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I've used Slackware back in the day. Nowadays it feels like it's a terribly outdated distro. Why would anyone still use it? The packages are pretty much up to

by wooptoo 10y ago

I've used Slackware back in the day. Nowadays it feels like it's a terribly outdated distro. Why would anyone still use it? The packages are pretty much up to date but the distro itself feels dusty.

orthecreedence 10y ago
I've used this analogy before, but here goes: Slackware is the muscle car of linux distros. If you own one, you're going to need to know how to get your hands dirty, but once you do the thing is going to be fast, lean, and stable. If you enjoy tinkering, swapping things out, compiling from source, editing configs without GUIs...Slackware is for you. If you just want to spin up a linux, install some packages (including all the default-to-on dependency trash that comes with them), and be on your merry way...I'd stay away. If you want to learn Ubuntu, get Ubuntu. If you want to learn CentOS, get CentOS. If you want to learn linux, get Slack.
- chpatrick 10y ago
  Why not use Arch and get the same benefits, along with extremely up to date binary packages and build scripts for basically everything? - former Slackware and Gentoo user
  - buzzrobot 10y ago
    Because Arch is different and more complex. A Linux distro is a Linux distro, of course, so differences are subtle and particular. Any distro can be manipulated as much as anyone wants as long as they know how and they can deal with the implications of their changes. Arch has more scaffolding -- dependency resolution, etc. -- which is all very nice but presents its own Arch-specific learning curve and tends to get in the way if you want to do something that the "Arch Way" does not encompass. Slack users can build and install the very latest source from upstream if they wish, or they can choose not to. Dependencies obviously exist in Slackware. They are how Linux is structured. But, for some strange reasons, perhaps, Slackware packages seem to have fewer of them.
ovt 10y ago
I used it until a couple of years ago, but it often wasn't getting security updates and compiling anything for it was becoming more and more trouble. So I left and I don't miss it.

by wooptoo 10y ago

I've used Slackware back in the day. Nowadays it feels like it's a terribly outdated distro. Why would anyone still use it? The packages are pretty much up to date but the distro itself feels dusty.

orthecreedence 10y ago

I've used this analogy before, but here goes: Slackware is the muscle car of linux distros. If you own one, you're going to need to know how to get your hands dirty, but once you do the thing is going to be fast, lean, and stable. If you enjoy tinkering, swapping things out, compiling from source, editing configs without GUIs...Slackware is for you. If you just want to spin up a linux, install some packages (including all the default-to-on dependency trash that comes with them), and be on your merry way...I'd stay away. If you want to learn Ubuntu, get Ubuntu. If you want to learn CentOS, get CentOS. If you want to learn linux, get Slack.

chpatrick 10y ago
Why not use Arch and get the same benefits, along with extremely up to date binary packages and build scripts for basically everything? - former Slackware and Gentoo user
- buzzrobot 10y ago
  Because Arch is different and more complex. A Linux distro is a Linux distro, of course, so differences are subtle and particular. Any distro can be manipulated as much as anyone wants as long as they know how and they can deal with the implications of their changes. Arch has more scaffolding -- dependency resolution, etc. -- which is all very nice but presents its own Arch-specific learning curve and tends to get in the way if you want to do something that the "Arch Way" does not encompass. Slack users can build and install the very latest source from upstream if they wish, or they can choose not to. Dependencies obviously exist in Slackware. They are how Linux is structured. But, for some strange reasons, perhaps, Slackware packages seem to have fewer of them.

ovt 10y ago

I used it until a couple of years ago, but it often wasn't getting security updates and compiling anything for it was becoming more and more trouble. So I left and I don't miss it.