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Slackware

Slackware

Slackware is a Linux distribution created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. Originally based on Softlanding Linux System, Slackware has been the basis for many other Linux distributions, most notably the first versions of SUSE Linux distributions, and is the oldest distribution that is still maintained. Slackware aims for design stability and simplicity and to be the most "Unix-like" Linux distribution. It makes as few modifications as possible to software packages from upstream and tries not to anticipate use cases or preclude user decisions. In contrast to most modern Linux distributions, Slackware provides no graphical installation procedure and no automatic dependency resolution of software packages. It uses plain text files and only a small set of shell scripts for configuration and administration. Without further modification it boots into a command-line interface environment. Because of its many conservative and simplistic features, Slackware is often considered to be most suitable for advanced and technically inclined Linux users. Slackware is available for the IA-32 and x86_64 architectures, with a port to the ARM architecture. While Slackware is mostly free and open source software, it does not have a formal bug tracking facility or public code repository, with releases periodically announced by Volkerding. There is no formal membership procedure for developers and Volkerding is the primary contributor to releases.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackware
Homepage: http://www.slackware.com/

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301 users found this useful.
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Ivo

449 users found this useful.
Desktop: IoT:
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Great plain distro. Best for server and it is streamlined and the fastest distro of all. I use it on one of mine Desktops and on more than 30 servers. Not single hiccup . I guess it is for advanced and pro users only. Top of the top for servers.

Useful

660 users found this useful.
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Useful

702 users found this useful.
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Dimitar Kostadinov

766 users found this useful.
Desktop: IoT:
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I use more then 100 Slackware servers / from 1997 … no issues /

Useful

801 users found this useful.
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Useful

780 users found this useful.
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KevH

754 users found this useful.
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I heard once (or twice), that if you want to learn Linux, then start with Slackware. The first time I heard this was after many days of struggling to learn Linux many years ago using this distro. There may be easier ways to learn and Slackware may be too step a learning curve for many, however the challenges that building your own system with Slackware really is worth the effort.

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Todd

797 users found this useful.
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This distro is great. If someone wants to create their own distro without going from scratch this would be what I would probably recommend, depending how deep a person wishes to go. Some might be surprised that my answer isn't Arch. Installing this system is simple. The user after an install can have a basic system with desktop environments and basic utilities, however, during install these packages can be opted out of. Why I recommend for a custom distro, this system is a great base and a lot of tools needed to be compile packages from source are easy to get. Also, Slackware works best with vanilla packages, direct from the developers without any modifications. Some linux users do not know that in distros such as debian and ubuntu, packages are changed from how they come from the developer to solve issues that is causes on those specific distros. Slackware is made to run vanilla software, it is super easy to compile packages from source. Since Slackware is so easy to do this, it gives a great system to start without doing Linux From Scratch (LFS). A user can take time to select packages (select the version), manage their own dependencies. As an example, I was able to compile gcc 9.1 really easy without having any bumps in the road with just the system as is directly after install. Much like Debian, running a version of slackware does tend to sit on older packages by default. This give it rock solid stability. During a version's life cycle, like Debian stable, the updates will be more in the form of security patches and not migrating to new versions of software for new features. In fact, Slackware's package management only really cares about the bare minimum you need to have a full linux desktop. It can then be supplemented with Slackbuilds and something such as SBO Package (which is a more automated way to manage slackbuilds). On my netbook, this distro ran optimally. Lower resource usage than most other distros I have used while having a complete desktop environment. However, I still choose Debian as my daily driver purely out of the fact that I don't have the time do what I wish to properly run slackware on all of my machines (all of my machines run the same distro even down to version).

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Marcus Aurelius

824 users found this useful.
Desktop: IoT:
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Useful

Ed

776 users found this useful.
Desktop: IoT:
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1989 called and want's it's distro back. Seems nice n stable in UNRAID, but I wouldn't use it as a daily driver as it lacks too far behind with everything.

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Chris Topher

792 users found this useful.
Desktop: IoT:
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Slackware is a piece of genius. Aimed at linux system administrators (or folks aspiring to be), it rewards you for unstanding how your system works and gives you a working environment that is transparent, sane, and with few moving parts, thus making it possible for a mere mortal to actually understand everything their computer is doing. There's no systemd in sight and the package manager doesn't resolve dependencies for you. Software in the repo is certainly not what you'd call "bleeding edge" but is reasonably complete with all the necessary staples (especially if you include slack builds). To survive as a desktop user with cravings for shiny new software or esoteric needs, you'll find yourself leaning heavily on statically compiled binaries or docker for application availability because installing software with complicated dependencies becomes tiresome as many of the libraries are older and the package manager does not do dependency resolution for you. Which, speaking of, is refreshing. Often I've had to wrestle with yum or apt to install something with what it determined to be conflicting dependencies or insisting I install a "dependency" that I know I didn't need. Slackware is very deliberate and doesn't "assume your dependencies" allowing your upgrades to be much more controlled and you can actually have some idea what is changing when you do. Slackware is rock solid due to these design premise and I've never had a Slackware install go awry (to the point at which I couldn't fix it) and I can't say that about any other distros I've used for any extended period. The release cadence is slow and unpredictable, because it's not ready until it's ready. Running a simple apache httpd server/proxy, you'll find Slackware more reliable than CentOS. But you're mileage may vary once you throw in some php7 app. It also makes an excellent ftp server. I haven't used it as a mail server, but I'm sure it works marvelously. It may have some lag on the security updates, but I can't say for sure. Though I've never used it for IoT, but it has an ARM build and it's simplicity and long term stability are unmatched, and I can scarcely imagine a better starting distros for you IoT app. Don't go on a Linux journey without making a stop at Slackware.

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