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.

  • TiffyBelle@feddit.uk
    35·
    1 year ago

    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.

      • Hibby@lemmy.ml
        5·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • Case@unilem.orgEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          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.

    • downhomechunk@midwest.socialEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      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.

  • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
    9·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • downhomechunk@midwest.socialEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • mFat@lemdro.idEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

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

  • HousePanther@lemmy.goblackcat.comEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • afb@lemmy.ml
      6·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • ruio1818@lemmygrad.ml
      3·
      1 year ago

      That would be the stable distribution, the current distribution which is the basis for the next release (now 15.1) was last updated today. It is also highly stable relative to other distributions including Arch so for I would recommend it to anyone with some knowledge of Linux.

      Arch is great of course, and the Arch Wiki is one of the best general resources for Linux out there.

  • ruio1818@lemmygrad.ml
    5·
    1 year ago

    I used it as my daily driver for 2 years, only stopped because I got an Apple silicon machine and went all in on Mac for my day to day.

    Slackware is fantastic. What I like most about it is the tiny mental footprint - you can grok how it works without any trouble, the distribution is basically a bunch of shell scripts and a package manager. It’s batteries-included which is different to some distros today - the concept of a lean Slackware machine is neither helpful nor particularly useful, you install the entire distro and use what you need. The package manager doesn’t have built in dependency resolution, but this isn’t necessary for the distribution, and third party packages are reasonably easy to manage with other package managers (Slack-ish ones like slackpkg+, sbopkg, etc., as well as general use ones like Nix).

    I highly recommend it at least to try. It is opinionated, but won’t get in your way if you want to change it. It is easy to use and the community is friendly. Try getting Liveslak and giving it a spin.

  • Solaire@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • Ghost@lemmy.ml
    3·
    1 year ago

    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 :)

  • whoami@lemmygrad.ml
    2·
    1 year ago

    No it’s not widely used. But I think it has a small loyal community. Some people really love it. I’ve only tried it a couple of times, and only on virtual machines. I liked doing admin via text files, and I like that using the “kitchen sink” option you basically have a tool for every task after install. It’s linux but sort unixy or bsd-like in how it approaches some things. That works for some and not so much for others. I might try it out again, but most likely I will stick to Debian.

    If you want more software it’s up to you how to do it. With 3rd party tools like sbopkg it’s easier than before, and with tools like flatpak install other software is even easier.

    There is also slackware current, and all the other repos, like the work alienbob does to provide plasma desktop etc.