Wow! No, I don't recall ever having anywhere close to 60 floppies. More like 20 or so. I seem to remember installing the pre-release version of 0.97 on an AST 286 pizza box system. I loved that machine and am so amazed at how far systems have come. My home computer is now a 64GB, Intel I9-12900k with an AMD 6800 GPU mining ETH. For anyone in IT and into computers, it is a wonderful feeling to know that we have played a part in progressing the industry.
I will say you rightfully listed "Community" as the first item, as that is the most enriching part of being in technology and Linux specifically, regardless of distro. With regard to ease of use, I would question that one. If you are still compiling kernels, there is no way that is easier than other more sysadmin friendly distros. I say this knowing how many curse words I've uttered over the years when I had to chase down a parameter, syntax or typo in a config file (HaHa). With that said, I do remember the sense of achievement when I was successful, which is something you don't necessarily get with many other distros. I think it also has a lot to do with what you are doing with the OS and a desire to keep your skills honed and the pride with being able to navigate the internals. There is also a sense of loyalty to the community, which is also an awesome thing. Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts. Whatever you use, may it continue to fill your purpose and bring you joy! ---------------- Very Best Regards, Emery Rudolph, MS Director Division of Information Technology erudo...@umd.edu (301) 405-9379 On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 10:41 AM Judah Milgram <milg...@cgpp.com> wrote: > > > I seem to recall 60-plus floppies, but maybe that's because I installed > X and everything else. X on a 486 (60 MHz?) with 8MB RAM... those were > the days. It was still faster than the Sun 3/50 X-terminal they gave me > when I first got to UMD. > > Why Slackware? > 1) active user community > 2) we know it well > 3) simplicity itself > 4) it has everything, either in the distro or on slackbuilds.org > 5) if it's missing anything, roll your own slackbuild and contribute > 6) everything is built and installed from the sources - no patched > nothin' if it can be helped. > 7) it really is an easy install > 8) we hate and fear systemd > 9) easy package management with slackpkg. Perhaps less automated but we > like it that way. > 10) nostalgia - UMLUG itself originated with a group order for Slack 1.2 > CDROMs. (Kernel 1.1.59, I think :) > > I have looked at other distros but none seemed appealing enough to > warrant switching. Others might ... it's a matter of taste. > > > On 2/28/22 8:36 AM, Emery Rudolph wrote: > > Yep, I had that same large stack of floppies and it was such an > > accomplishment to finally arrive at a system that had all of the > > components you needed, because so much had to be done from the command > > line and understanding how to dig into the internals of Linux to get > > everything to compile correctly. Those experiences made us very strong > > OS folks, but today everything is so much easier. I haven't had to > > compile a kernel for a very long time and my system runs like a top. I > > prefer Debian based systems and have been using Linux Mint since it came > > out. I tried Redhat and Fedora for a while, but once they were acquired > > by Oracle, I knew it was not going to end well for personal users. > > > > Like everything else, Mint have their glitches, but I have been very > > pleased with it thus far :-) > > > > ---------------- > > Very Best Regards, > > > > Emery Rudolph, MS > > > > Director > > > > Division of Information Technology > > > > > > > > erudo...@umd.edu <mailto:erudo...@umd.edu> > > > > (301) 405-9379 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 8:28 AM Peter Teuben <teu...@umd.edu > > <mailto:teu...@umd.edu>> wrote: > > > > I think you have to be nostalgic perhaps. I did indeed learn linux > > on a 15 floppy install from slackware in 94, but I've gone to redhat > > for a while, and now quite a while I've been using kubuntu. All the > > different distro's have good and bad sides. It's funny again that a > > 15 floppy install on an i486 takes not a lot longer than a USB key > > install on a modern i9. > > > > On 2/28/22 08:22, Emery Rudolph wrote: > >> Good morning, > >> > >> For those who are using Slackware, just wondering if you've > >> considered using other distros? I learned Linux on Slackware in > >> the early-mid 90's and grew quite adept at compiling and > >> troubleshooting the OS, but as distros matured, including package > >> management, I left it behind. Every distro has features that make > >> them attractive to specific use cases, thus I am not throwing > >> shade on anyone for using anything that appeals to them, but > >> rather, I am interested in what features make Slackware an > >> attractive distro in 2022. > >> > >> ---------------- > >> Very Best Regards, > >> > >> Emery Rudolph, MS > >> > >> Director > >> > >> Division of Information Technology > >> > >> > >> > >> erudo...@umd.edu <mailto:erudo...@umd.edu> > >> > >> (301) 405-9379 > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 9:43 PM Ben Stern > >> <bst...@electromagnetic.net <mailto:bst...@electromagnetic.net>> > >> wrote: > >> > >> On Mon, Feb 07, 2022 at 10:23:24AM -0500, Judah Milgram wrote: > >> > If anyone (who cares) didn't notice, Slackware 15.0 came out > >> last week. > >> > >> At 22:22:22 on 2/2/22. :-) > >> > >> I switched to 15.0 from current and I miss the giddy pace of > >> daily updates. > >> Current has immediately started breaking things, as promised > >> by its nature, > >> and I'm happy with 15.0 but it's an adjustment. :-) > >> > >> Now waiting for SBo to move to 15.0 so I can upgrade all of my > >> SBo packages > >> trivially. > >> > >> > If this isn't an occasion for an UMGLUG I don't know what > >> is. Virtual I > >> > suppose. > >> > >> A virtual UMGLUG has not been tried. I am eager to try one. > >> > >> Ben > >> -- > >> Ben Stern > >> This space intentionally left blank. > >> > >> You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM > >> Linux User's Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like > >> to unsubscribe from this list, simply send an email to > >> lists...@listserv.umd.edu <mailto:lists...@listserv.umd.edu> > >> with the message signoff UM-LINUX in the body. > >> > >> You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM Linux > >> User's Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like to > >> unsubscribe from this list, simply send an email to > >> lists...@listserv.umd.edu <mailto:lists...@listserv.umd.edu> with > >> the message signoff UM-LINUX in the body. > > > > You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM Linux > > User's Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe > > from this list, simply send an email to lists...@listserv.umd.edu with > > the message signoff UM-LINUX in the body. > > -- > Judah Milgram > milg...@cgpp.com > 301-257-7069 > You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM Linux User's Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe from this list, simply send an email to lists...@listserv.umd.edu with the message signoff UM-LINUX in the body.
