
Slackware 14.1 is released - uggedal
http://www.slackware.com/announce/14.1.php
======
devin
I ran Slackware many moons ago. It was very bare bones and it took a lot of
work, but I was young and it was an immersive experience. As another commenter
wrote, people on IRC played up how 1337 they were for running Slack. I
disagree slightly with that statement. I spent a lot of time building my Slack
system on a PII 266, and I was 12, so it took me a long time with a lot of
false starts. I don't think anyone was trying to be "1337", they were just
proud of what they'd accomplished. I know I was.

In any event, it's cool to see Slack is still around. I installed ArchLinux on
my MBP a couple weeks back. After installing Mavericks, the modified EFI
partition I created no longer lets me boot Arch, so I think I'll give Slack a
try. It's the challenge that makes it worth it.

Also, I have to strongly suggest to anyone who is not all that into Linux but
is interested in learning: Skip the window environment. Force yourself to just
sit there on the command line. It's surprising the kind of focus you have when
you can't be distracted by all manner of visual eye candy. I know that sounds
ridiculous, but it was a real pleasure to use only the CLI. It's sort of like
the difference between writing with sidewalk chalk and a fine fountain pen.
You find yourself writing /differently/. It's a subtle change with lots of
unintended consequences that cause you to think about your work from a
different perspective. As Alan Kay put it: Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.

~~~
devin
Also, since package managers seem to be the common gripe. I never used one,
and I'm glad I didn't. I learned a lot by not having a proper package manager
as a crutch. The creature comforts were never the point for me, inventing
creature comforts that fit _me_ was an enlightening experience and one that I
think ought to be recognized for what it was: It wasn't "efficient" or
"awesome" \-- it was the basics. It was nuts and bolts, and so few things are
these days. Sometimes it's not about nostalgia, it's about first principles.

~~~
barrkel
Around the tenth time you re-run configure and hope that app picks up those
dev libraries you installed for it, you'll get a wee bit jaded.

I'd rather recommend a weekend spent with Linux From Scratch in a VM.

------
DallaRosa
I've passed through a few distributions (Slackware -> Conectiva -> RedHat ->
Mandrake -> SuSe -> Debian -> Slackware) till I stuck with Slackware and have
been using it for the last 10+ years.

Slackware 3.6, my first distribution was really scary but it's been a few
years since I had to do too much of basic configuration by hand. Of course
some stuff took me sometime but right now I can use the touchscreen on my
laptop, listen to music using my bluetooth headphones, use the HDMI to show
video and play audio with THAT much work. <ad> If you need some tips checkout
my blog [http://dallarosa.tumblr.com](http://dallarosa.tumblr.com) </ad>

For the people complaining about Slackware's package system: I don't what's
people's problem with dependency management. Doing everything from existing
packages is great while packages exist. When you're out in the wild and can't
have proper packages You'll see all kinds of weird stuff. The most interesting
problem I had was Debian trying to uninstall the kernel and all basic libs
cause I was trying to install a newer version of Qt.

For those calling Slack users arrogant: I think we can talk about arrogant
people in any area. But as someone already mentioned, if you take a look at
LinuxQuestions, you'll see that people have been nice for the last 10 years or
more. I never had a question been answered with arrogance or bad manners. Most
people were very helpful.

Slackware is a great distribution and I intend to keep using it for as long as
I use a computer :)

~~~
cyphax
I could almost have written this myself. ;)

I've been waiting for this release for about 2 weeks, since my laptop died and
I had to replace it, and the installation of Slackware 14 didn't transfer too
well (no networking) so I decided to wait out 14.1, since the changelogs were
saying there were so close to release time anyway.

Lots of people are sceptical of Slackware and I can understand those
sentiments fine. Slackware is simply my personal preference for two super
simple reasons (and a lot of other minor reasons).

1: It makes me feel at home. I never fear I won't be able to do something, or
find something. The whole thing is made to be configurable and it is.

2: It's never in my way when I want to do something. I never cussed at
Slackware for doing something stupid. I have to do everything myself anyway!
:D

Packages; I love the package management. Not that Debian's package manager
doesn't absolutely rock imho, because I think it does, but Debian is like the
neighbor: the house is almost the same, but it still feels more foreign than
my own house, which I decorated myself and all that. I get my packages from
SlackBuilds most of the time. I love SlackBuilds, too. I think that there's
almost nothing missing between Slackware's fairly broad software library and
SlackBuilds for almost everything else.

I did run Ubuntu on my laptop for years. I tried every new release of Ubuntu
for 5 or 6 years and I was always genuinely excited. But then they started
making mistakes. PulseAudio didn't work the first time they included it. One
time, an update broke X. The video driver (Nvidia) was updated too and they
decided that my videocard was suddenly no longer supported. That was plain
stupid. And then they moved to Unity, which I didn't really care for. I've
been back on Slackware since 13, I think, and I will not let go of it. It's
just my OS of choice, even if there are other beautiful Linux distributions
out there. :)

Patrick, my hat is off to you and your team, for keeping this beautiful
operating system going. May it have many, many years of life left in it. I'll
be there to see it and use it. :)

------
csmuk
I genuinely had no idea Slackware was still going!

Slackware and Debian were my first Linux experiments in the 90's after
spending a few years with commercial UNIX. Debian stuck in the end but was
replaced with FreeBSD after a couple of years.

