I just realized I didn't post anything in 2021. I guess it was a non-eventful year, lol.
I noticed that Slackware 15.0 was released recently after only 5.5 years since the last release /s. I did like that they released it on exactly 02-02-2022 at 22:22:22 that takes some planning. The beauty about slackware and also the web page www.slackware.com is that it is almost unchanged from its beginnings back in 1991. Sure they have updated a ton of packages but the way you install and configure the OS and the package management is almost the same as its origins. How many other OS's or web sites for that matter have the same look and feel 30 years after they were created. Sure, some may say its a lack of adapting to the new ways of doing things while others argue why change something for change sake. For me, I love that nothing from a user perspective has changed, because why change perfection. I love how installing and using Slackware is like putting on an old shoe even though that old shoe has been polished with the latest kernel and other software.
Therefore I had no choice but to download the lastest .iso burn it to a usb stick and install Slackware 15.0. The install was flawless like all Slackware versions. Everything worked perfectly and in a matter of about an hour I had everything I needed installed and configured. I did need to download the source code for a few programs that Slackware doesn't include but they are mostly small and easy to compile programs. I love that Slackware by default drops you to a command prompt rather than some Display Manager. I prefer to use my own Window Manager that I add to the .xinitrc and run with startx. I also love that after all this time I can install the latest Nvidia drivers by downloading the latest from their website and using their install script which works perfectly on Slackware. After two weeks of using this release it is still running flawlessly. Slackware may be a bit more difficult to learn and install than say Ubuntu but once you are done with the initial install there is nothing to do. The updates to the release are only security updates that may happen maybe once a week and can be easily updated with slackpkg update, slackpkg install-new, and slackpkg upgrade-all. Other distributions are always changing and updating various programs that in many instances break something else.
In summary, Distrowatch https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20220214#slackware did a recent review of Slackware 15.0 where they mentioned that not many new users are flocking to it and most users are people that got started with it two decades ago or more. I think that is true and I fall into that category, however I feel that although it takes some patience to learn and appreciate Slackware the reward is well worth it. Thank you to Pat Volkerding, Alien Bob, Robby Workman, and the whole Slackware team for changing only what needs to be changed. Hoping that slackbuilds.org is updated soon for the 15.0 release! Congrats to Slackware for surviving 30 years!!!
