Editing Slackware (section)

==History==
===Birth===
[[File:Slackware 1.01 screenshot.png|thumb|Slackware 1.01]]
Slackware was originally derived from the [[Softlanding Linux System]] (SLS),<ref>[https://www.tech-insider.org/linux/research/1993/0711.html Want an SLS like .99pl11A system?]</ref> the most popular of the original Linux distributions and the first to offer a comprehensive software collection that comprised more than just the kernel and basic utilities,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lwn.net/Articles/91371/ |title=A Short History of Linux Distributions |website=Lwn.net |access-date=July 22, 2017 |archive-date=June 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623113052/https://lwn.net/Articles/91371/ |url-status=live }}</ref> including an [[X11]] graphical interface, [[TCP/IP]], [[UUCP]] networking, and [[GNU Emacs]].<ref name="StrobelElling1997">{{cite book|author1=Stefan Strobel|author2=Volker Elling|title=LINUX|url=https://archive.org/details/linuxuniverseins00stro|url-access=registration|access-date=August 4, 2013|date=January 1, 1997|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-387-94880-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/linuxuniverseins00stro/page/82 82]–83}}</ref>

Patrick Volkerding started with SLS after needing a [[Lisp (programming language)|LISP]] interpreter for a school project at the then named [[Minnesota State University Moorhead|Moorhead State University]] (MSU). He found [[CLISP]] was available for Linux and downloaded SLS to run it. A few weeks later, Volkerding was asked by his [[artificial intelligence]] professor at MSU to show him how to install Linux at home and on some of the computers at school. Volkerding had made notes describing fixes to issues he found after installing SLS and he and his professor went through and applied those changes to a new installation. However, this took almost as long as it took to just install SLS, so the professor asked if the install disks could be adjusted so the fixes could be applied during installation. This was the start of Slackware. Volkerding continued making improvements to SLS: fixing bugs, upgrading software, automatic installation of shared libraries and the kernel image, fixing file permissions, and more. In a short time, Volkerding had upgraded around half the packages beyond what SLS had available.

Volkerding had no intentions to provide his modified SLS version for the public. His friends at MSU urged him to put his SLS modifications onto an FTP server, but Volkerding assumed that "SLS would be putting out a new version that included these things soon enough", so he held off for a few weeks. During that time, many SLS users on the internet were asking SLS for a new release, so eventually Volkerding made a post titled "Anyone want an SLS-like 0.99pl11A system?", to which he received many positive responses. After a discussion with the local sysadmin at MSU, Volkerding obtained permission to upload Slackware to the university's [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] server.<ref name="interview" /> This first Slackware release, version 1.00, was distributed on July 17, 1993, at 00:16:36 (UTC),<ref name="comp.os.linux">{{cite newsgroup|author=Patrick J. Volkerding|title=ANNOUNCE: Slackware Linux 1.00|date=July 17, 1993|newsgroup=comp.os.linux|message-id=227gd4$jtq@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu|url=http://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/comp.os.linux/Jl_s4yKkvGk/8dZXz_tbJGoJ|access-date=December 5, 2014|archive-date=May 13, 2011|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20110513061457/https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/comp.os.linux/Jl_s4yKkvGk/8dZXz_tbJGoJ|url-status=live}}</ref> and was supplied as twenty-four 3½" [[floppy disk]] images.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slackware.com/announce/1.0.php |title=The Slackware Linux Project: Slackware Release Announcement |website=Slackware.com |date=July 16, 1993 |access-date=July 22, 2017 |archive-date=June 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120629152723/http://www.slackware.com/announce/1.0.php |url-status=live }}</ref><!-- NOTE: The release announcement posted on the Slackware Website was modified to show a "1993-07-16 17:21:20 PST" date, but the original date on the announcement was "17 Jul 1993 00:16:36 GMT" --> After the announcement was made, Volkerding watched as the flood of FTP connections continually crashed the server. Soon afterwards, [[Walnut Creek CDROM]] offered additional archive space on their FTP servers.<ref name="interview" />

===Development===
The size of Slackware quickly increased with the addition of included software, and by version 2.1, released October 1994, it had more than tripled to comprise seventy-three 1.44M floppy disk images.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-2.1/README.210|title=README.210 Slackware Release 2.1|website=Mirror.slackware.com|access-date=July 22, 2017}}</ref>

In 1999, Slackware saw its version jump from 4 to 7. Slackware version numbers were lagging behind other distributions, and this led many users to believe it was out of date even though the bundled software versions were similar. Volkerding made the decision to bump the version as a [[marketing]] effort to show that Slackware was as up-to-date as other Linux distributions, many of which had release numbers of 6 at the time. He chose 7, estimating that most other distributions would soon be at this release number.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=general#0 |title=The Slackware Linux Project: Frequently Asked Questions |website=Slackware.com |access-date=July 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070108012703/http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=general |archive-date=January 8, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In April 2004, Patrick Volkerding added [[X.Org Server]] packages into the testing/ directory of -current as a replacement for the [[XFree86]] packages currently being used, with a request for comments on what the future of the [[X Window System]] in Slackware should be. A month later, he switched from XFree86 to X.Org Server after stating that the opinions were more than 4 to 1 in favor of using the X.org release as the default version of X. He stated the decision was primarily a technical one, as XFree86 was proving to cause compatibility problems. Slackware 10.0 was the first release with X.Org Server.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-10.0/ChangeLog.txt |title=Changelog.txt |format=TXT |access-date=August 31, 2024 |archive-date=March 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318220313/http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-10.0/ChangeLog.txt |url-status=live }}</ref>

