r1w1s1

Slackware Core Team member.
Long-time Slackware user.
Interested in classic Unix tools, editors, and X11 WMs.

Public Key

npub1h4xcdfyq02gr0zs058eqya09t88vyz3yqqdt8vwf0vsz2ur244zs3zd0n9

NIP-05 Address

r1w1s1@snac-bsd-cafe.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqst6nvx5jq84yph3g86ruszwhj4nnkzpgjqqx4nk8yhkgp9wp4263gpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ekk7um5wgh8qatzfhvgcw

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1h4xcdfyq02gr0zs058eqya09t88vyz3yqqdt8vwf0vsz2ur244zs3zd0n9

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Last Notes

2026-10-22 16:08:16 UTC

Thursday Thoughts
There's a difference between simply using an operating system and truly understanding it.
Slackware encourages you to take that extra step.
Its simplicity isn't about hiding complexity behind layers of abstraction. It's about giving you the freedom to explore, understand, and control your system.
That's one of the reasons I've stayed with Slackware for over 20 years.
#Slackware #Linux #Unix

2026-10-20 17:03:06 UTC

eh v1.9.1 continues to improve, with smoother screen updates, better support for older NetBSD systems,
and an experimental optional colour feature for brackets and operators.
To try it:
```
make clean && make DBG='-DNDEBUG -DCOLOUR'
Press ```Ctrl+]``` to toggle the colours.
Feedback is welcome: useful, harmless, or distracting? I’ll collect the responses and add them to issue #44:
https://codeberg.org/SirWumpus/eh/issues/44
Please reply here with your experience if you try it.
#eh #slackware #netbsd #editor

2026-10-20 15:11:43 UTC

Happy Birthday, Patrick Volkerding! 🎂
Thank you for more than three decades of dedication to Slackware Linux and for keeping the Unix philosophy alive.
Long live Slackware! 🐧
#slackware

2026-10-19 17:08:28 UTC

Ref: https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/p/1792169684.313225
A nice update: Patrick has added the updated README_BTRFS.TXT to the official Slackware-current tree.
Worth checking out!
https://mirrors.kernel.org/slackware/slackware64-current/README_BTRFS.TXT
#slackware

2026-10-19 02:56:40 UTC

Another sign that Slackware 16.0 is getting closer! :)
Patrick updated UPGRADE.TXT on October 8 with instructions for upgrading from Slackware 15.0 to 16.0.
https://mirrors.kernel.org/slackware/slackware64-current/UPGRADE.TXT
#slackware

2026-10-16 18:44:05 UTC

CWM’s cwmrc(5) manual documents menu-cmd and menu-exec, but only briefly.
These two features can replace dmenu in a minimal X11 workflow:
menu-cmd searches configured commands.
menu-exec runs a program directly.
I documented both with practical examples:
https://codeberg.org/r1w1s1/cwm-config/src/branch/master/cwm-quickref.md

2026-10-16 16:54:44 UTC

Slackware + Btrfs subvolumes.
I wrote a short guide for installing Slackware64-current with @ and @home
using the standard installer.
https://codeberg.org/r1w1s1/code-notes/raw/branch/master/notes/README_BTRFS.TXT
#slackware #btrfs

2026-10-12 18:13:19 UTC

Linus Torvalds used AI to make complex Linux kernel code more readable and uncover bugs dating back to 2013.
Meanwhile, some open source communities are actively avoiding AI-assisted development.
I find this contrast interesting.
Should we judge software by its quality, security, and maintainability, or by the tools developers use?
Curious to hear your thoughts.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linus-Torvalds-Assoc-Array

2026-10-01 22:05:30 UTC

Blade Runner (1982) is one of my favorite films, and Rachael is one of my favorite characters.
I like her so much that my ThinkPad’s hostname is RachaelTyrell. :)
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-c998cc693e34176680ab031d34e29f99.jpg

2026-09-29 17:46:14 UTC

From a Teletype printing ls -l on paper to xterm displaying it on a screen.
Decades later, the UNIX terminal abstraction is still here.
Great read: https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/teletype/

2026-09-26 16:05:09 UTC

If you're still interested in Motif, mwm, Xt, Xlib and the classic X11 world, this is worth a look:
https://motif-central.org/
Really nice to see this knowledge being collected and kept alive. :)
#motif #mwm #cde #emwm

2026-09-26 15:44:40 UTC

I’ve released slackfetch 1.2.0.
