally happy with Windows as it's reliable, just works and supports all the programs that I want. I will admit that Windows 3.1 to XP did have reliability issues, but I think in fairness to Microsoft a lot of the problems were down to poor quality motherboards, chipsets etc back in the day as well as Windows programming itself. Computer hardware 20 years ago was still in many ways maturing and this caused a lot of issues with Windows. But admittedly Windows itself was quite buggy 20 years ago. I was so glad to upgrade my clients from XP to Windows 7. Virtually all our problems disappeared overnight.

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I've used Slackware on and off since 2008. Lots of distro hopping, including running a Mac for a while (hey it's BSD, sort of).

When I started to build my Linux From Scratch system, I realized that I wanted to a use package manager, so I could more cleanly remove things, and so that the possibility of reinstalls, multiple installs and upgrades were there.

After a long decision making process, I went with the Slackware package tools. Now, keep in mind, as this was from scratch, I could not use other people's slackbuilds as-is. The majority of my LFS slackbuilds were derived from the (B)LFS book.

This progressed to running a full Beyond Linux From Scratch system as my daily driver, with everything but the first (in order of install) 15 or so packages built as LFS slackbuilds.

From my (unique?) experience of adapting and using the slackware package tools in a completely different distro, I realized that I really like the Slackware package tools.

So that's what I think is "Slackware's most enduring virtue."

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The one singular thing that I like the most about Slackware is how easy one can build a functional package:

The amount of effort to have an peace of system "installed" and/or "uninstalled" in an manageable fashion.

You "cd <there>", run that command (makepkg <package name>) and "mv <it> .." (move it out of /tmp/ into permanent storage).

How cool is that?

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Thanks for adding your voice, and your (detailed!) opinion. I had almost forgotten about this thread I made almost 3 years ago, but it's still good to know that people are running this oldie-but-goodie distro.

As for myself, Slackware is my daily driver, for all the reasons described in this thread (including yours!) I had fiddled with other distros, but always, in the end, I came back to Slackware. It just works!

Thanks again!

I never understood why slackbuilds by other people put the final product in /tmp. Might want to save it for reinstalls, you know? My /tmp gets wiped on reboot. My LFS slackbuilds always put the final resulting output binary .txz in the current directory.

I can't speak for the person you're quoting, but sbopkg (a tool for building SlackBuilds from slackbuilds.org) puts packages in /tmp by default. However, I changed my sbopkg config to put them in /home/packages/SBo because I don't want them getting lost because they got put in /tmp. This lets me build packages on my desktop machine (a refurbished beast with an i7 CPU and 16GB of RAM) and then copy them to other machines with AMD64 hardware to install.

Just to reply I'd want to write a new post: Slackware loved or heated, so I don't do it, than I reply here.
My Linux adventure started after using Windows many years; so I try to do a new experience by other O.S because a usb pci sometimes lost driver. Than I try by Red Hat and pass to other: Mandriva, Ubuntu, Xubuntu Debian ecc... .
I don't remember when I try Slackware (my first 12.2), but when I install Slackware I found my perfect distro. Intallation is not to hard and very speed, after 30minust I've got a complete full system; and if KDE it's chosen, user has got a full desktop.
Only difficult stand by packager, so I try Debian Neinst, but according to me it's unthinkable to spend long time to install. Than I return to Slack.
Once a time user has got familiarity Slackware is simple, I say, I know what to do than system do what I want.
I'm not expert, but to my necessity Slackware works so fine. Programs (firefox, dosbox, blender, mail, multimedia, texlive+texstudio, libreoffice ecc...) works so fine.
Only my problems It my hardware (Intel Celeron dualcore 1.2GHz, 4Gb mem) that force me to not chose Slackbuild, because some compilation like mame take a long time; so I use http://www.slakfinder.org/ repository. that works so fine.
When friends ask me which distro I'm using and I say Slakware, friends show a strange face .
I'm happy to Slackware.

What does that statement mean? What are the "hardware and software limits" you're talking about? I've been using Slackware daily for >20 years and cannot recall ever having undertaken any activity loosely matching that description.
I'm still not convinced that it is. My receptionist had to wait almost 2 hours for Windows Update to finish on Monday... she used this unproductive time to tidy the office, but this sort of thing makes me question statements like yours. Don't even get me started on Windows Server updates. Despite running on the fastest SSDs money can buy, updates cause the whole system to grind to a halt. You can't do any work while the server is updating. Period.