In March 2005, Patrick Volkerding announced the removal of the [[GNOME]] [[desktop environment]] in the development ChangeLog. He stated this had been under consideration for more than four years and that there were already projects that provided a more complete version of GNOME for Slackware than what Slackware itself provided. Volkerding stated future GNOME support would rely on the community.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-10.2/ChangeLog.txt |title=Changelog.txt |format=TXT |access-date=August 31, 2024 |archive-date=March 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318220408/http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-10.2/ChangeLog.txt |url-status=live }}</ref> The community responded and as of October 2016, there are several active GNOME projects for Slackware. These include [[Cinnamon (desktop environment)|Cinnamon]], Dlackware, [[Dropline GNOME]], [[MATE (software)|MATE]], and SlackMATE. The removal was deemed significant by some in the Linux community due to the prevalence of GNOME in many distributions.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tech.slashdot.org/story/05/03/28/009237/gnome-removed-from-slackware|title=Gnome Removed From Slackware - Slashdot|website=Tech.slashdot.org|date=March 27, 2005 |access-date=October 14, 2016|archive-date=October 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018225330/https://tech.slashdot.org/story/05/03/28/009237/gnome-removed-from-slackware|url-status=live}}</ref>

In May 2009, Patrick Volkerding announced the public (development) release of an official x86_64 variant, called Slackware64, maintained in parallel with the [[IA-32]] distribution.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware64-13.0/ChangeLog.txt |title=Changelog.txt |format=TXT |access-date=August 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221041854/https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware64-13.0/ChangeLog.txt |archive-date=December 21, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Slackware64 is a pure 64-bit distribution in that it does not support running or compiling 32-bit programs, however, it was designed as "multilib-ready". Eric Hameleers, one of the core Slackware team members, maintains a multilib repository that contains the necessary packages to convert Slackware64 to multilib to enable running of 32-bit software.<ref name="multilib">{{cite web|url=http://www.slackware.com/~alien/multilib/|title=Index of /~alien/multilib|website=Slackware.com|access-date=July 22, 2017|archive-date=July 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170720102144/http://www.slackware.com/~alien/multilib/|url-status=live}}</ref> Hameleers started the 64-bit port as a diversion from the pain of recovering from surgery in September 2008. Volkerding tested the port in December 2008, and was impressed when he saw speed increases between 20 and 40 percent for some benchmarks compared to the 32-bit version. To minimize the extra effort of maintaining both versions in parallel, Slackware's build scripts, called SlackBuilds, were slowly transitioned to supporting either architecture, allowing for one set of sources for both versions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7502/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100720001002/http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7502|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 20, 2010|title=Interview with Eric Hameleers: Why You Should Try Slackware|website=Linux Magazine}}</ref> Slackware64 saw its first stable release with version 13.0.

Between the November 2013 release of 14.1 and June 2016, Slackware saw a 31-month gap between releases, marking the longest span in release history. During this time the development branch went without updates for 47 days. However, on April 21, 2015, Patrick Volkerding apologized on the ChangeLog for the absence of updates and stated that the development team used the time to get "some good work done." There were over 700 program changes listed on that ChangeLog entry, including many major library upgrades. In January 2016, Volkerding announced the reluctant addition of [[PulseAudio]], primarily due to [[BlueZ]] dropping direct [[Advanced Linux Sound Architecture|ALSA]] support in v5.x. while various other projects were in turn dropping support for BlueZ v4.x. Knowing some users would not be happy with the change, he stated that "Bug reports, complaints, and threats can go to me." These changes culminated in the release of Slackware 14.2 in June 2016.<ref name="CL14.2">{{cite web |url=https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-14.2/ChangeLog.txt |format=TXT |title=This update contains security fixes and improvements. |website=Slackware.cs.utah.edu |access-date=July 22, 2017 |archive-date=February 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208004250/https://mirrors.slackware.com/slackware/slackware-14.2/ChangeLog.txt |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Historical documentation===

David Cantrell worked as a core member of the Slackware team between 1999-2001, and described that period on the Slackware ARM Vlog.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaqKpYQbVw8 | title=S03E39 - David Cantrell on Slackware Linux history - the late 90's, early 2000s | website=[[YouTube]] | date=April 5, 2024 }}</ref>
Patrick Volkerding provided further information about the time period in two interviews.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001041701420NWSL | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318002416/http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001041701420NWSL | archive-date=March 18, 2014 | title=Linux Today - Slackware Commercial Distribution Left in Doubt as Developers Are Laid off }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theage.com.au/technology/the-linux-distribution-thats-always-in-the-black-20021004-gdfp05.html | title=The Linux distribution that's always in the black | date=October 4, 2002 }}</ref>