From my young days I liked Slackware best, no matter how hard it was for Linux newbie to use it, I kept trying and getting better at it. Mean time Slack got better and better it self. Now I use Slack exclusively, because it ROCKS, it's hands down best system for a FREE people out there and it's the only system which releases are ALWAYS better than last. 14.1 being so wonderful, that it's kind of hard to imagine something better.

And for this greatness I want to give my thanks to Alien Bob (his huge collection of SlackBuils is pure gold), his work on multilib made a lot of good. And I am sure he made much more than we know. That makes him a very lovable person in Slackware world.

Of course there are others, like Willy (who maintains MATE slackbuils), Patrick of course! People behind SBo project, and every other person who takes actions for the sake of others are on their way to sainthood for sure. To all of them I say my thanks on day to day basis and hope I could one day do things in their example.

So thank you all for the best computer experience ever

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I hope threads like this are good reminders to developers that there are many of us who like Slackware and its heading. There's just no need to be in voice when it's just doing its job well for many of us.

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Great thread. Thank you onebuck for starting it. Thank you to all the devs for working so hard on Slackware.

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Thank-you to all the people who contribute to Slackware. Slack was the first linux distro I installed. It was a learning experience, and continues to be today. It would not be what it is today without the dedicated people that contribute so much. A very big THANK_YOU!.

I'm not going anywhere, I expect to be running Slackware until they throw the dirt on my coffin.

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Slackware was the very first Linux distribution that I tried, way back in 1995. I didn't consider it particularly "hard" for a newbie back then, but those were the days when moderately motivated people were still prepared to read if anything wasn't obvious at first look. These days, people only know how to point-and-click, and anything that takes slightly higher skills is considered "hard."

My hardware in those days couldn't handle the X Window System (whenever I tried to start X, my computer would hang, and I could only get it back to work through a hard reset). However, Slackware came with a booklet (which, I guess, grew into what we now know as "The Slackware Book"), which helped me learn a thing or two about Linux, so in that sense, Slackware was actually pretty "easy" for me. (Heck, it even taught me a few basic details about "vi" usage--still comes in handy every now and then...)

Through the years, I was an on-and-off Slackware user, but even when I didn't have it permanently installed, I did use at least the Slackware CDs or DVDs every now and then for simple recovery work. If the Slackware medium included enough of the programs and utilities that I needed, then I preferred to use that, because it boots so incredibly fast; and, as a bonus, it lets me configure my keyboard layout right from the start--that, in particular, is a great feature to me.

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I've been apprehensive about the systemd thing for a while, and I'm uncomfortable with it for the same reason many of the other critics are. But the systemd debacle is hardly the first controversial event in the Linux universe, and every time there's been an issue, somehow Slackware has managed to pull through without much of fuss. So that leads me to believe that Pat, Eric, Rob, and all the other contributors seem to know what they're doing. Slackware is a distribution that I trust, and until I'm proven wrong, I'll trust the decisions of those running it.

Thanks for the work, guys!

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+1.

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Thanks for all the hard work! Don't be discouraged by me, I'm fed up with modern Linux culture in general and plan accordingly, has nothing to do with Slackware. It will be the same way at this time next year, though Slackware will have improved as it always does. I trust you to do the right thing.

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To Pat and the Slackware crew, a big thank you for all you do!

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Well, that topic wasn't really that much about Slackware. There were also guys from the both sides who don't even use Slack, including the original poster. But, I think the most of the people actually using Slack said they would trust the Slackware team. Me included. I respect what you guys do and have trust in Pat's decisions.

I don't like systemd but understand it might become unavoidable. I wouldn't blame anyone if it becomes part of Slackware and would most probably continue to use it. Init system is not really the reason why I use Slackware. It's more about the core philosophy and the wide possibilites of customization.

So, yeah. Thanx guys and keep doing what you do. I think most of the people using Slackware appreciate that.

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I have vivid memories of the first time I encountered Slackware, which incidentally was also the first time I ever tried anything Linux. I installed Slackware 3.2 from a CD bundled with the book "Linux Unleashed". Well, I actually installed it from floppy disk images generated with the MS-DOS version of rawrite included on the CD. (I found the book and the accompanying CD when I cleaned out the cellar a few months ago, and I decided to spare it from the recycling container.)

At the time, I worked mostly with Windows NT servers and Cisco gear. When I realized I'd just installed a complete multitasking, multi-user OS that could also do advanced routing and firewalling, not to mention NAT, I was sold. Since then I've considered myself a Linux fan, but this thread got me thinking.

I've tried multiple flavors of Linux, including Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Mandriva, SuSE, Debian and a few others. I found none of them as flexible and easy to understand as Slackware. With Slackware, I can tinker with the configuration, install software from source, easily make my own packages, extend the OS with components like PAM and libvirt if I like, and nothing breaks. Try that with any of the other distributions (I dare you).

I've worked with a lot of different operating systems over the years; MS-DOS and PC-DOS, OS/2, NetWare, Windows from 3.0 onwards, several proprietary OSes on various 8- and 16-bit platforms, hell, I've even had brief encounters with CP/M and SCO Unix. While I really, really liked NetWare (3.x was a work of 386 assembly language art), I must say that Slackware is by far my favorite OS.

And I say "OS", not "distribution" for a reason. I've thought really hard about this, and I've reached the conclusion that if the Slackware maintainers were at some point to decide to replace the Linux kernel with, say, BSD or The Hurd, I'd seriously consider ditching Linux just to stay with Slackware.

Of course I don't believe something like that is ever going to happen; it's an even less likely scenario than the one where The Hurd becomes a production-ready kernel. But my point is that I'm actually more of a dedicated Slackware user than a Linux fan. Slackware has proved itself as a reliable and flexible distribution, and the no-nonsense philosophy of Mr. Volkerding and the other maintainers can be felt throughout the entire system. It has served me very well for many years.

So I'd like to join the others in this thread in saying a big "thank you" to Mr. Hameleers and everybody else on the Slackware team for their hard work and dedication. Your efforts are very much appreciated, and you should know that the distribution you're maintaining is powering a number of mission-critical systems all across the globe.

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I would like to add mine too:

thanks to AlienBOB for the huge list of SlackBuilds you maintain, which I use every day;

thanks to the rest of the team for the testing and packaging you do;

and thanks to Patrick for your pragmatic approach and also your good-natured humour, which comes through in the Slackware scripts, some of which go back a decade or two and are still doing their job... :-)

Cheers!

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I am truly grateful to Pat and his dedicated Slackware Team. In 2002 I was a very disillusioned personal computer user who was tired of paying insane fees to anti-virus companies for their software that worked minimally at best. I haltingly made the move to Linux and screwed up a lot. In 2004 I installed Slackware 10.0 and I fell in love with its elegant simplicity, stability, and security. I will continue to financially support and advocate the use of Slackware Linux because I believe it is the best version of Linux. I salute Pat and his developers.
Thank you!

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dont worry, dear slackware crew. Along with those who trust you, there are those who worry and reproduce a lot of noise. Maybe, they disappointed by decision of debian developers, or just troll, or something else.

Thank you for all that you do. Regards.

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Thanks to the Slackware Team and our BDFL.
Also, thanks to the many forum members that have helped me and others on our journey.
And lastly, thanks to LQ and all it has done for the larger Linux Community.

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