I'm very glad to hear that Windows works for you, but it is certainly not without it's flaws. Eg:
- Why does the so-called "Pro" version have to come with Candy Crush??
- After almost 30 years in development, they still haven't figured out how to allow the user to copy or edit an open file. Works in Linux!
- File associations manage to mess themselves up every few months. I'm tired of staff complaining that "pdfs don't open properly" because, once again, Edge has decided that it needs to be the default pdf viewer.

Slackware is my daily driver at home. I begrudgingly use Windows at work due to industry-specific software which only runs on Windows. With that said, I've got Slackware running in a VM to act as my onsite backup system... it runs a cron job which uses rsync to take a backup of the Windows shares and then uploads the deltas to a cloud-based backup service.

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It was very good to me in a time of darkness and suffering. Where other distros failed me (even if it might have been pebkac).
It meant a lot to me at that time, and that's how we got married.

If you are using Slackware at home, you have probably never hit the limits so are naturally not aware of them. If you are using Slackware as a server with 50 odd people on the network, you will find out what I mean. Linux seems to have a set software and hardware limit and when you exceed this, you run out of file descriptors. You can raise the limit, which I have done (out of necessity). But I have never understood why this artificial limit is required.

I will respond once on the point of Windows vs Slackware for two reasons. I don't want to hijack the topic which is about Slackware not about Windows. Secondly I don't want to start a flame ware as to which is better as people can be and are very passionate about the subject. I don't think either is better, they are different and fulfill different needs for me.

I am in full agreement with you regarding Candy Crush on Windows Pro. Which is why I install Windows 10 Education for my clients. Why Microsoft did this is anyone's guess. I agree with you. We solved this by installing Windows 10 Education or you can install Windows 10 Enterprise.

With the Pdf problem, I suspect that the problem is between the chair and the keyboard. I have never had my default pdf viewer or any of my programs changed without my approval. With my clients, I just set a policy forcing it to default to Pdf Xchange Editor anyway.

With regards to the long windows update time when installing a new release of Windows 10. I am in full agreement with you on this. Microsoft have not got this right yet. Having said, I use WSUS so I can control if these updates are installed and when (which month). I am still looking to improve this as regards to what time of day this is done so we can do it at the end of the day, automatically reboot and all is ready for the next morning. Using WSUS I have managed to limit the impact of updates especially as I don't see the need to constantly update every week because I believe that Anti Virus, UTM devices, Mail server protection etc is of far more help to preventing malware outbreaks etc.

With Windows Server updates, it's trivial to get it to update at 3am in the morning when no-one is using it. You can't expect Microsoft to do everything for you, you know.

Windows is not without it's problems granted, but for me, it's the better option for home use.

Perhaps "daily" drivers like to dispose the packages, once built and installed?

I’m no fan of Windows, but I still have to use it for some things, and admin it for my family.

With Win10 there is - usually - no reason anymore to put up with updates hijacking your computer for hours when you don’t want it to, even on the Home Edition.

Caveat: usually... assuming it’s not one of the updates that MS still screws up from time to time... for at least some people.

You can (usually) control what time of day updates can happen. You can also (usually) delay updates for a few days, highly recommended. Let the people who want immediate updates or who unfortunately don’t know how to control timing of updates be MS’s guinea pigs and report the messes so MS can patch their patches.

See askwoody.com or look for Woody on Windows on computerworld.com for instructions.

I very happily use Slackware (mostly, sometimes other Linuxes and OpenBSD) at home for everything except tax software and avoid Windows there as much as possible.

TKS

Sure, if you get used to a particular program, it can be hard to move to something else. I loved using a few Windows only programs, but the rest of Windows annoyed me enough that I found alternatives that worked for me, which I eventually grew to love more than the Windows programs. I don't miss anything on Windows anymore. The crazy thing is how you're so tied to an email program to make a choice on what OS you're using! There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of different email programs out there. Based on the pictures, it looks like Outlook to me (which, granted, is a pretty common email interface). Many people prefer webmail, so email clients aren't a big deal for most. For my vehicle expenses, I used an Android app, as I am always carrying my phone with me when I need to make vehicle-related purchases. Remote clients are a dime a dozen.

