I still use it to this day.
Hail Patrick!
Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
121–128 of 128 posts
Re: Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Check out Mr. Fancy T1 line over here. I remember downloading Slackware floppy images over 28.8 dialup. Talk about pain. I recently stumbled on a dusty box of them whilst cleaning out the attic.
(Caution: Monty Python Reference) 28.8? I used to dream about 28.8, I had 14.4, and before that 2400baud. Do you remember the dreaded 'floppy disk is probably unreadable' sound during installation of any software on floppy?
I just heard it again as I read your comment, and it sent shivers down my spine.
Re: Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
#123That was my first exposure to Linux in 1995. I remember downloading 30-something floppy disks over a painfully slow T1. I deployed our company's sendmail email server a few months later, running on an old PC. In 2006 I switched to Linux as my daily driver and if I need windows these days, it runs as a VM.
A T1 was about ten times faster than a 3-1/2" floppy drive wasn't it? I never thought of a T1 as "slow" until I started downloading CD images for Linux distros. The first cable modem connections I had were so much faster for downloads.
I remember being a kid and hearing about T1 lines and being amazed at their speed and how the server for the game I played was running off one. I pictured it as some special commerical offering that was rare to have.
Funny learning how slow those are by today standards.
Re: Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
#124It was also my first serious Linux distro. I started using it around Slackware 9.0 (wow, it's twenty years already). It was the PERFECT distro for learning because it was simple (as in uncomplicated) yet workable. I learned a ton about bash scripting, kernel compiling etc. I remember I even "ported" Reiser4 filesystem into the Slackware installer (who remembers that FS today LOL). Slackware did not have ANY dependenc…
> Slackware did not have ANY dependency mechanism for packages, so often installing them was a lottery.
That's why i switched from Redhat 5.2 to Slackware and never looked back.
In redhat you had circular dependencies: libfoo requires package libbar and libbar requires package libfoo.
Solution: use rpm --force
Also an RPM package will refuse to install when a dependency was not found (when you compiled and install the library yourself).
Re: Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
#125I came across slackware when I was 10 years old on an Indian computer magazine cd, pcquest. I ran into a ton of issues installing sound cards, running X11 on a cyrix mediaGX card. And learned how to compile kernels, ask questions on mailing lists and debug C programs. Truly the start of my serious engineering career haha. Loved seeing how others have similar experiences and are all on hn. Small world.
oh man, i got mandrake (or maybe redhat?) from pcquest in like 1998 and what a ride that was. The monthly pcquest drop was always a monumental event to my 12yo self.
haha did we know each other?!
Re: Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
#126I came across slackware when I was 10 years old on an Indian computer magazine cd, pcquest. I ran into a ton of issues installing sound cards, running X11 on a cyrix mediaGX card. And learned how to compile kernels, ask questions on mailing lists and debug C programs. Truly the start of my serious engineering career haha. Loved seeing how others have similar experiences and are all on hn. Small world.
A small world indeed! I'm in the process of rebooting my engineering career and hoping forcing myself to use Slackware may help in a small way! Back in 2015, I worked with Pentium III -class Cyrix processors on a legacy but still supported and in-production embedded system released in the mid 2000s AFAIK. But I never came across a Cyrix-based consumer PC or laptop (growing up in Southern California). Were Cyrix proce…
yeah! a lot of compaq presario machines came with cyrix mediagx with embedded graphics cards.
Re: Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favorite Slackware memory was how the version I downloaded disksets of (on a 14.4k modem, yeah) had a broken bootloader. Not sure of the Slackware release, but it was kernel 1.2.8, before the ELF transition. Anyway, every time I reinstalled, the bootloader hung on `LI` because the config was just broken , and I had to remember how to fix it.. every time. So many hours recompiling kernels. My 4MB-equipped 486 took…
Kernel 1.0.9 was the first with ELF support, and I remember it quite well, because it is written on the CD from Slackware 2.0 ("now with ELF support").
Man. Talk about a terrible time for me to have installed :D
Re: Slackware Linux distribution turns 30 years old
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
My favorite Slackware memory was how the version I downloaded disksets of (on a 14.4k modem, yeah) had a broken bootloader. Not sure of the Slackware release, but it was kernel 1.2.8, before the ELF transition. Anyway, every time I reinstalled, the bootloader hung on `LI` because the config was just broken , and I had to remember how to fix it.. every time. So many hours recompiling kernels. My 4MB-equipped 486 took…
Great story and thanks for sharing! $400 is a lot for a RAM upgrade! Did that upgrade double your ram to 8MB or something greater perhaps?
I think I had 4 slots with 4x1MB so $400 would have been 4x4MB for 16MB. I made do for a few more years though, I didn't have anywhere near that much cash for "just" memory.
That 486/DX33 ended up being upgraded to a Cyrix 5x86/120 (?) and I think I went to 16MB at that point. Memory prices were cratering around this time (99?) so in the end I think that whole upgrade was cheaper than the 16MB would have been a few years earlier.