The last time I looked at Slackware was nearly seven years ago; version 7.1 was thrown my way by a magazine and I was asked for a review. My usage of the distribution had ended early in 2000 when I moved to Debian after using Slackware 4.0 and then 7.0 for about a year.

After my positive experience of Debian it was time to move on and this time I chose Slackware 12 to try out. I didn't know anything about Slackware going into it and I certainly didn't know what I was getting myself into, "fools rush in" as they say. I certainly did. Slackware was an effort to say the least, I spent a couple of days with it. So, here's what happened on my Slackware adventure...

People sometimes ask which distribution to try if they want to learn how Linux works. Common answers are Gentoo, Arch, or Debian. However, I disagree. Each of these distros teach users their particular brand of Linux. There's only one truly pure Linux, and that is Slackware.

Well folks, it's that time to announce a new stable Slackware release again. So, without further ado, announcing Slackware version 12.1!

Slackware is one of the few distros still in existence from Linux’s early days, right along with Debian, SuSE, and Red Hat. Because of this decision to keep things as UNIX-like as possible, Slackware has a reputation for being somewhat difficult to install and confusing to use.

I’ve been a fan of Beryl for some time - using in on my Ubuntu, Debian Etch and Slackware distro machines. (see my article Desktop Time Wasters for images of my original Debian box with beryl.) I’ve always done this with source compiles on Slackware, and packages on Ubuntu and Debian.

Slackware Linux is still going strong. The Slackware Linux Project released Slackware 13.1 on May 24th.This is just a little by shy of the 17th anniversary of Slackware 1.0 and not quite a year after Slackware 13.0. Delve back into yesteryear with me; you're in for a treat.

We all know that Slackware means stability and security. But Slackware has never been a distribution for the weak and elderly. It has always been regarded as one of the more geeky and difficult distros, alongside Gentoo. Until now. Well, Gentoo got Sabayon and Slackware got Wolvix.

Slackware Linux is the oldest surviving Linux distribution, and still one of the most popular. Last week's release of version 12.0 is a milestone for the Slackware team, as it marks Slackware's first use of a default 2.6.x kernel.