Definition of slackware

A Linux distribution that was derived from the Softlanding Linux System (SLS) by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. As a part-time project, the name was intended to convey a lack of serious commitment, although Slackware became popular with advanced Linux users who wanted to learn more about the system. More than a dozen Linux distributions evolved from Slackware, including Slackintosh, a version for PowerPC-based Macs (prior to Intel-based Macs). 

A full instalation of Slackware includes (among other features):

• 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

Slackware's name is a reference to the concept of "slack" in the Church of the SubGenius, a largely Internet-based satirical pseudoreligion that had a cult following in the 1980s-90s. Within the Church, along with the common meaning of latitude, slack also implies personal space and freedom, independence, and the capacity for original thought. The developers of the Slackware operating system used the term to suggest that the project was, at least at its inception, a not-quite-serious spin-off project.