Farewell Slackware
 

After 25 years of using Slackware, it's time to move on. My thanks to Pat and all the others who kept Slack going over the years.

Slackware is a great learning tool for Linux. Those new to Linux can set up and get a solid desktop distribution without a lot of grief. Whenever a Win/Mac user asks which distribution they should get to start learning Linux, I'll continue to recommend Slackware.

Migrated to Crux. It has proven to be lightweight, fast, versatile, and easily customized. The 64/32-bit coexistence is excellent.

Good Luck,
Halsey

Said the same many times. Always was back. That damned Slackware made me its slave.

Halsey W. Taylor invented the non-squirting drinking fountain. In 1896, Taylor's father died from typhoid fever. This illness is principally spread through contaminated drinking water. Several years later, while working as a plant superintendent for the Packard Motor Car Company, Taylor realized numerous workers were becoming sick with dysentery. He believed contaminated drinking water was the chief reason for the spreading illness.

Taylor determined to develop a drinking fountain that was sanitary and would not contribute to the spreading of various illnesses. By 1912, he had developed a drinking fountain that he claimed was much more sanitary. He began to manufacture the drinking fountains in his hometown of Warren, Ohio. Taylor continued to improve his product, and during World War I, he invented the "Double Bubbler" drinking fountain. This fountain dispensed two streams of water in an arc. Previously, drinkers commonly had to place their mouths on or near the faucet, helping spread germs. With Taylor's drinking faucet, the arc of water allowed drinkers to be several inches away from the faucet, reducing the spread of illnesses.

With the invention of the Double Bubbler, demand soared for Taylor's drinking fountains. During the 1920s and 1930s, Taylor's company, which was named Halsey Taylor, manufactured more than eighty percent of the drinking fountains in the United States. Halsey Taylor continues to manufacture fountains today, although the company is now located in Oak Brook, Illinois.

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"The Crux of the Biscuit (onion) is the Apostrophe" - Frank V. Zappa

I can understand that people who like Slackware like Crux as well. They're quite similar in many ways. In fact the Crux devs are always having to explain that Crux isn't based on Slackware in any way. For anyone that's interested, here is a quick comparison.

One big difference is the way Crux handles kernels. The installation disc provides kernel source code and you configure and build your own binaries. If you build in the necessary drivers, you won't need an initrd. But if you need a new kernel at any time, you must get source code from kernel.org because Crux doesn't provide kernel updates.

Thank you, hazel! I was curious about Crux but didn't think my question would fit in here.

Adios Halsey, hope Crux goes well for you. :shake:

Whilst happy that Mr Taylor has found a system that he approves of, I think that some details of Mr Taylor's hardware and main use cases would increase the value of his post.

Yes, CRUX is nice, and I agree about the 32/64 architecture: much nicer than the FHS way of doing things, or having to merge Eric's multilib packages.

Having said that, I have found some rough edges with CRUX, so it's not all rainbows and unicorns.

Anyway, best of luck, and if it doesn't work out, remember you can always come back. Slackware will still be here. :)

P.S. CRUX is currently my daily-drive, though I'm still maintaining my slackware install too.

CRUX subforum for Slackware users.

Enjoy CRUX! We'll be here if you wish to come back. :)

Just to touch on that, when I first got started I borrowed both the kernel and initrd from slackware to get me booted into CRUX.

I played with CRUX some 10 years ago. At the kernel compile step I just used Slackware's .config file and included the file system's driver. My impression of CRUX: a wonderfully designed system, implemented in not so wonderful way. Long story, may be it was just me.

Anyway, I learned how to make my own ports and couple of months later when I decided I preferred Slackware, I thought that creating SlackBuilds would not be much more difficult than the ports. So, I joined SBo thanks to CRUX in a way.

Most clueless bums here say so.


Cheers.

He'll be back lol :)

Well, you decided to let us know about switching from Slackware to another distro, but did not provide specific reasons.
Is Slackware not lightweight enough? not fast enough? Not versatile? Not easily customized? Is the 64/32 bit coexistence in Crux much better?
There is probably at least one real specific reason for your switch. It will be constructive and interesting it you are more specific.