~~~
recuter
The first rule about Arch linux is that we don't talk about Arch linux.

~~~
minikomi
Better take the wiki down then

~~~
markeganfuller
On that note, the wiki is amazing. I use Debian but I constantly find myself
on the Arch wiki due to the in-depth explanations yet simple instructions for
everything.

~~~
csmuk
Same with me on OpenBSD - it's awesome!

Makes me want to play with arch Linux. There goes the weekend!

------
morb
Usually people are skeptical about Slackware package manager (slackpkg). I
thought I'd just throw in some links to alternatives. If you want to try
another package manager you can install it and start using it in under one
minute. Package manager is a package just like any other :)

One is slapt-get [0], supports third party repos, resolves dependencies if you
use it with repos that have dependency metadata, if you really really must :)
Salix repos are a nice source of extra packages, and have dependency metadata.
You'll have to wait a bit for them to upgrade to 14.1.

Another nice package manager is slackroll[1]. This one doesn't do
dependencies, but has other nice options.

For slackuilds (build script repo, like BSD ports) you can use sbopkg [2] or
sport [3], both are nice.

Have fun.

[0] [http://software.jaos.org/#slapt-get](http://software.jaos.org/#slapt-get)
[1] [http://rg3.github.io/slackroll/](http://rg3.github.io/slackroll/) [2]
[http://sbopkg.org/](http://sbopkg.org/) [3]
[http://slackermedia.info/sport/](http://slackermedia.info/sport/)

UPDATE: I think there's a lot more to a distro than just a package manager,
and these tools might help someone. Of course you'll probably get most stuff
you need out of the box, some others from slackbuilds.org.

Slackware pkgtools (installpkg, upgradepkg, removepkg) are really simple,
manpage for each is under 2 screens of text, and they really get out of the
way, and never betray you.

Further, init system is classic sysvinit with rc style scripts in /etc/rc.d
and it supports normal SysV scripts like other distros, in /etc/init.d. No
pulseaudio out of the box (it's available on slackbuilds.org if you want it).
You can disable NetworkManager and install WICD from /extra in no time, and
it's not gonna magically re-enable itself later.

~~~
Mithrandir
There's also slackpkg+[0], an extension for the regular slackpkg program that
enables third-party repos (e.g. Alien Bob's multilib repo.[1])

[0]
[http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+.html](http://slakfinder.org/slackpkg+.html)

[1]
[http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/multilib/](http://connie.slackware.com/~alien/multilib/)

------
atmosx
I know that this is no way of judging a distribution - _which never had a
decent package manager as far as I know_ \- but all the assholes, hacker-
wannabes from my early IRC era (1999-2004) were pompously bragging about how
_elite_ they were using slackware.

I know many of you find that behavior childish but I'm 100% others encountered
the same behavior as I did.

I never knew if it was the founders/dev's (I think was only 1 at the time) own
attitude but seriously, slackware attracted idiots like honey bees.

~~~
dsl
Slackware actually had, and still has, the best package manager I've ever
used.
[http://www.slackware.com/config/packages.php](http://www.slackware.com/config/packages.php)

The "elite"ness of Slackware was a bit valid. It it has no automatic
dependencies system, which in itself is a powerful tool that you can do
awesome things with. The second fantastic thing (which sort of ties into the
first) is that packages are modified as little as possible from the original
author, save some metadata. So if you know what you are doing, and an openssl
vulnerability is found, you can have a package built in minutes without
waiting for the upstream.

~~~
busterarm
Not only that but if somebody finds the bug/vulnerability in working with the
distro, they can very easily contribute the fix upstream.

This is the big plus in favor of Slackware and Arch and something you don't
see so much with say Ubuntu.

There's a good reason why the Slackware and Arch communities have generally
always had the best documentation of all Linux distributions and even if
you're not a user of either, the information is often friendly to solving
problems in other distributions.