Recent changes in Slackware, including the introduction of /etc/default/rc.font for configuring the console font, motivated this update.
This release improves session detection and makes the output more accurate:
session: console tty2 (font: Ttyp0 OTB 14)
session: ssh pts/0
session: cwm (XLibre 1.25.2.2, font: Ttyp0 OTB 14)
session: kwin (Wayland)
The local console font is read from /etc/default/rc.font. SSH sessions are identified separately, without incorrectly reporting the
server’s console font as the client’s font.
The old wm: field has been replaced by the clearer session: field.
https://forge.slackware.nl/r1w1s1/slackfetch
#Slackware #linux #shell #slackfetch

2026-09-26 01:48:06 UTC

Two new font families landed in Slackware-current: UW ttyp0 and Spleen!
Both are also available in the installer, which now uses the updated rc.font for
automatic console font sizing. Spleen is the new default console font.
UW ttyp0 is my personal favorite. I use WET-Ttyp0Regular22x11 on my laptop’s console.
Thanks, Patrick!
https://people.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~uwe/misc/uw-ttyp0/
https://github.com/fcambus/spleen
#Slackware #Linux #Fonts

2026-09-25 02:44:09 UTC

A nice little improvement in Slackware-current: rc.font now supports automatic font sizing and configuration through /etc/default/rc.font.
I used it to set my Linux console to UW ttyp0, the same font family I enjoy in xterm:
FONT=WET-Ttyp0Regular22x11
Looks great on my laptop. Small details make a difference. 🙂
https://people.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~uwe/misc/uw-ttyp0/
#Slackware #Linux #Typography

2026-09-24 00:37:11 UTC

ThinkPad X220 (2011) running Slackware-current in 2026.
Linux console + tmux. Sometimes that's all you need. :)
#slackware #thinkpad
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-870d3f94c6678b79cb5886603f4e818e.jpeg

2026-09-22 19:35:23 UTC

Slackware-current is not simply a repository where every new upstream release gets pushed automatically.
There is curation and integration before changes land, with Patrick Volkerding playing a central role in that process.
I run -current on 3 physical machines + a VirtualBox VM I use professionally every day. It has been remarkably reliable.
Interesting discussion on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1w96px4/slackware_16_alpha_1_available_following_gcc_162/
#slackware

2026-09-06 03:22:43 UTC

eh 1.8.0 is out!
Improved UTF-8 editing, word motion and flipcase, arrow-key navigation in insert mode, new +/- and CTRL+L commands, better buffer growth, and expanded tests.
I’ve been an nvi user for years, but eh has become my primary editor. If you like small terminal editors, give it a try and share your feedback with the project!
Thanks to Anthony @sirwumpus for creating and maintaining eh.
https://codeberg.org/SirWumpus/eh
#eh #vi

2026-09-05 06:13:00 UTC

A huge Slackware-current update just landed: 1927 updates, including 1876 rebuilt packages.
The entire distribution was rebuilt with GCC 16.2.0, glibc 2.44 and binutils 2.47.
And after someone asked for an ALPHA label, Patrick replied:
"Fine, it's 16.0 alpha 1."
Time to upgrade.
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/latest-changelog-for-slackware-current-4175698890/page192.html#post6647863
#Slackware #Linux

2026-08-25 08:26:39 UTC

Happy 35th birthday Linux!

2026-08-24 18:57:49 UTC

Good engineering isn't about demonstrating intelligence through complexity.
The real skill is understanding a problem well enough to make the solution simpler. KISS.
Niklaus Wirth was writing about this over 30 years ago:
https://cr.yp.to/bib/1995/wirth.pdf
Looking at today's software, what projects do you think have become unnecessarily complex?
systemd comes to mind for me. What else?
#linux #kiss #unix

2026-08-23 15:32:59 UTC

Good Sunday reading:
https://lobste.rs/s/a23bk3/netbsd_my_life_2005
A great real-world story from 2005 about NetBSD, reliability, and how keeping infrastructure simple can make a real difference.
One story among thousands from that era, I imagine. It also makes me wonder how we ended up adding so much complexity to infrastructure over the last 15 years to solve many problems that aren't exactly new.
#bsd #netbsd

2026-08-23 03:45:46 UTC

