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I really want the best for Slackware. I used to be a slacker 1996-2006 and grinded my Linux teeth on it. It escapes me why they don't want to innovate at all wi

I really want the best for Slackware. I used to be a slacker 1996-2006 and grinded my Linux teeth on it. It escapes me why they don't want to innovate at all with a proper modern package manager. Also they need to remake their website and with that create a decent forum and a decent wiki just like Arch has perfectly done. Nowadays I don't care at all about knowing every corner of my system. I have applications to manage, languages to learn, money to make and a life to live - so I lazily run Ubuntu on everything.

jqm 11y ago
I still run Slackware on my home/work machines. I find that setting it up once every couple of years and moving my home directory is about all I need. On the rare occasion software needs to be installed yes, it has to be built from source and it takes a few extra minutes. But you know what? Ubuntu package managers have failed me more than a couple of times. Slackbuilds.org has never once failed to produce a working package for me. I know people don't want to have to know about every corner of their system. But you don't necessarily need to. Set it up and it works. But if you ever need to you can with Slackware. All the way down without a lot of cruft on top. And that's worth a lot when it's needed. I guess the point is... I don't spend a lot of time screwing around with my Slackware systems. They are stable, simple and they work. Not dissimilar to the Slackware web site. Lacking over-engineered cruft.
crncosta 11y ago
Here is the wiki you are looking for: http://docs.slackware.com/ http://docs.slackware.com/
- unixhero 11y ago
  Didn't see that one before. Good stuff they have one!
megous 11y ago
Yeah, I don't know either. I went as far as to write spkg (spkg.megous.com) in 2006, just to replace the funcionality of pkgtools bash scripts without adding new features. (imporving robustness and speed) I never got any response from the Slackware team. I guess they're just very very conservative. I loved my Slackware times for the learning experience. But it was hell of a lot of work to use it.
- MPSimmons 11y ago
  Patrick still doesn't use PAM. I think it's safe to say he's conservative. ;-)
acheron 11y ago
I can't tell if "grinded my... teeth" is an accidental error, or an intentional mixed metaphor as a joke. But if it's not intentional then it should be, because I laughed. I certainly ground my teeth while using Slackware in the 90s too, which is why I switched to Mandrake and then FreeBSD. :P
- unixhero 11y ago
  Grinding teeth, the proverbial milling of stone... Also as in learning the ropes, or training oneself, learning the hard way, et cetera.
  - jasperry 11y ago
    I think the desired term is "to cut one's teeth on." It refers to how babies' teeth are aided in erupting from the gums by chewing on something tough. "Grinding one's teeth" is used to indicate being under an unpleasant level of stress.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
gmrs 11y ago
I'm a bit skeptical about the word "modern" these days. slackpkg is a good package manager and does everything you need to keep your system up-to-date. From the slackware website: "Slackware is designed around the idea that the system should be a complete installation kept updated with any official patches. This avoids the mess of dependencies that some other Linux based GNU systems face." Why remake the website? The website is clear enough, has links to the Slackware Book and to a mailing list.
- unixhero 11y ago
  It's not adequate sorry. I am not happy with mailing lists for community building. And I know of Linuxquestions.com forums, but that's not adequate either. Seriously, it would take 60 minutes to get this sorted, and 30 bucks yearly of hosting these forums.
  - cuckcuckspruce 11y ago
    What are mailing lists and forums missing for you? What killer features do you think that the Slackware team need to implement beyond what they currently have? I ask in all sincerity because you haven't mentioned it in your post.
    - unixhero 11y ago
      The community. As a user and potential contributor, I need that. Also I am sounding like a downer... I'm sorry about that. My strong opinions can often be too much, and I get that because they might sound negative. I am saying the things as a long time Slack user that gave up.
      - cuckcuckspruce 11y ago
        But what is 'the community' to you? To many Slackware users it's precisely the mailing list, the LinuxQuestions forum, the subreddit (/r/slackware), things like slackbuilds.org and docs.slackware.com. So what is missing from what Slackware currently offers that would make have 'the community' to you?
fractal618 11y ago
25 days ago you said Linux Mint solved all of your problems... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11150556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11150556
- MPSimmons 11y ago
  I'm not the commentator, but Mint is Ubuntu, except they've already done all of the grunt work to make it useful (like making codecs available and prettifying it up). At least 2 years ago when I ran it exclusively, it was accurately described as Ubuntu-based, not Ubuntu, just like Ubuntu is Debian-based, not Debian. But the similarities are (or at least were) much closer between it and Ubuntu than Ubuntu and Debian. I often said I ran Ubuntu when I ran Mint, because there was basically no difference worth making.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - unixhero 11y ago
    Thank you. No difference worth making is precisely why I didn't make it.
    - fractal618 11y ago
      What I said was un-supportive and deconstructive, i sincerely apologize. I will try to contribute more positively in the open source community, of which I am a big fan, and meant to disrespect towards. edit: I have spent a lot of time bouncing between debian, mint and ubuntu as my main distros. To me the differences are huge, and if I could go back and re-write my original comment. I might ask why you switched from mint to ubuntu. I recently moved from mint xfce to xubuntu, and now i am happily using debian xfce.