------
wcummings
All these slackware haters! Go back to heroku, lusers. Glad to see slackware
is still kickin', still have fond memories of my first linux install :>

~~~
csmuk
That actually made me laugh. I was just having a discussion with a colleague
on this matter. He suggested that we don't need to know about the OS these
days with Heroku, Azure, GAE etc. My argument is that is fine until something
goes wrong or you need something slightly outside the comfort zone of those
products.

comes down to generalised knowledge versus product knowledge.

------
vacri
_Slackware uses the 3.10.17 kernel bringing you advanced performance features
such as journaling filesystems, SCSI and ATA RAID volume support, SATA
support, Software RAID, LVM (the Logical Volume Manager), and encrypted
filesystems._

This product release has been brought to you from the Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V* School of
Marketing.

*(yy/p?)

------
amree
I consider myself a newcomer in Linux. Started playing with Redhat then
Ubuntu. After being introduced (more like forced) to Slackware, I can't get
back to any other distro.

However, nowadays I've been torn between Slackware and Debian for the server
setup since I've started exploring Ansible to quickly get a server up. But as
long as Slackware doesn't offer package dependency management, Ansible won't
be that much help, unless of course I do all of them in bash script.

~~~
dmpk2k
The reason I gave up on Debian was because Debian was always off doing its own
thing (changing default locations, changing how config files were put
together, and so on). Slackware was really close to what you'd get if you
downloaded the original authors' tarballs and did a ./configure; make; make
install.

I think this is particularly relevant to servers. I was always fighting with
Debian's ideas of how things should be. Hopefully that's changed in the
meantime.

------
stock_toaster
My first dabble with linux (late 90s) was good old ZipSlack on an a Zip100.
Good to see Slackware is still alive and kickin'.

------
milos_cohagen
Great memories of Slackware, my first Linux. Slackware CD plus the HOWTO's and
I was off. Doubt I'd have become a programmer without that fateful day, circa
'94, that my friend freaked me out by showing me a Unix on his home PC and
loaning me his Slack cd.

------
hcarvalhoalves
Good to see it's still alive. I learned immensely about Linux by using it
during the 00's.

------
endbegin
Time to try Slackware again. It was my first dip into Linux many years ago. I
moved to apt-get supportive distros but the idea of keeping a smaller set of
applications around and knowing exactly what's on there is appealing.

------
ChuckMcM
So is it the new thing to ask for money for CDs/DVDs before putting the ISO's
up on the mirrors? Or is it just a timing thing?

Would love to throw one on a Virtualbox to see how it differs with Mint.

~~~
conductor
x86 -
[http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware/slackware-14.1-i...](http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware/slackware-14.1-iso/)

x86_64 -
[http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware/slackware64-14.1...](http://taper.alienbase.nl/mirrors/slackware/slackware64-14.1-iso/)

> ask for money for CDs/DVDs before putting the ISO's up on the mirrors

Patrick Volkerding is _The Man_ [0], he wouldn't do that.

[0] - [http://www.slackware.com/about/](http://www.slackware.com/about/)

~~~
ChuckMcM
Awesome didn't find those from the [http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware-
iso/](http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware-iso/) page.

------
ismail
the Web site has not changed in all this time. I am getting all nostalgic now.
I cut my teeth with linux on slackware. Think it was slackware 3.x Found out
about linux by chance, at a flea market a guy was selling a bunch of used
software. browsed them, but once I read the bit in the slackware manual he had
printed out 'setting incorrect settings can blow your monitor' I was sold.
back then you had to recompile your kernel for new hardware, and no google to
search for answers just irc.

------
Nux
Go Slackware! :-)

------
cjaredrun
ohhh fancy. been years since i've run slack but i think it's about time to
give it another go.

------
pjmlp
Nice to see Slackware still around. Slackware 2.0 back in 1995 was my first
Linux distribution. :)

------
zeeone
Slackware is irrelevant and outdated. No package manager. No net install. Give
me one reason to use it instead of Arch or Debian.

~~~
stinkytaco
In case you are not trolling:

1\. Everything is as close to the upstream package as possible. Debian
maintainers sometimes heavily modify their packages and that makes finding
help difficult. Slackware rarely changes their packages or only does if
necessary.

2\. Package manager does not do dependency checking. This makes installing
packages from source easier because I don't have to worry about breaking the
system when compiling. If something breaks, it's easy to know what to roll
back.

3\. Good for understanding the innards of Linux. There are no distro specific
config tools or non-standard setups. Packages may come with them, but they are
standard and well documented. Good way to understand what's going on.

EDIT: I thought of one more:

4\. Documentation. Patrick's documentation is great. If you have no other
tools, you could get Slackware setup just reading his documents.

All said, Slackware is a throwback to when distros were just a quick way to
get a Linux system running, not OSes in and of themselves. If you took each
piece and compiled it yourself, you'd get Slackware. That's pretty cool.

But seriously, that's the beauty of Linux. You go ahead and use Arch or
Debian. Absolutely no one is going to stop you. But someone using Slackware
has zero negative effect on you.

~~~
busterarm
I'm not trying to counter your argument because you're totally right, but Arch
pretty much exactly matches Slackware on points 1, 3 and 4.

~~~
venomsnake
Depends on the packages - in AUR land where people thing it is GREAT idea of
cloning the git repo instead of some fixed revision there are many times when
trying to build something you see

hunk XX of something failed, aborting.

~~~
busterarm
Yeah but that's under point 2, which I left out. :D

