Apparently Slackware 1.1.0 was a submission to the DECUS 1993 Fall Symposium under the directory entry called "linux". It's a 99% copy taken on Dec 3 '93 (Happy 30 year anniversary version 1.1.0!) and just missing the optional bootdisks. I think it might be the only x86 linux distro shared in this group, ever?
https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/decus/lt93b/linux/

It's nice to see this, because it also has the 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 change logs included so there is a piece of history that was missing to me. So we know a bit more about those now, besides what was in usenet posts. Version 1.1.0 was the first version to include XFree86 version 2.0, and a libc version bump.

Slackware 1.1.1 may be a bit better. I think this is where there was effort to stop storing symlinks directly in tgz files and associated fixes.
https://archive.org/download/cdrom-i...omdecember1993

I think I'm now looking mainly for Slackware 1.0.2 or 1.0.3. I think these should be obtainable based on things I've seen going around.

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Not to my knowledge. Gentoo's wiki is good, but they leave out a lot of information and the distribution starts to end up as guess work when you are trying to set up a system. The build flag system for their packages is very... messy. I know they tried to copy FreeBSD's ports system, but portage ends up being a broken mess at times. I've tried learning it in a VM and ended up trying to build Xorg only to have a dependency flag needed, so I went back, enabled the flag, rebuilt and then a dependency broke. So I wiped the system, started fresh with the flags, and a different package and dependency was needed and broke something else. So I gave up on Gentoo.

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I started using Slackware in 2018 after I installed it with the "full" option in the installer.

Before that, I tried to install it in 2017, and I selected only the packages I needed in the installer, after installation nothing worked, I launched applications, and received a message that the .so library was not found, after that I tried to install it through slackpkg, and so on over and over again, but xfce4 so and it didn't work that day

I like Slackware because I have problems with package managers from other distributions (it was very difficult for me to build or rebuild anything in Debian), and in Slackware I can replace system packages without much difficulty, or change some flags when building a program.

Since 1999.

My first experience with Slackware was in 2000. I had a shell account on one of the experimental server systems in my uni that admins used for testing stuff. But it actually ran a half-official UNI forum and email boxes for the staff and students. It was run on an old 486 with Slackware 7. I mostly used it to download stuff from internet and then transferring stuff directly via ssh/sftp. That was much faster on dial-up. It also gave me a first *nix command line experience.

But I acctually became a proper Slackware user in 2005 after the recommendation of a mod of a forum I used to visit (still do sometimes). At the time, forum had 3 mods of Linux subforum, two of which used Slack. I've been stuck since.

Problem with other distros is that however I find them interesting, I'm so used to Slack that I find it easier to simply port the thing that's missing to Slack then to get used to a new distro. So, that's where I am today.

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I can tell you what big problem dissapeared after switching to Slack, instead. That I remember quite clearly.


I tried Red Hat and Debian and trying to compile drivers for a winmodem was a hell. On Slackware 10.2 it just worked out of the box. Thanx Pat.

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I will soon be celebrating 20 years with Slackware. I joined this forum in 2004; I needed assistance to get sound working on Slackware 10.0. Happily still running Slackware.

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Back in 2018, I was just testing netatalk with a few distributions on my laptop, stuck with Slackware for a while and found this typo in rc.atalk
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-a-4175637855/
Mr. Volkerding fixed it the next day. I thought "Wow, he's fast"
Since then, I haven't moved, and Pat "Scruggs" Volkerding is as fast as ever

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This is an interesting thread. It's fun to read about everyone's Slackware adventures and how they got from back then to now. Keep the stories coming, folks!

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My first encounter with Slackware was in 1995, using a derived French distribution called M.N.I.S. with the Linux kernel 1.2.8 and executables in a.out format. At the time, my computer had an AMD processor compatible with Intel 80486, an S3 video card, and 12Mb of memory. M.N.I.S. added a few extra applications such as the Arena and Chimera web browsers (but not Mosaic). I had some knowledge of Unix System V on IBM (AIX) and HP9000 (HP-UX) from university. My interest in Slackware came from the ability to compile Fortran 77 with f2c|gcc and LaTeX as on the workstations. I later upgraded the computer to Slackware 1996 edition with Linux 2.0 and ELF executables. Slackware was used at work in the 2000s, until it was replaced by FreeBSD then Debian.
I was a home user of Debian from 2005 to 2010. After 2010, I returned to Slackware (version 13.0). I still have the computer, currently using Slackware 15.0 (32bit). The computer I am using now was preinstalled with Ubuntu, just like the computers at work. I have kept Ubuntu on it, but I am considering a 64bit Slackware on it if the next LTS version of Ubuntu proves too demanding.

i first switched to slackware when redhat went "paid version only" arround 2003. I asked a young lad who worked for the nhs who was into linux, and he recommended it, and I haven't looked back since. I've supplied ubuntu to some customers for desktop use, but when they (ubuntu) changed prefered packaging to snap that was a headache to revert back to debs as snaps were/are so slow to run.
all my servers run slackware. I like the fact that what you learn is relevant many years later, and can be applied to other distros, unlike ms windows which constantly changes it's ui to maintain revenue, while hiding what is happening. At least we have the availablity of linux to thank for free updates to windows, and it wouldn't supprise me if microsoft changes windows to be based on a linux kernel. it already uses it's own linux for azure.

Every time I see this thread pop up with the question "How long have you been using Slackware?" I think long enough.

Meaning long enough to know there is no other.

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long enough.

i think from 2015 (?) - something like that ;[[
this year will be the 10th year - i think :-)

I took a trip down memory lane on the wayback machine today. In early 2000, I was hosting my personal domain out of my basement on a headless 486 PC running Slackware 7.1 with a 45GB HDD and 64MB of RAM! It was also my home network router and firewall. Unfortunately, two and a half years later, I had to give it up and go back to running Windows and paying to have my site hosted (long story as to why). I haven't really picked up Linux again until the past few weeks (another long story as to why) and I'm surprised how much of it I remember. Right now, I'm running Debian, but may try to go back to Slackware.

I feel it's important to note that I do not work in IT (I'm an environmental regulations compliance consultant). My use of Linux is solely for personal and/or hobby purposes.

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Proud to say since 1997 and slackware was integral to me geting a bsc in computing in 1998. I've nver looked back. I have tested other linux distro's on spare machines, but kept breaking them. Trying to set them up how I wanted with my chouce of kernel and software I used. I work with Linux for about 60% of my job and push Slackware were ever I can. The best setup I've used slackware on was a 48 cpu 356 core server with 256GB ram fastest stock kernel compile ever with numjpbs set to via slackbuild script got 100% on 24 cpu's :-)))) lol