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I use everyday on my personal machine and my VM(jump) devops/sre machine used to manage the clusters k8s and I use -current in all my 3 machines.

2026-08-22 22:05:36 UTC

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Nice! Thanks for the boost and for tagging @sirwumpus. I recognized your name in the ed 1.22.6 changelog, where your report about documenting the cut buffer is credited. Small world!
CC: @nprofile…qdfw

2026-08-22 21:53:23 UTC

I discovered the minimalist eh editor through this article about the vi family:
https://lpar.ath0.com/posts/2026/05/the-vi-family/
As an nvi user, I really like its focused design: small, fast, hackable, and with the right features.
It won the 2024 IOCCC:
https://www.ioccc.org/2024/howe/index.html
Project:
https://codeberg.org/SirWumpus/eh
#vi #nvi

2026-08-21 20:03:50 UTC

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That's one of the things I really like about Slackware. Under the hood, everything keeps moving forward, new kernels, toolchains, coreutils, libraries, KDE, X, and so on, but the installer and the overall way the system works still feel familiar.
You can come back after many years and immediately recognize it. Slackware evolves without constantly reinventing itself.

2026-08-21 18:52:27 UTC

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I went through something similar. With Vim, I realized I was spending a fair amount of time tweaking and adjusting my configuration for relatively little benefit.
The turning point for me was learning to live without syntax highlighting. Once I got used to that, moving to nvi felt natural, and there was really no going back.
These days I prefer having a small editor that I don't have to think about or constantly configure. I just open the file and edit it.

2026-08-19 16:38:44 UTC

Xorg/XLibre ServerFlags worth knowing:
Option "DontZap" "True" prevents Ctrl+Alt+Backspace from
terminating X.
Option "DontVTSwitch" "True" prevents switching to another virtual
terminal, but removes an important recovery path.
For most personal systems, DontZap alone is the balanced choice.
DontVTSwitch may make sense for kiosks or systems with stricter
physical-access requirements.
More details:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/r1w1s1/code-notes/refs/heads/master/notes/X11_ServerFlags.txt
#slackware #x11 #xlibre #xorg

2026-08-19 14:41:54 UTC

2026-08-18 14:01:31 UTC

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Thanks! Please do post it when you’re ready. I’d love to add more OpenBSD/cwm setups to the showcase :)

2026-08-18 03:09:31 UTC

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Nice cwm find. I’ve been putting together a small, curated CWM desktop showcase for interesting setups and ideas:
https://github.com/r1w1s1/cwm-config/blob/master/screenshots/README.md

2026-08-14 16:37:11 UTC

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yeah I'm using only this one now :)
CC: @nprofile…d7ls

2026-08-13 14:46:31 UTC

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Thanks for the tip! I enabled the Digit0Dotted variant in VARIANTS.dat and rebuilt the font.
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-deadff7877a01e548702957c353cab19.png

2026-08-13 05:27:33 UTC

Thanks to @nprofile…d7ls blog, I discovered UW ttyp0, a beautiful bitmap font for X11 and Unix consoles. I'm already using it with cwm, dmenu, xterm, and tabbed.
I'm also preparing a SlackBuild for SlackBuilds.org, hopefully available next week.
https://nein.triapul.cz/fonts
#slackware #font #uwttyp0 #slackfetch
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-529eac1e974320ff9bcf65c64b5dfed5.png

2026-08-12 16:25:41 UTC

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the blog feature is really nice! I really like the whole idea.

2026-08-09 15:18:55 UTC

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Always nice to see slackfetch running on another Slackware box! 😄 Thanks for using it!

2026-08-06 18:51:33 UTC

Finding out what a program is doing on Linux often means remembering several ps options and piping the result through grep.
With px, it can be as simple as:
./px -t cwm
PID USER %CPU VSZ RSS START ELAPSED CPUTIME COMMAND