jqm 11y ago

I still run Slackware on my home/work machines. I find that setting it up once every couple of years and moving my home directory is about all I need. On the rare occasion software needs to be installed yes, it has to be built from source and it takes a few extra minutes. But you know what? Ubuntu package managers have failed me more than a couple of times. Slackbuilds.org has never once failed to produce a working package for me. I know people don't want to have to know about every corner of their system. But you don't necessarily need to. Set it up and it works. But if you ever need to you can with Slackware. All the way down without a lot of cruft on top. And that's worth a lot when it's needed. I guess the point is... I don't spend a lot of time screwing around with my Slackware systems. They are stable, simple and they work. Not dissimilar to the Slackware web site. Lacking over-engineered cruft.

crncosta 11y ago

Here is the wiki you are looking for: http://docs.slackware.com/ http://docs.slackware.com/

unixhero 11y ago
Didn't see that one before. Good stuff they have one!

megous 11y ago

Yeah, I don't know either. I went as far as to write spkg (spkg.megous.com) in 2006, just to replace the funcionality of pkgtools bash scripts without adding new features. (imporving robustness and speed) I never got any response from the Slackware team. I guess they're just very very conservative. I loved my Slackware times for the learning experience. But it was hell of a lot of work to use it.

MPSimmons 11y ago
Patrick still doesn't use PAM. I think it's safe to say he's conservative. ;-)

acheron 11y ago

I can't tell if "grinded my... teeth" is an accidental error, or an intentional mixed metaphor as a joke. But if it's not intentional then it should be, because I laughed. I certainly ground my teeth while using Slackware in the 90s too, which is why I switched to Mandrake and then FreeBSD. :P

unixhero 11y ago
Grinding teeth, the proverbial milling of stone... Also as in learning the ropes, or training oneself, learning the hard way, et cetera.
- jasperry 11y ago
  I think the desired term is "to cut one's teeth on." It refers to how babies' teeth are aided in erupting from the gums by chewing on something tough. "Grinding one's teeth" is used to indicate being under an unpleasant level of stress.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

gmrs 11y ago

I'm a bit skeptical about the word "modern" these days. slackpkg is a good package manager and does everything you need to keep your system up-to-date. From the slackware website: "Slackware is designed around the idea that the system should be a complete installation kept updated with any official patches. This avoids the mess of dependencies that some other Linux based GNU systems face." Why remake the website? The website is clear enough, has links to the Slackware Book and to a mailing list.

unixhero 11y ago
It's not adequate sorry. I am not happy with mailing lists for community building. And I know of Linuxquestions.com forums, but that's not adequate either. Seriously, it would take 60 minutes to get this sorted, and 30 bucks yearly of hosting these forums.
- cuckcuckspruce 11y ago
  What are mailing lists and forums missing for you? What killer features do you think that the Slackware team need to implement beyond what they currently have? I ask in all sincerity because you haven't mentioned it in your post.
  - unixhero 11y ago
    The community. As a user and potential contributor, I need that. Also I am sounding like a downer... I'm sorry about that. My strong opinions can often be too much, and I get that because they might sound negative. I am saying the things as a long time Slack user that gave up.
    - cuckcuckspruce 11y ago
      But what is 'the community' to you? To many Slackware users it's precisely the mailing list, the LinuxQuestions forum, the subreddit (/r/slackware), things like slackbuilds.org and docs.slackware.com. So what is missing from what Slackware currently offers that would make have 'the community' to you?

fractal618 11y ago

25 days ago you said Linux Mint solved all of your problems... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11150556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11150556

MPSimmons 11y ago
I'm not the commentator, but Mint is Ubuntu, except they've already done all of the grunt work to make it useful (like making codecs available and prettifying it up). At least 2 years ago when I ran it exclusively, it was accurately described as Ubuntu-based, not Ubuntu, just like Ubuntu is Debian-based, not Debian. But the similarities are (or at least were) much closer between it and Ubuntu than Ubuntu and Debian. I often said I ran Ubuntu when I ran Mint, because there was basically no difference worth making.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- unixhero 11y ago
  Thank you. No difference worth making is precisely why I didn't make it.
  - fractal618 11y ago
    What I said was un-supportive and deconstructive, i sincerely apologize. I will try to contribute more positively in the open source community, of which I am a big fan, and meant to disrespect towards. edit: I have spent a lot of time bouncing between debian, mint and ubuntu as my main distros. To me the differences are huge, and if I could go back and re-write my original comment. I might ask why you switched from mint to ubuntu. I recently moved from mint xfce to xubuntu, and now i am happily using debian xfce.