Many years ago I used Slackware Linux. I switched to Ubuntu because I was concerned that Slackware seemed to be essentially a one man show, and that seemed like a single point of failure. But Slackware was good to me, and I have not forgotten it. Recently Slackware came out with a new and up to date release and I am looking at it again.
The web site looks much like what I remember from 15-20 years ago. That is OK with me, although I would like to see some more current content. I decided to download the Slackware book in its pdf form. Firefox just hung when I went to that page. However, I noticed that it was an ftp site, not http. 20 years ago I was accustomed to accessing ftp sites using ftp tools, not web browsers. So I guessed that this was what once known as an anonymous ftp site, and that such sites could be accessed with the ftp command line. Feeling like Gandalf recalling a thousand year old spell, I opened a Linux terminal window and proceeded to type:
gmcdavid@Donegal:~$ ftp ftp.slackbook.org Connected to slackbook.org. 220 Welcome to harrier's public FTP Name (ftp.slackbook.org:gmcdavid): anonymous 331 Please specify the password. Password: 230 Login successful. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp> lcd Downloadsthe Slackware Documentation Projectged. ftp> die ?Invalid command ftp> dir 200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV. 150 Here comes the directory listing. -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 1863038 Jan 26 2019 slackbook-2.0.pdf -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 3223923 Jan 26 2019 slackbook-2.0.ps 226 Directory send OK. ftp> get slackbook-2.0.pdf gmcdavid@Donegal:~$ ftp ftp.slackbook.org Connected to slackbook.org. 220 Welcome to harrier's public FTP Name (ftp.slackbook.org:gmcdavid): anonymous 331 Please specify the password. Password: 230 Login successful. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp> lcd Downloads Local directory now /home/gmcdavid/Downloads ftp> cd slackbookthe Slackware Documentation Projectnsider using PASV. 150 Here comes the directory listing. -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 1863038 Jan 26 2019 slackbook-2.0.pdf -rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 3223923 Jan 26 2019 slackbook-2.0.ps 226 Directory send OK. ftp> get slackbook-2.0.pdf local: slackbook-2.0.pdf remote: slackbook-2.0.pdf 200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV. 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for slackbook-2.0.pdf (1863038 bytes). 226 Transfer complete. 1863038 bytes received in 1.99 secs (915.6511 kB/s) ftp> ^C ftp> ^C ftp> exit 421 Timeout.
It worked. I followed the ancient custom of logging in as “anonymous,” with my e-mail as the password. Back in the day this was a very common method for distributing files on the internet.
I should add that the book is not up to date, although there is probably not much actively wrong in it. There is a more recent version of it online and current documentation at the Slackware Documentation Project.
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