15077 r1w1s1 0.0 64M 9.1M 10:16 5h33m 0:00 /usr/bin/cwm
The -t option displays threads as well, making it easy to see which one is using CPU and how long the process has been running.
px does not try to replace ps, top, or htop. It focuses on one common daily task: finding a process quickly and getting useful information without memorizing complex options or using grep.
px firefox
px -f "python app"
px 11690
px -t firefox
Small, direct, and very useful for everyday terminal work.
Project:
https://github.com/leahneukirchen/px
#ThursdayTips #Linux #Unix #CLI #OpenSource

2026-08-05 17:55:12 UTC

I've put together a dedicated page for SonicDE on Slackware.
It includes installation instructions, SlackBuilds, package status, and project documentation.
If you're interested in trying SonicDE on Slackware, have a look:
https://sonicde-slackware.github.io/
Feedback, testing, and contributions are always appreciated.
#slackware #sonicde

2026-08-03 02:38:29 UTC

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I'm on Slackware + cwm as well. It's a great combination if you enjoy simple, predictable Unix workflows. I use sxhkd, xterm, tmux, dmenu, and nvi around it.
My configuration is here if anyone is interested:
https://github.com/r1w1s1/cwm-config
CC: @nprofile…mp2a

2026-07-30 21:08:37 UTC

After a few months of work, slackfetch has reached a mature 1.0 release.
A minimal and readable system information utility for Slackware, inspired by ufetch.
The normal output and a cowsay -n composition are shown below.
https://forge.slackware.nl/r1w1s1/slackfetch
#Slackware #Linux #Unix
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-f0693cb167fe7dccba2fea9a530dfc77.png

2026-07-14 12:58:25 UTC

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That's awesome. 🙂 I'm currently working on bringing Sonic Desktop to Slackware. It's KDE-based, so I'm building on top of the existing KDE SlackBuilds and adapting them where needed.
CC: @nprofile…ckvg

2026-07-14 00:00:32 UTC

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Wow, that's a lot of unofficial packages. 😄
CC: @nprofile…ckvg

2026-07-13 02:40:31 UTC

Trying out NextSpace on Slackware -current with XLibre.
A modern implementation inspired by the classic NeXTSTEP desktop. It's interesting to see how its design and workflow still feel relevant decades later.
Definitely a fun project to explore.
#Slackware #NextSpace #XLibre #Unix #X11 #Slackware
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-b737fa1362afa1a46cb495af856d777b.png

2026-07-13 00:34:13 UTC

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looks good now :)
CC: @nprofile…ckvg @nprofile…ckvg
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-f62760113996bd6a532fc608a1457df9.png

2026-07-12 16:06:32 UTC

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:)
CC: @nprofile…33rz

2026-07-12 16:05:37 UTC

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I will try to implement today :)
CC: @nprofile…ckvg

2026-07-12 15:50:37 UTC

Before USB sticks, before cloud storage, there were floppy disks.
Which one was your first?
Mine was the 5.25-inch, and I still remember the sound of the drive reading it.
I'd also love to hear what machine you used it with.
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-34d8380c2140d206b0e6202b25ce03c1.jpg

2026-07-12 15:14:49 UTC

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That's an interesting suggestion. Before implementing it I'd like to get some feedback on the output format. Would something like this be useful?
pkgs: 1456 (99 SBo, 12 unofficial, 5 Flatpak)
The unofficial count would be a generic heuristic for packages that are neither Slackware official nor SBo. For example, packages from repositories such as alien, or locally built packages using custom tags like lsit, rlw`, etc.
CC: @nprofile…ckvg

2026-07-11 20:53:24 UTC

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nice!!!!!
CC: @nprofile…z6zj

2026-07-09 20:52:40 UTC

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nice!
CC: @nprofile…49yv

2026-07-09 18:08:22 UTC

In 2002 I earned my RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer).
Looking back, it feels like a different world.
Linux wasn't mainstream. Many people saw it as something only enthusiasts or "crazy Unix people" used. Windows dominated almost everywhere.
