Is slackware still widely used?
Is slackware still widely used?
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.
35 comments
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Slackware may not be huge, but it is the base distro for Unraid.
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Interesting! That's news to me. Does Slackware still use the Sys V style init system or did the devs change it to systemd?
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Slackware doesn’t use systemd.
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BSD style initscripts.
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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.
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Unraid does not use systemd
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Never heard about Unraid, but I hear about Slackware all the time.
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It is still supported and used. It's been my distro of choice for several years.
if you choose the current or the stable stream, last update was yesterday:
- http://www.slackware.com/changelog/stable.php?cpu=x86_64
- http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=x86_64
If you need help, there are many users that can help you here https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Is the package manager still too dumb to figure out dependencies automatically?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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35 comments
I don't think Slackware was ever widely used
Back in the day it was THE distro. Not so much these days.
One of the first 64-bit capable distros, too.
Among Linux users it was.
☠️
Was, still is. Slackware users tend to not hype their distro of choice. Because, slack. :pipe:
By the way I use Slackware doesn't really roll off the tongue.