Slackware is a Linux distribution created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993.
This first Slackware release, version 1.00, was distributed on July 17, 1993, at 00:16:36 (UTC), and was supplied as twenty-four 3½" floppy disk images.
Soon afterwards, Walnut Creek CDROM offered additional archive space on their FTP servers. ===Development=== The size of Slackware quickly increased with the addition of included software, and by version 2.1, released October 1994, it had more than tripled to comprise seventy-three 1.44M floppy disk images. In 1999, Slackware saw its version jump from 4 to 7.
Release activity peaked in 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1999, with three releases each year.
The port was released in August 2016 in "current" form. Slackintosh is a port of Slackware Linux for the Macintosh New World ROM PowerPC architecture, used by Apple's Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, and Xserve lines from 1994 until 2006.
Release activity peaked in 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1999, with three releases each year.
Release activity peaked in 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1999, with three releases each year.
Soon afterwards, Walnut Creek CDROM offered additional archive space on their FTP servers. ===Development=== The size of Slackware quickly increased with the addition of included software, and by version 2.1, released October 1994, it had more than tripled to comprise seventy-three 1.44M floppy disk images. In 1999, Slackware saw its version jump from 4 to 7.
Release activity peaked in 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1999, with three releases each year.
Starting with version 7.1 (June 22, 2000) the release progression became more stable and typically occurred once per year.
The oldest release, version 8.1, was released on June 18, 2002 and had over 10 years of support before reaching EOL.
Interest appears to have peaked in 2002, when Slackware's rank reached 7th.
After that point, the only years with two releases were 2003, 2005 and 2008.
He chose 7, estimating that most other distributions would soon be at this release number. In April 2004, Patrick Volkerding added X.Org Server packages into the testing/ directory of -current as a replacement for the XFree86 packages currently being used, with a request for comments on what the future of the X Window System in Slackware should be.
Slackware 10.0 was the first release with X.Org Server. In March 2005, Patrick Volkerding announced the removal of the GNOME desktop environment in the development ChangeLog.
After that point, the only years with two releases were 2003, 2005 and 2008.
The port was released in August 2016 in "current" form. Slackintosh is a port of Slackware Linux for the Macintosh New World ROM PowerPC architecture, used by Apple's Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, and Xserve lines from 1994 until 2006.
Hameleers started the 64-bit port as a diversion from the pain of recovering from surgery in September 2008.
Volkerding tested the port in December 2008, and was impressed when he saw speed increases between 20 and 40 percent for some benchmarks compared to the 32-bit version.
After that point, the only years with two releases were 2003, 2005 and 2008.
The latest version of Slackintosh is 12.1, published 2008-06-07.
The removal was deemed significant by some in the Linux community due to the prevalence of GNOME in many distributions. In May 2009, Patrick Volkerding announced the public (development) release of an official x86_64 variant, called Slackware64, maintained in parallel with the IA-32 distribution.
Eric Hameleers gives an insight into the core team with his essay on the "History of Slackware Development", written on October 3–4, 2009 (shortly after the release of version 13.0). ==Packages== ===Management=== Slackware's package management system, collectively known as pkgtools, can administer (), install (), upgrade (), and remove () packages from local sources.
However, the S/390 port is still at version 10.0 for the stable version and 11.0 for the testing/developmental version, and has had no updates since 2009.
It had gradually slipped from the top 10 by 2010, and appears to have stabilized around its current rank in 2015.
However, on June 14, 2012, notices appeared in the changelogs for versions 8.1, 9.0, 9.1, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 11.0, and 12.0 stating that, effective August 1, 2012, security patches would no longer be provided for these versions.
Slackware64 saw its first stable release with version 13.0. Between the November 2013 release of 14.1 and June 2016, Slackware saw a 31-month gap between releases, marking the longest span in release history.
However, since the release of Slackware 14.1 in 2013, new releases have slowed down drastically.
Later, on August 30, 2013, announcements were made on the changelogs of 12.1 and 12.2 stating their EOL on December 9, 2013.
It eventually added dependency resolution and roll-back functionality; however, as of May 2014, there are no active developers. NetBSD's pkgsrc provides support for Slackware, among other Unix-like operating systems.
From its inception until 2014, Slackware had at least one release per year.
However, on April 21, 2015, Patrick Volkerding apologized on the ChangeLog for the absence of updates and stated that the development team used the time to get "some good work done." There were over 700 program changes listed on that ChangeLog entry, including many major library upgrades.
It had gradually slipped from the top 10 by 2010, and appears to have stabilized around its current rank in 2015.
The community responded and as of October 2016, there are several active GNOME projects for Slackware.
Slackware64 saw its first stable release with version 13.0. Between the November 2013 release of 14.1 and June 2016, Slackware saw a 31-month gap between releases, marking the longest span in release history.
In January 2016, Volkerding announced the reluctant addition of PulseAudio, primarily due to BlueZ dropping direct ALSA support in v5.x.
Knowing some users would not be happy with the change, he stated that "Bug reports, complaints, and threats can go to me." These changes culminated in the release of Slackware 14.2 in June 2016. ==Design philosophy== The design philosophy of Slackware is oriented toward simplicity, software purity, and a core design that emphasizes lack of change to upstream sources.
There was a more than 2-year gap between 14.1 and 14.2 and the next release, 15.0 has been in active development since 2016.
A beta for Slackware 15.0 was announced by Volkerding in April 2021, almost 5 years after 14.2 was released. Slackware's latest 32bit x86 and 64bit x86_64 stable releases are at version 14.2 (released on June 30, 2016), which include support for Linux 4.4.14. Volkerding also maintains a testing/developmental version of Slackware called "-current" that can be used for a more bleeding edge configuration.
Also, on May 7, 2016, the developer of Slackware ARM announced 14.1 will be EOL on September 1, 2016 and development of -current will cease with the release of 14.2, however support for 14.2 will be maintained for the foreseeable future.
The EOL announcement for 14.1 was added to the changelog on June 25, 2016. In July 2016, the developer of Slackware ARM announced that the development and build tools had been enhanced to reduce the manual effort involved in maintaining the ARM port, and proceeded to announce that a 32-bit hardware floating port was in development.
The port was released in August 2016 in "current" form. Slackintosh is a port of Slackware Linux for the Macintosh New World ROM PowerPC architecture, used by Apple's Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, and Xserve lines from 1994 until 2006.
On April 6, 2018, versions of 13.0, 13.1 and 13.37 were declared reaching their EOL on July 5, 2018.
Slackware ARM can also be installed on a PC running QEMU using the same technique. ==Use== As of 2019, DistroWatch ranks Slackware at 29th.
A beta for Slackware 15.0 was announced by Volkerding in April 2021, almost 5 years after 14.2 was released. Slackware's latest 32bit x86 and 64bit x86_64 stable releases are at version 14.2 (released on June 30, 2016), which include support for Linux 4.4.14. Volkerding also maintains a testing/developmental version of Slackware called "-current" that can be used for a more bleeding edge configuration.
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