The RHCE exam was entirely hands-on. No multiple choice. You had to configure and fix real systems under time pressure.
I was fortunate that the company I worked for believed in me and paid for the exam. I only had to do one thing: pass.
More than 20 years later, I'm still working with Linux every day. The technologies have changed from physical servers to Kubernetes and cloud, but the foundation remains the same.
Looking at this certificate reminds me how far the Linux ecosystem has come.
#ThursdayThoughts #Linux #Unix #RedHat
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-2b4323b99a83ea0eb08b38974627c94b.png

2026-07-09 17:11:30 UTC

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Nice! That's exactly the idea. The WM can change, but the workflow stays the same. Thanks for sharing your experience!
CC: @nprofile…9xsd

2026-07-08 20:24:05 UTC

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Thanks! That was exactly the motivation behind publishing it. A small, opinionated starting point is often easier than building everything from scratch. Feel free to adapt whatever is useful.
CC: @nprofile…k4pv

2026-07-08 17:39:46 UTC

A few weeks ago I wrote about Window Manager Agnostic Workflows, the idea that your desktop workflow shouldn't be tied to a single window manager.
I finally published the CWM configuration I use on Slackware-current as a practical example of that approach.
The repository keeps CWM focused on window management, while sxhkd, small shell scripts, and shared .xinitrc components provide a portable desktop workflow that can be reused across different WMs.
Repository:
https://git.sr.ht/~r1w1s1/cwm-config
Background:
https://r1w1s1.srht.site/posts/window-manager-agnostic-workflows/
#OpenBSD #Slackware #Linux #X11 #cwm #Unix

2026-07-06 22:32:55 UTC

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I'm using snac on bsd.cafe every day. Thank you both for your great work!
CC: @nprofile…z6zj @nprofile…zmk4

2026-07-04 18:26:55 UTC

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it's ok now.
CC: @nprofile…6eqn

2026-07-04 15:02:23 UTC

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Thanks for letting me know. I'll contact the blog owner about it. When I made the post the SSL certificate was valid, so it looks like something changed since then.
CC: @nprofile…6eqn

2026-07-03 23:42:12 UTC

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Interesting. I haven't run into that, but my workflow is a bit different. I launch everything through a small dmenu script, then mostly switch between workspaces: browser on 1, terminal on 2, IRC on 3, usually with one maximized window per workspace. So I rarely use Alt+Tab, and that behaviour never really comes into play for me.
Out of curiosity, was that on OpenBSD or the Linux port?
CC: @nprofile…0049

2026-07-03 23:30:37 UTC

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Nice! I just built and tried it.
`
./repology --maintainer r1w1s1@fastmail.com
network/libressl 4.3.2 4.3.2
network/libtls 4.3.2 4.3.2
network/mblaze 1.4 1.4
network/mpop 1.4.21 1.4.22
network/msmtp 1.8.32 1.8.32
`
Thanks for the pointer!
CC: @nprofile…agnm

2026-07-03 23:18:40 UTC

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Thanks! I wasn't aware of repology-cli. I'll take a look.
CC: @nprofile…agnm

2026-07-03 19:24:22 UTC

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Haha, I didn't know about Pobol y Cwm. That's a good one. 😄
CC: @nprofile…6ewn

2026-07-03 19:16:32 UTC

A short but thoughtful post about cwm.
I particularly liked this sentence:
"cwm is the only one amongst the minimalist window managers that has managed to make me think the least."
Whether you agree or not, it's an interesting way to think about window managers—not in terms of features, but in terms of cognitive load.
Worth the two-minute read.
https://williamjansson.com/posts/cwm/
#cwm #OpenBSD #Unix #Linux

2026-07-02 02:21:40 UTC

Starting to use the Linux-ported version of OpenBSD cwm on Slackware as an alternative to my trusty dwm.
The interesting part is that almost nothing in my workflow changed.
I still use dmenu, tabbed + st + tmux, the same helper scripts, and the same keyboard habits. The only thing I currently miss is slstatus, which is tied to my dwm setup.
