Get Slack

If you follow this blog, you know that I’ve been using Slackware for more or less three months now, Slackware as you may already know is the oldest surviving Linux distribution.

How I started with Slackware?, Well I’m using Arch Linux for about two years now. In the Arch Linux Wiki, there is a comparison of Arch Linux with other distributions, one of them is Slackware.

According to that page:

Slackware and Arch are quite similar in that both are simple distributions focused on elegance and minimalism. Slackware is famous for its lack of branding and completely vanilla packages, from the kernel up. Arch typically applies patching only to avoid severe breakage or to ensure packages will compile cleanly. Both use BSD-style init scripts. Arch supplies a package management system in pacman which, unlike Slackware’s standard tools, offers automatic dependency resolution and allows for more automated system upgrades.

Arch offers the Arch Build System, an actual ports-like system and also the AUR, a very large collection of PKGBUILDs contributed by users. Slackware offers a similar, though slimmer system at slackbuilds.org which is a semi-official repository of Slackbuilds, which are analogous to Arch PKGBUILDs. Slackware users will generally be quite comfortable with most aspects of Arch.

So, that reading made me want to test Slackware, there is where all began.

I think Arch Linux, Slackware and maybe in a slightly different level Gentoo, are some kind of advanced Linux distribution, or better said for intermediate to advanced Linux user. I like to say that those distributions are for Linux lovers, people who is not afraid of the command line.

I’m that kind of person, I like to be in control of my Operating System, and one thing I really like about Slackware and Arch Linux is that you need to enable the daemons, this way no matter how many of them you install in your computer it is still running light weight. Of course if you use Fedora or Ubuntu you can disable the daemons, but I prefer to be the one that enable them, and not the other way.

I also like the KISS principle that Slackware follows, their init scripts are arranged in an easy and understandable way, that I really like.

Slackware does not do dependency resolution, but that was never a problem for me, because the forums and wiki pages, and other sources of information, let you know which packages you need to install to comply with the dependency of any package. I mean, if you are ready to work a little bit more, you will find the way to install almost anything.

I’ve also found that LinuxQuestions forums, are a great source of information, just be sure to browse the forum before ask, but if you do not find what you are looking for, you will for sure find someone that will help you.

I also like the stability of the Operating System and its default applications, in this time using Slackware on my Lenovo T60 Laptop I’ve had not a single problem.

I’m not sure about this, but, I think that is also a good thing to have all packages vanilla flavor, I mean not patched, untouched, and just like the developers made them.

So, summarizing, here is why I like Slackware:

• Stability
• The control of the operating system is on the user
• KISS principle
• Active and friendly community

If you are curious about Slackware, well what can I say?

Get Slack