Slackware is one of the earliest distros, and I'm pretty sure, the oldest still in production. Earlier this year, Wind River bought up BSDi, Walnut Creek, and Slackware, apparently. Actually, they had no intention of developing Slackware and the maintainers have been let go. Slackware has been eclipsed in recent times by the likes of RedHat and Suse who have a larger and much more commercial client base. It's been a one-man band essentially, though in recent times there were four paid developers. It doesn't aim to have the bleeding edge in software, preferring lean-ness, stability and the KISS philosophy, and yet I don't think it's any less up-to-date than other distros. And I actually would recommend it to newbies. If you have to learn, you might as well have a good teacher. Since Patrick's announcement*, there's been a flood of offers of financial support. Like a lot of people, I bought two or three releases, then when it was practical to do so, downloaded and burned ISOs. But I think I'll shell out for 7.2 when it's released, I would guess in the next 2-3 weeks. I don't think it a good idea to support a distro for sentimental reasons; Slackware is my preferred distro because it's no frills, no fuss and I'm in control. * - http://www.slackware.com/forum/read.php?f=5&i=7887&t=7887 -------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------