That was exactly the point of my Window Manager Agnostic Workflows article: when your launcher, scripts, and keyboard layer are independent from the window manager, switching between WMs becomes easy. The window manager changes, but the workflow remains.
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/Window_Manager_Agnostic_Workflows.txt
Small, simple tools age well.
#slackware #cwm
https://snac.bsd.cafe/r1w1s1/s/post-7a40a1f50fa258bfc1ab8d52fbc5f384.png

2026-06-28 16:59:17 UTC

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Good point, thanks for bringing up that use case.
I hadn't considered users who keep the same Slackware installation across hardware upgrades by migrating it with rsync. I changed the implementation to use the installation time of the aaa_base package instead of the root filesystem creation time, so the reported age now survives those migrations while keeping the implementation simple.
Thanks for the suggestion!
CC: @nprofile…ckvg

2026-06-27 14:35:31 UTC

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Thanks for testing it! I especially appreciate the Flatpak check, since I don't have Flatpak installed on my own system. It's great to see the package count working correctly on a real installation. Thanks for taking the time to try it out!
CC: @nprofile…33rz

2026-06-27 01:07:44 UTC

I've finally published slackfetch.
It's a minimal system information utility for Slackware, inspired by the philosophy of ufetch while providing a few extra details such as installation age, glibc version, and Flatpak package count.
The goal is to keep the code small, readable, and easy to hack.
Project:
https://forge.slackware.nl/r1w1s1/slackfetch
#Slackware #Linux #Unix #ShellScript

2026-06-17 00:48:53 UTC

Are you familiar with dwm's powerful tag feature?
THE TAGGING MODEL
Many desktop environments organize windows using rigid workspaces:
Workspace 1
Workspace 2
Workspace 3
A window belongs to a single workspace.
dwm uses a different model, treating workspaces as bitmask labels (tags).
This allows a single window instance to hold multiple tags simultaneously,
acting as a persistent visual anchor across different contexts:
Firefox -> Tag 1 (Web Browsing)
st (nvi/dev) -> Tag 2 (Code/Scripts)
st (Monitor/Logs) -> Tag 1 + Tag 2 (Persistent)
When you view Tag 1, you see your browser and the log monitor. When you
switch to Tag 2, the browser disappears, but the exact same log window
remains on screen, now sharing space with your text editor.
The application is never duplicated or restarted in memory.
The UI remains minimal while enabling workflows that are difficult to
express using traditional workspace-oriented desktops.
Two decades later, this tagging model remains one of the most
distinctive features of dwm.
#suckless #dwm #unix #linux #sysadmin

2026-06-10 20:02:04 UTC

Just read a great write-up by @nprofile…z3y6 on the 2002 OpenSSH trojan incident.
It's a fantastic look at early incident response, code auditing, and how OpenBSD handled one of the first major software supply-chain attacks.
Definitely worth a read:
http://miod.online.fr/software/openbsd/stories/trojan.html
#openbsd #openssh #security

2026-06-10 16:05:53 UTC

Someone in IRC asked when dwm would be rewritten in a memory-safe language.
I think we're only a few decades away:
"First rewrite Xlib, Xft, and all the Linux kernel dependencies." :)
#suckless #dwm #linux

2026-06-08 01:42:08 UTC

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Very nice. I was mostly looking at the history and line-editing features, but the completion support from the current file is something I hadn't explored yet. Thanks for the example.

2026-06-08 01:41:21 UTC

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Fair point. ed was the main program I had in mind. Some of the others may already have readline/libedit support depending on the platform and packaging.

2026-06-07 20:45:12 UTC

If you use ed, bc, dc, sqlite3, or other line-oriented tools, take a look at rlwrap.
```sh
rlwrap ed
Arrow keys, command history, Ctrl-R search, and readline editing for programs that never had those features.
One of those small Unix tools that's easy to overlook.
#unix #linux #ed #commandline