I actually would've left your post alone had it not been denigrating Linux users as just users of the "Internet and Open Office". I am able to use my system for far more than just "internet and Open Office", and I always feel like I'm missing things when I run Windows (I'm forced to run it at work and I have a laptop at home for those few times I need a Windows program). And then to say that there are no "decent equivalents in Linux"... just because you haven't found any you don't like doesn't mean that others can't find ones they like. Just as some people loathe KDE, others only prefer to run it.

Windows is certainly not idiot proof. And if you're an idiot, you're far more likely to screw up something in Windows due to viruses and malware. I can't tell you how many systems I've had to sanitize over the many years of being the "tech support" for friends and family. Yes, if you open up the command prompt in Linux and start typing commands, you can certainly break your system far worse than you could do on Windows, but those "idiots" would be far more likely to just stick with a GUI. And when you start talking about Ubuntu or Mint, you can do pretty much everything from the GUI and have little to no chance of screwing something up due to viruses or malware.

A simple Google search will explain why limits exist on a system. It is to prevent a single user or process from taking all the resources of the system and grinding it to a halt. And Windows does have limits as well, but they tend to be extremely high. This can cause programs to lock up the system.

As for reliability... the only breaks I've had in Slackware were self-inflicted and almost always recoverable. This is usually due to me trying to upgrade a stock package to a newer version than is offered for my installed version of Slackware (something most users would have no need to attempt).

I will admit, Windows has gotten a lot stabler over the years. I don't see crashes like I used to. But since I've been in my current job, I can probably say I've had my Surface Pro crash on me 6-7 times in almost 2 years. Definitely better than it used to be! But I've also run into issues where updates that were pushed by my organization have knocked out things like Microsoft Office, my printer, scanning, and the last time I wasn't able to utilize my monitors on my docking station (that is Microsoft branded).

Not to mention if you don't have Enterprise or Education, you can't disable automatic updates. I've lost quite a bit of work on my personal laptop due to Windows deciding to upgrade overnight and when I open the computer in the morning, it's after a fresh reboot.

Unless you're in the education industry, if you're sending clients with Windows Education Edition, that is against the license and could lead to fines from Microsoft or them voiding it.

As for file associations, if you're a home user without having group policies enforced, the default pdf reader would frequently get reset to Edge. Other file associations would also be reset to their defaults when certain updates were pushed. Using Windows in a corporate environment allows IT to have a much more control over the system than a standard home user. It can be extremely frustrating for home users.

I would not describe myself as a fan of Windows, but I honestly don't have any problems with it to the extent that I feel motivated to change operating systems. It does the job for me and is reliable etc.

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You are misunderstanding me! I am not tied to Windows because I like a certain number of Windows programs, although I believe that there are no replacements for some of them. I am actually very happy with Windows to be honest, so there is nothing really pushing me to try something else. I don't know why there is so much hate towards windows as I have found it to be very reliable etc as have most of my clients. If Windows bugged me, I would have moved years ago, but I am happen to like the OS. I cannot remember the last time my computer crashed. It was probably when I was running Windows XP! Well over ten years ago.

This is precisely why I didn't want people to talk about Windows vs Linux. I am not denigrating Linux users in any way unless I am denigrating myself as well, but even you yourself just proved my point - you said ... I have a laptop at home for those few times I need a Windows Program! ... Which was precisely my point. Even if I wanted to, I can't ditch Windows for the same reason. I have quite a few business package programs on my computer of which there is no linux equivalent. How many accounting programs work in Linux, or car mileage logger programs. When I talk about a remote support system, I am not talking about a simple remote desktop client. It has to be one that shows me things like serial numbers of computers, user logged in names etc. I am supporting dozens of clients.

Here is a program that I use every week - https://triplogik.ca/triplogik--the-...-recorder/home - if you say I can get something like this in Linux, then I will certainly have another look at Linux as a Home Office Operating system because I have no issues with Slackware and it would be more secure than Windows.

The simple reality is that I have not bothered to look for Linux equivalents for a home office desktop, because I am happy with Windows (it really doesn't bother me) and I see enough posts where people say that they dual boot or have two laptops - one running Linux and the other Windows because there are things that they can't do in Linux - I believe gaming is a big one, however I don't know as I don't play computer games.

Anyway people, let's get back to Why we use a wonderful OS like Slackware as that is what the topic about. There is no benefit discussing whether Firefox is better than Chrome or whether an Apple is better than Windows or Linux or Freebsd etc. We are all different and we all like different things. Flame wars are pointless discussions and I actually like all operating systems!