“Hello everybody out there using Minix” – this is how an email begins, the content of which should be well known to most of the F/LOSS scene. Linus Torvalds announced on August 25, 1991 that he had started work on a Minix clone that would later go down in world history as Linux and today’s IT would be unimaginable without it. On the other hand, far fewer people know the email from a certain Patrick J. Volkerding, which he sent almost two years later on July 16th to the Usenet group “comp.os.linux” sent: “The Slackware Linux distribution (v. 1.00) is now available for anonymous FTP.”
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Although the historical influence of Slackware on the open source scene is not considered to be quite as dramatic as that of the Linux kernel itself, nobody seriously doubts that Slackware was of great importance for the development of Linux. Today, Slackware is considered the oldest Linux distribution in the world that is still regularly maintained, almost six months ahead of Debian GNU/Linux. Some Slackware fans are still thieving for joy because Slackware and Debian were considered the Linux distributions for professionals in the boorish years of Linux development. SUSE Linux and Red Hat, on the other hand, relied early on on GUIs for configuration, graphic interfaces and many automated functions, which earned them disparaging looks from self-proclaimed experts and earned them a reputation as a “Klickibunti system”.
Debian has now largely shed its fears of contact with GUIs and configuration tools. For example, there has been a graphical user interface for Debian’s installation routine for years. It is able to user-friendly install a Debian system with preinstalled and preconfigured Xorg and a graphical desktop environment. In the Slackware world, people still don’t want to hear about this mumbo-jumbo.
Purism reigns – a little bit
Commentators have said everything about the reasons for this in countless tributes and congratulations in recent years – including myself when Slackware 15 was released. The short version goes something like this: Patrick J. Volkerding was dissatisfied with the then only Linux distribution SLS. He began work on what would now be called a fork and soon dubbed it Slackware. The name says it all, because “slack” means careless. This is exactly how Volkerding wanted his distribution and, above all, his work on it to be understood: users had to be aware that with Slackware they only get a basic structure on the basis of which they could configure their desired system. That has not changed to this day. The configuration tool of choice with Slackware is still a text editor for the respective configuration file.
However, anyone who draws the conclusion from this that Slackware has fallen out of time and is a concept from the past is greatly mistaken. Even persistent rumors that the project was already dead could not shake the fans’ belief in “their” distribution for years. And through them Release of Slackware 15 last year Volkerding himself made it clear that I was only dealing with an – admittedly quite extensive – development break. It is also true that this did not have as dramatic an effect on Slackware users as it might have had with other distributions. After all, anyone who runs a system with Slackware is used to doing a lot of things themselves. This also includes the installation of current programs and a current kernel. If necessary, just “on foot”.
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In addition, Slackware is no longer as puristic as fans of the system like to claim. Because most of the conveniences of modern Linux distributions can also be found in one form or another in Slackware. Like any other distribution, Slackware has package management, for example with online directories and the automatic resolution of dependencies. A current Slackware is also no longer particularly slim. The impression is that the distribution’s down-to-earth image is mainly due to the installation routine, which still seems quite rustic, and the lack of graphical setup tools. Also, its proponents give the distribution credit for continuing to come without a systemd. However, this is also completely incompatible with central Slackware principles. Because tools like Systemd, which wants to seize large parts of the control over systems and implement them automatically, send shivers down the spines of Slackware advocates.
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At the height of the time
Slackware also has the developments of the recent past to thank for the fact that the distribution is now even considered a quasi-modern alternative in the server room in some places. As is well known, the trend is towards containers. And they can be run on a system as soon as a runtime environment is available for them, regardless of whether Podman or Docker are used. Red Hat and SUSE have long been working on basic Linux distributions whose main purpose is to play containers. The idea: a kernel, a lean userland and the container environment. Those who provide the containers take care of the rest. Slackware has always followed the path that the big commercial providers are now treading.
It is unlikely that Slackware will face serious commercial competition from Red Hat or SUSE in the foreseeable future. If you are looking for a stable basic system, you may also consider Slackware again in the future. This is all the more true because, in addition to the basic installation, tools such as Ansible set the tone today via automation. And they work on Slackware too. In addition, Slackware is already considered established among its own fan community – the system will continue to occupy this niche.
It’s almost a joke of history that Slackware’s future looks a lot rosier today than it has at many other times in Slackware’s existence. Patrick J. Volkerding, meanwhile, may have celebrated the 30th anniversary of “his” distribution with a bottle of beer. With regard to hops, malt and many other related ingredients (which the German Purity Law prohibits in beer), he is considered a respected connoisseur. In the early days of Slackware development, when users asked him how they could return the favor for his work, he often asked them to send them local beers to increase their own knowledge of beer. In any case, it was granted to him.
In this respect: Cheers, Mr. Volkerding! And of course: Happy Birthday, Slackware! Here’s to the next 30 years!
(syt)