Is slackware still widely used?

wtry@lemm.ee to Linux@lemmy.ml – 89 points –

I'm looking into advanced distros (like arch) and slackware is fascinating. Is it still supported/used? If you'd like to comment an alternative distro, please do.

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I don't think Slackware was ever widely used

Was, still is. Slackware users tend to not hype their distro of choice. Because, slack. :pipe:

I still use Slackware and it's a great distro. I very much enjoy its batteries-included approach (a full install comes with pretty much everything pre-installed) and I enjoy its simplicity and ease of configuration and use. There's a learning curve to get there, but once you understand how everything works it's a distro that gets completely out of your way. The bonus is that if you understand Slackware, generally, your knowledge of GNU/Linux broadly will mean you're never lost on any other distro either. Most of my frustrations with other distros actually stem from them patching something/doing something weird with config defaults, whereas Slackware ships stuff as it is from vendors with vendor defaults which I find a lot more palatable and predictable.

Philosophically, I like how Slackware is independent and beholden to no corporate entity. Controversies that have hit other distros in the past as a result of that just aren't a thing with Slackware.

Slackware is a very rewarding distro to use even in 2023. It's not for everyone, but I imagine there's a fair amount of people like me who've probably been using it for ages and have had absolutely no reason to ever consider using anything else. Once you've got everything you want and configured stuff to your liking, it'll just work forever fantastically.

Slackware may not be huge, but it is the base distro for Unraid.

Interesting! That's news to me. Does Slackware still use the Sys V style init system or did the devs change it to systemd?

I've only barely gone beyond the more "backup + Docker appliance" style front end of Unraid, so I'm not sure. They make it extremely difficult for the untrained to get where you can break stuff. I am mostly an Arch/Debian guy.

I haven't used Debian in eons but I have respect for it as well. I really like anything and everything open source

I'm a guy who prefers community based distros. They don't have business decisions get in the way of the needs of the community. It ain't perfect, but it's worth the tradeoffs for me. Debian for stuff I don't want to constantly mess with. Arch for the express purpose of constantly messing with (and sometimes messing up).

BSD style initscripts.

Never heard about Unraid, but I hear about Slackware all the time.

If you can manage a Linux server, you likely have no use for Unraid. If you want to put together a Synology type appliance out of PC hardware to run Docker containers and uses ZFS for backups, Unraid is a fairly user friendly option.

I run a server on unraid.

Honestly, it works as a way to cut your teeth with a type 1 hypervisor.

Fairly user friendly, and the community seems to offer a lot of support.

That being said, I mainly use it as a file server and a place to host containerized stuff that doesn't need to bog down a gaming rig.

I got the hardware for free, so other than upgading the CPU to 10 cores (used, 50 dollars, not bad) and paying for electricity, it just churns along doing its thing.

Take a look at DistroWatch. I use it when I want to try a new distro, just for fun. Slackware is number 44 in the popularity rank.

It'll go back up to the top 20 or maybe top 10 when a new version comes out. 15.1 should be ready soon. People still care.

Documentation in the configs is outstanding. Everything is where it should be, file system wise. It doesn't break very often.

Slackware is the only distro I've run since the late 90s. I'm not an IT pro or a programmer or even an advanced user.. Slackware just feels right. Give it a shot.

I don't know how widely used it is, but it definitely has its fanbase - probably mostly by people who've used it since ages ago.

From what I've read, "supported" is a difficult term for Slackware. It's development is mostly done privately and informal by Volkerding. There's no public issue tracker etc. Releases are done when Volkerding wants to/manages to do them.

It's not a distro for me and I won't recommend it as a daily driver, but Slackware is definitely interesting.

PS: I can't stop me from recommending NixOS/GUIX as another interesting advanced distro. Them being declarative, deterministic and immutable seems to me like the complete opposite to Slackware, which doesn't even do dependencie management.

Is the package manager still too dumb to figure out dependencies automatically?

im using it now for my personal laptop. I have an alienware. Slackware was the easiest distro to get my NVIDIA cards working for steam. And these steam games run just as smooth as if they were on console. I also love that its pretty involved and have learned a lot between Slackware and Gentoo. I would definitely give it a try; i think it is very underrated today.

You should give Gentoo a try. I'm a 12 year arch user. Gentoo is really solid and fun though. Or hell if you wanna go that advanced try LFS :)

As much as I Iike and respect Slackware and Patrick Volkerding, I would go with Arch if I were you. According to the change logs, the last commit was June 23rd of this year. Arch is more actively worked on and developed. I learned Linux on Slackware so I will always be partial to it, just like I learned Unix on OpenBSD and will be partial to it as well. But for me, Arch is the way to go for Linux. Arch's wiki is fantastic.

Not sure which change logs you're looking at, but both stable and current were updated yesterday. Current is most days, stable is usually a couple of security patches and bug fixes a week.