2026-06-07 14:41:57 UTC

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Nice work, Thomas.
I only recently discovered CoW and the container feature immediately caught my attention. It reminds me of pekwm's window grouping.
The FVWM/MWM-inspired design and tmux-style configuration approach are also very interesting. Looking forward to future updates.

2026-06-06 00:17:59 UTC

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I tend to think of LXC as the Linux equivalent of Jails/Zones. Docker and Podman solve a slightly different problem and are more application-focused.

2026-06-05 23:12:23 UTC

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This is one of Slackware's underrated strengths. Offline updates are refreshingly simple: copy the packages, run upgradepkg, and you're done. No local repositories, metadata sync, or dependency resolution required.

2026-06-03 21:30:34 UTC

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Slackware -current just added.
Sat May 30 20:45:46 UTC 2026
n/openrsync-20250126_a257c0f-x86_64-1.txz: Added.
#slackware
CC: @nprofile…s2rj

2026-06-03 21:13:50 UTC

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Bash has been refusing to get the memo for decades. It just keeps solving problems.

2026-06-03 19:49:31 UTC

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Nothing against Vim or Neovim. I just prefer the traditional UNIX approach: the shell is the environment and the editor edits text. nvi happens to fit that philosophy very well.

2026-05-30 00:16:47 UTC

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For books, I'd also recommend "Learning the vi Editor" (O'Reilly).
I made these notes some time ago:
http://www.slackware.com/~r1w1s1/nvi.html
And I also converted the old nvi FAQ to plain text:
https://git.sr.ht/~r1w1s1/code-notes/blob/main/notes/nvi-faq.txt

2026-05-29 01:27:31 UTC

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very nice!

2026-05-28 18:25:14 UTC

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Oh interesting, I'll check the post! And yeah, the nvi README actually credits Steve Kirkendall, Bostic started from elvis 1.8 to build a free vi for 4.4BSD. Funny that Slackware ended up replacing Elvis with what started as a fork of an early Elvis. Though they diverged a lot since — nvi added Berkeley DB backing for big files and went for bug-for-bug vi compatibility, while Elvis went the more featureful route.
CC: @nprofile…2zg0

2026-05-28 13:03:19 UTC

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You're right that Elvis is more featureful in some ways, but the main thing is UTF-8:
nvi handles it properly and Elvis doesn't really. For a default /usr/bin/vi on a modern system, that matters more than extra features. That's likely the main reason Slackware switched from Elvis to nvi.

2026-05-27 20:11:20 UTC

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To add Slackware to the list: nvi 1 (1.81.6) was added to -current on Mon Jan 13 00:11:55 UTC 2020, replacing Elvis as the default /usr/bin/vi provider. It shipped in stable with Slackware 15.0 (Feb 2022). It recently merged the Debian patchset, so Slackware and Debian now share most of the nvi 1 fixes.
One nice detail: when nvi was introduced, Elvis was rebuilt to drop its /usr/bin/vi and /usr/bin/ex symlinks, and nvi only provides those symlinks if no other editor already does.
I just added an "NVI ACROSS UNIX SYSTEMS" section to some notes I keep, if anyone's curious:
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/NVI_Editor_Guide.txt
#nvi #vi #slackware

2026-05-26 15:36:44 UTC

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yeah... now there is systemd-appd being proposed for Flatpak integration.
at this point I'm just waiting for:
systemd-kerneld
systemd-shell
systemd-everythingd 🙂

2026-05-26 15:35:48 UTC

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yeah, now they propose systemd-appd for Flatpak integration...
and later:
"we finally have systemd-kerneld" — systemd kernel add-ons inside Linux itself. 🙂

2026-05-26 04:39:18 UTC

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yeh fixed, I tried again Iosevka and works fine.

2026-05-24 14:26:46 UTC

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Yeah, that’s a good point. I mostly use and document the classic nvi version shipped by Slackware, but I should probably spend some more time comparing notes with the nvi2 manuals as well. Some of the expanded explanations there look really useful. Thanks for the links. 🙂

2026-05-23 02:46:46 UTC

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Nice list! I wrote some documents about Nvi, which I use on Slackware.

2026-05-22 19:31:38 UTC

I spent some time debugging a font rendering issue after recent fontconfig changes on Linux.
At first I thought fontconfig itself was "broken", but after testing multiple setups I realized the issue was mostly related to how Iosevka behaved with the newer font matching/rendering changes.
Issue/MR related to this:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/-/work_items/522
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/-/merge_requests/520
The funny part is that this ended up helping me discover a new font family:
IoskeleyMono (https://github.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono)
After testing it in:
stdwmFirefoxSenpai IRCGeanywebsites/forumsthe rendering and spacing ended up being MUCH better for my workflow, especially the "Term" variant.
Sometimes a small issue sends you in the right direction 🙂
Huge thanks to the developers working on fontconfig and font rendering. People usually only notice this work when something changes, but good typography and font matching matter a lot on a daily desktop system.
#x11 #fontconfig #fonts #slackware #ioskeleymono

2026-05-21 23:04:34 UTC

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nice! I used it first time professionally in 2016 🙂
by mx1 (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id cf267270;
Thu, 2 Jun 2016 12:21:35 -0300 (BRT)
``

