Vlogcanic

Some years ago, when Linux distributions were not counted by the hundred Slackware was there already –it’s the oldest and most venerable of all currently active distros. It’s focused in design simplicity and aims to be the most unixlike of all Linuxes.

It first appeared in 1993. The original distro developer, Patrick Volkerding, remains leading the way for Slackware as the Benevolent Lifelong Dictator. It was based upon Softlandig Linux System (SLS), a very popular distro in its day, but it soon replaced it as the dominant distro. There’s been 24 Slackware releases ever since, with Slackware 12.0 being the latest.

Features.

The focus on design simplicity found in Slackware has nothing to do with a user’s simplicity of use but with the software’s efficiency. So this is not a distro for newbies but rather for serious amateurs and experts. It allows for a hight degree of customization and because of its high degree of efficiency even new Slackware releases can run on very old hardware.

Slackware, as Gentoo, can be a great learning experience about the way Linux works and how to customize it, tweak it, and understand it. It can also be a nightmare, depending on the attitude, spare time, wish to learn and experience with which you face it.

The package system is based on tarballs pre packed to have their contents fall in all the right places when extracted from the root directory in the file system. There is no package manager to check the dependencies for you, as in Red Hat or Debian based systems –that’s suppossed to be your job.

Slackware as a base for other distros.

Whatever wants Slackware may have in the usability department (which is not one of the project’s goals, anyway) it makes up for in efficiency and stability so it’s become a popular starting point to develop other distributions. Some examples.

• Absolute Linux. Is Slackware modified to automatically instal a GUI (KDE) and desktop software. Quite usable and very fit to resucitate your older computers.
• SLAX. A LiveCD based on Slackware meant to be used as a portable desktop.
• NimbleX. A mini distro also aimed to desktop users.
• SuSE. Although it is in Novell’s hand’s nowadays and has been its own distro for years, this very succesful Linux got started as Slackware translated into German.

While all of the above might scare you off if you are just getting started with Linux, think twice. Whenever you summon up a bit of experience and curiosity, getting a hold of a Slackware release and making it work for you will make your life easier as a Linux user for years to come, as all those how-to’s and misterious command line movements will become transparent to you.