What is Slackware ?
 
Slackware Linux is a complete 32-bit multitasking "UNIX-like" system.i It\'s currently based around the 2.4 Linux kernel series and the GNU C Library version 2.3.4 (libc6). It contains an easy to use installation program, extensive online documentation, and a menu-driven package system. A full installation gives you the X Window System, C/C++ development environments, Perl, networking utilities, a mail server, a news server, a web server, an ftp server, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, Netscape Communicator, plus many more programs. Slackware Linux can run on 486 systems all the way up to the latest x86 machines (but uses -mcpu=i686 optimization for best performance on i686-class machines like the P3, P4, and Duron/Athlon).
 
This Linux distribution takes a different approach than other popular distributions such as Red Hat, Debian, Gentoo, SuSE, and Mandrake Linux. It might best be described as "UNIX-like", given its policy of incorporating only stable applications, and the absence of distribution-specific GUI configuration tools found in other varieties of Linux. With focus paramount on simplicity and stability, Slackware has become one of the most popular, stable, and friendly Linux distributions available. Partisans have been known to say, "When you know Slackware, you know Linux... when you know Red Hat, all you know is Red Hat."
 
You can download the latest Slackware releases at http://alphageek.dyndns.org/linux/slackware-mirrors.shtml