2026-05-20 21:23:36 UTC

Added some follow-up observations to my notes about Transparent Huge Pages (THP) on modern desktop Linux systems.
After ~1 week using:
[always] madvise never
on Slackware-current with Firefox-heavy workloads:
- no swap usage
- no THP fallback allocations
- no compaction stalls
- stable desktop responsiveness
Modern kernels appear to handle THP significantly better than older Linux generations, especially on systems with enough RAM, zram, and NVMe storage.
Notes:
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/Transparent_Huge_Pages_on_Desktop_Linux.txt
#linux #slackware

2026-05-17 18:26:05 UTC

st vs xterm on Slackware -current, same font (Iosevka), bare shell, idle:
Code: st 5,500 lines / xterm 111,306 lines (20× larger)
RAM: st 28.3 MB RSS / xterm 22.0 MB RSS (xterm uses 22% less)
20× more code, 22% less memory.
Suckless optimizes for code size, not runtime size. Different things.
#suckless #xterm #linux #st #slackware

2026-05-16 00:58:33 UTC

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Well said. The composability aspect is really the key idea for me.
The individual tools can change over time, but the workflow itself keeps working.
Also, that “Unix as IDE” series is excellent.
CC: @nprofile…qu49

2026-05-15 22:05:14 UTC

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Exactly. The composability and automation aspect is what keeps pulling me back to the traditional UNIX environment.

2026-05-15 22:04:21 UTC

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Very similar to how I ended up working as well. The less “magic” inside the editor, the more predictable and composable the workflow becomes.

2026-05-15 21:41:56 UTC

The UNIX shell is still one of the best IDEs ever created.
grep/find/sed/awk/make/ssh/git/nvi often compose better than many modern “integrated” environments.
Small programs connected together still scale surprisingly well.
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/Unix_As_An_IDE.txt
#unix #linux #slackware #vi

2026-05-15 16:34:58 UTC

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bash is nice :)
CC: @nprofile…cruw

2026-05-09 02:40:25 UTC

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Fascinating firsthand perspective.
It's incredible how constrained systems were, yet many of the ideas survived decades.

2026-05-08 20:01:57 UTC

Reading an old UNIX Review article from September 1984 about
termcap. Fascinating how much modern terminal software still
inherits ideas from this era.
vi depended heavily on terminal capability databases to remain
portable across different hardware terminals. Bill Joy originally
wired vi only for Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminals, and termcap was
born from the flood of requests for support on other hardware.
"Termcap Unveiled" by Douglas R. Merritt, pages 42-48.
https://archive.org/details/Unix_Review_1984_Sep.pdf/page/n43/mode/2up
Also updated my nvi notes with a small historical section about
termcap/curses and terminal portability.
https://repo.or.cz/code-notes.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/notes/NVI_Editor_Guide.txt
#vi #unix #termcap #nvi #linux

2026-05-05 17:19:30 UTC

Spent the day exploring heirloom-ex-vi (n-t-roff). It's
essentially the cleaned-up 1985 ex/vi 3.7 code, brought
forward by Gunnar Ritter and Carsten Kunze: small, simple,
and very readable — about 25k LOC for the editor itself,
versus 38k for nvi. The memory footprint is lower too,
around 3MB RSS against nvi's 6MB in typical use, and it
feels snappy in daily use.
The limits are by design rather than oversight. Fixed
temp-file blocks and a line-pointer table capped at
LBLKS=900 in the default build give you about 230k lines,
or roughly 30MB of text. Beyond that, you get the classic
"Tmp file too large" — and that's fine, because a screen
editor isn't the right tool for huge files anyway.
Trade-offs worth knowing: no set ruler, single-level
undo, and a hard ceiling on file size. nvi is more
practical for daily work, especially if you live in YAML
where column awareness matters. But heirloom is closer to
the original, and the codebase is genuinely beautiful.
Worth a look.
#vi #unix #suckless #nvi

2026-04-29 19:31:50 UTC

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Thanks so much for the detailed comment, lots of great tips here!
The mv -T --exchange pattern for atomic GC is really elegant, I hadn't thought of using hardlinks that way. And the TCP slow-start trick with split + parallel downloads is wild :)
Just one quick clarification: the blog isn't mine, I just shared the link because I enjoyed the article. The author is Dave (ratfactor.com), and he's on Mastodon at @nprofile…h709 If you have corrections or things you'd like to see added to the article itself, reaching out to him there would be the best way.
But please keep the comments coming here, I'm learning a lot from them!