The First Linux Distribution

[valan]

Please note that Slax and Slack(ware) aren't the same! Slax is a live cd based on Slack and is nowhere near as old.

The Slackware site contains a post to comp.os.linux announcing 1.0 by it's founder Patrick Volkerding on July 16, 1993 which says

The Slackware Linux distribution (v. 1.00) is now available ... This release is based largely on the SLS system, but has been enhanced and modified substantially.

Debian's web site says

Debian was begun in August 1993 by Ian Murdock, as a new distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU.

This would seem to make Slackware a month older than Debian. Though this is based on Slack's first release and the beginning of Debian, which did not have a release until June 17, 1996 according to Wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia's page on SLS Linux,

Softlanding Linux System (SLS) was an early Linux distribution, founded by Peter MacDonald in mid-1992. It was the first to offer a comprehensive Linux distribution containing more than the Linux Kernel and basic utilities, plus early GNU/Linux features such as the X Window System and TCP/IP.

SLS was probably the first distro which might be considered comparable to today's distros, though Wikipedia's page on Linux distrobutions says that MCC Interim Linux was released in February of 1992, which would make it older than SLS.

Now, according to the README for MCC,

When Linux version 0.10 first appeared in the autumn of 1991, it was released by Linus Torvalds as a pair of floppy disks, known as the "boot" and "root" disks. Linus himself released several utilities which did not fit on these disks. Eventually quite a number of contributions were available. Software distribution was rather chaotic, and you needed a lot of effort to collect a complete base system.

and

Very shortly after the first MCC Interim version of Linux appeared, other people released similar versions

So perhaps Linus himself created the first "distro", and it's possible that MCC was second, followed by others like TAMU, SLS, and one created by one known as H.J. Lu (who also maintains a very common binutils package as an alternative to GNU's). Some intricate googling may or may not dig up any more info, I looked into this awhile ago and could't find much more than this.

[the0r3tic]

debain beta was released in 1991, and red hat soon after in 1992 (prety sure maby 1993) as for slack... no idea

Wrong. Debian was first released in 1993.

i didnt say when it was released i said when the beta started, read before posting please...

First release, was 1993. If your statement was correct, it would make Debian the oldest surviving distro (beta or not beta), contradicting what slack fans have said for years. I am fully able to read. Please do not attempt to offend me just because I proved your statement wrong.

[a12ctic]

debain beta was released in 1991, and red hat soon after in 1992 (prety sure maby 1993) as for slack... no idea

Wrong. Debian was first released in 1993.

i didnt say when it was released i said when the beta started, read before posting please...

First release, was 1993. If your statement was correct, it would make Debian the oldest surviving distro (beta or not beta), contradicting what slack fans have said for years. I am fully able to read. Please do not attempt to offend me just because I proved your statement wrong.

:drown: sorry wrong info

[the0r3tic]

:drown: sorry wrong info

I think Debian is a great distro though, it's my favourite between it and slackware.

[a thing]

debain beta was released in 1991, and red hat soon after in 1992 (prety sure maby 1993) as for slack... no idea

RedHat started in 1995.

[the0r3tic]

debain beta was released in 1991, and red hat soon after in 1992 (prety sure maby 1993) as for slack... no idea

RedHat started in 1995.

Yeah, because their website went up in 96' so I thought it might of been that time.