

Slackware 14.0 released - onosendai
http://www.slackware.com/announce/14.0.php

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pervycreeper
Honest question: what is the advantage of using Slackware in 2012?

~~~
onosendai
I was trying my hardest not to comment, but this is a pertinent question,
maybe even THE question when discussing Slackware.

It's true that it might seem like an anachronistic distribution in 2012. It
was actually the first distro I ever used back in the day when I started
running Linux full time and increasingly had to interact with it
professionally, and while I've long since moved on to other distros for a
myriad of reasons, I wouldn't trade the years I spent running Slack for
anything in the world,for a very simple reason, and that is that the old adage
is absolutely true: when you run Distro X, you learn Distro X. When you run
Slackware you learn Linux.

The whole distro, from the package manager to the init scripts is built around
the KISS principle. Take the init scripts for example, they're nowhere near as
powerful as, say, Upstart, but they're orders of magnitude easier to
troubleshoot, and if you take the time to read through them (and yes, they're
actually readable and _very well_ commented) you gain a great working
knowledge of how Linux actually boots and gets everything up and running.

The same philosophy applies to every other corner of the distro. Want to learn
how to compile stuff on Linux? Take a look at a Slackbuild script, everything
is in there. Want to know exactly what goes on during a distro upgrade, like
what packages have precendence and so on? Read UPGRADE.TXT
([http://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-
current/UPG...](http://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-
current/UPGRADE.TXT)). I can only dream that even a small percentage of so-
called enterprise software I've come across had release notes and upgrade
guides this clear and well written.

Another great thing is that they maintain a policy of minimal interference
with upstream code. If you come across a bug, you can be fairly sure it's from
upstream and not Slackware, instead of having to examine the gazillion patches
other distros like Debian and its derivatives introduce into the package.

I could continue to wax poetic about it, but I think I've given you an idea.
It's not an exaggeration to say that I probably wouldn't be working in IT
today if I hadn't come across Slackware in the before time. It's fun, and if
nothing else it's a great learning experience.

~~~
vladev
I haven't used Slackware, but all of the points you mentioned are valid for
Arch Linux as well.

~~~
subhro
And with Gentoo. Not trying to start a Distro flamewar, but if someone wants
to learn distro independent Linux, then he or she should try his or her hands
on LFS. The next best thing after LFS would be Gentoo.

~~~
onosendai
Distro wars was why I was trying my hardest not to comment.

Personally if someone would have put LFS in front of me when I was just
starting out with Linux, I would have freaked out. It's just too complex
(although not complicated) to get up and running. But it's a good learning
experience once you're comfortable with the basics.

As for Arch, it was one of my stops when I migrated away from Slackware, and
while it's very similar in some aspects, I feel it has an added layer of fat
that's missing from plain Slack and its one man vision of what a distro should
be.

YMMV and all that, but IMHO Slackware is a Goldilocks distro. It maximizes
learning without the pain of being overly onerous.

~~~
S4M
Thank you for the post and the comments. I am a new Arch user (having used it
for about 6 months now), and while I am happy with it, your comments are
making me want to try other bare distros like Slackware or Linux From Scratch.

------
systems
i wish i am brave enough to use slackware, the idea of a rudimentary package
manager seems plausible

with ubuntu, there is too much majic, i dont run a server, but for example i
dont think anyone should install Postgresql sql on running production server
by running

    
    
        sudo apt-get install postgresql
    

slackware i believe would force more discipline, i wonder how reasonably large
companies run/admin their servers (do they apt-get everything)

that would definitely be a nice book to read, someone should write it

~~~
jiggy2011
What's wrong with apt-getting things?

It seems the most sensible way to install software, since it will
automatically be upgraded with everything else.

~~~
quesera
One-line installers are fine. Automatic upgrades are not.

To use the GP's example of Postgres: I care a whole lot more about my data
than anyone at Canonical does. It would be a firing offense to trust that
Canonical handles a database software and data upgrade correctly.

~~~
dsr_
Which is why Debian doesn't do upgrades-for-the-sake-of-upgrades in Stable.
Anything you get there is a security fix, and the notes will tell you if
there's an unavoidable functionality or config change.

It's also why you can easily set up your own repo in two stages: one that
updates from upstream automatically, so you can test changes, and one that
never updates except when you specifically update a package: that's the one
that your production runs on.

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mark_l_watson
Pardon a trip down memory lane: Slackware was was my first distro. I spent
several days (including a weekend) downloading the minimal bits to run over a
2400baud modem (in 1993?). My wife and kids almost killed me for hogging the
telephone :-)

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japaget
Slackware.com is currently overloaded. For more info, try Distrowatch:

<http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slackware>

<http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07475>

~~~
protolif
Obviously, this is because PHP doesn't scale.

~~~
elorant
I don't know if you've ever heard about a site called Facebook.

~~~
pjmlp
Which translates PHP to C++ code via HipHop compiler.

~~~
WayneDB
So, I guess they found a way to scale PHP then, didn't they?

<Insert obligatory comment about how all code is translated to something else
before execution>

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spitfire
I just looked. Slackware still ships with UUCP. Quaint.

I wonder who's still using that in some deep dark corner of their
infrastructure.

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protolif
It looks like we 404'd the page.

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Nux
Go Slackware!

