Just to mix it up a bit, here is something that has been getting on my nerves for a while now.. If you don’t know what linux is, you can skip the tour and go straight to the hospitality room because you won’t understand anyway..

I haven’t been using linux since “the beginning”, but I have been using it since about 1993 and, not surprisingly, the first linux distribution that I used was slackware.  In the long, strange trip that it has been since then, I’ve used other distributions, including a stint working in a redhat shop,  and I’ve tried nearly all of them, at least once, but I still want slackware.

Now, if you’re going to have less than 1000 servers, its foolish to do anything but rent dedicated servers, but when you do that, you are left at the mercy of the hosting company as to the linux distributions available. And my search for dedicated hosting that has slackware as an option is what has forced me to write this post.

Is linux dying? Or are all linux admins becoming windows wienies?  Or are the hosting companies so desperate for linux admins that they are unable to find anybody that can use linux without a mouse? I don’t know the answer, but I do know that, with the exception of the excellent linode service, hosting companies that offer slackware are rare, very rare.

I’ll admit that some might call me a windows wienie. I’m typing this in widows right now and I was once one of the top 10,000 (8819 to be exact) Microsoft Certified Professionals in the WORLD, so I’m more than qualified as a windows wienie and more than qualified to tell you that windows is SHIT. But broken windows makes for a nice salary.

But WTF is up with the lack of slackware? If I owned the the hosting company and I had a prospective employee that couldn’t do slackware, I would NOT hire them. And its not because I’m a slackware nazi, its because if they cant do slackware then they will be lost when yum/apt/rpm is broken and they cant fix the system. I’ve had too many 2am calls from crybabies that didn’t have a clue about what was going on under the hood to leave any doubt.

All that I do know is that its not good. Or maybe it is? Maybe I should get a job at a hosting company, or maybe have a service for hosting companies to take their crybaby calls at 2am.

On second thought.. I think I’ll pass…