[2024-feb-29] Sad news: Eric Layton aka Nocturnal Slacker aka vtel57 passed away on Feb 26th, shortly after hospitalization. He was one of our Wiki's most prominent admins. He will be missed.

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slackware:philosophy [2012/08/20 08:36 (UTC)] – [Distribution philosophy] vharishankarslackware:philosophy [2012/08/23 00:26 (UTC)] – [Distribution philosophy] - capitalization correction nocturnal.slacker
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-====== The Slackware way ======+====== The Slackware Way ======
  
  
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 The main highlights and features of Slackware and the philosophy behind the distribution can be summarized as below. The main highlights and features of Slackware and the philosophy behind the distribution can be summarized as below.
  
-===== Distribution philosophy =====+===== Distribution Philosophy =====
  
 Slackware is, Slackware is,
   * A distribution that can be installed entirely offline with the CD/DVD set.    * A distribution that can be installed entirely offline with the CD/DVD set. 
-  * A distribution which releases when stable and does not have a fixed schedule of releases. Every release of Slackware Linux is thoroughly tested by the Slackware team and the community. As a result, Slackware places high value on stability in preference to "newness" or "freshness" of software.+  * A distribution which releases when stable and does not have a fixed schedule of releases. Every release of Slackware Linux is thoroughly tested by the Slackware team and the community. Slackware places high value on stability in preference to "newness" or "freshness" of software.
   * A distribution where "simplicity" is preferred over "convenience." The lack of GUI helpers (common in many other commercial distributions) for system administration tasks is a case in point.    * A distribution where "simplicity" is preferred over "convenience." The lack of GUI helpers (common in many other commercial distributions) for system administration tasks is a case in point. 
   * A distribution where system configuration and administration is done through simple ncurses helper scripts or by by directly editing well-commented configuration files through a text editor.    * A distribution where system configuration and administration is done through simple ncurses helper scripts or by by directly editing well-commented configuration files through a text editor. 
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 ===== Community ===== ===== Community =====
  
-A few highlights of the Slackware Linux community may be mentioned. Even though technically a commercial distribution (the chief maintainer of Slackware, Patrick Volkerding sells the product on DVD to support himself and the project financially, though ISOs are available as free downloads), Slackware has a highly devoted, well knit and enthusiastic user community that is friendly and helpful to new users. The Slackware community generally emphasizes user empowerment by learning and understanding the system rather than blindly copying instructions, a trend common in commercial proprietary operating systems. As a result, quite a significant proportion of Slackware users are also developers to a lesser or greater degree and are skilled enough, at the least, to create and debug simple shell scripts.+A few highlights of the Slackware Linux community may be mentioned. Even though technically a commercial distribution (the chief maintainer of Slackware, Patrick Volkerding sells the product on CD/DVD to support himself and the project financially, though ISOs are available as free downloads), Slackware has a highly devoted, well knit and enthusiastic user community that is friendly and helpful to new users. The Slackware community generally emphasizes user empowerment by learning and understanding the system rather than blindly copying instructions, a trend common in commercial proprietary operating systems. As a result, quite a significant proportion of Slackware users are also developers to a lesser or greater degree and are skilled enough, at the least, to create and debug simple shell scripts.
  
 The availability of a large number of [[slackware:SlackBuild scripts|SlackBuilds]] or build scripts for making third-party software installation easier in Slackware is a case in point. A common enough complaint in Slackware is the tediousness involved in installing third party software by hunting down dependencies from different sources online, downloading and compiling the software manually. The issue has been largely addressed by the community of developers who have created SlackBuild scripts for many commonly used software that are not part of the official distribution. A popular and high quality repository of SlackBuilds can be found at http://www.slackbuilds.org. The availability of a large number of [[slackware:SlackBuild scripts|SlackBuilds]] or build scripts for making third-party software installation easier in Slackware is a case in point. A common enough complaint in Slackware is the tediousness involved in installing third party software by hunting down dependencies from different sources online, downloading and compiling the software manually. The issue has been largely addressed by the community of developers who have created SlackBuild scripts for many commonly used software that are not part of the official distribution. A popular and high quality repository of SlackBuilds can be found at http://www.slackbuilds.org.
 +
 +=====Sources=====
 +  * Originally written by  [[wiki:user:vharishankar|V.Harishankar]] for the SlackDocs Wiki Project

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