Softlanding Linux System (SLS) was one of the first

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

s. The first release was by Peter MacDonald in May 1992. Their slogan at the time was "Gentle touchdowns for DOS bailouts." SLS was the first release to offer a comprehensive

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

distribution containing more than the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

, GNU, and other basic utilities, including an implementation of the

X Window System The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X originated as part of Project Athena at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984. The X protocol has been at ...

History

SLS was the most popular Linux distribution at the time, but it was considered to be rather buggy by its users. It was soon superseded by

Slackware Slackware is a Linux distribution created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. Originally based on Softlanding Linux System (SLS), Slackware has been the basis for many other Linux distributions, most notably the first versions of SUSE Linux distr ...

(which started as a cleanup of SLS by Patrick Volkerding) and Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X, among others. Similarly, Ian Murdock's frustration with SLS led him to create the

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

project.

Series

The system consists of the following series which were installed via floppy disk: * a1-a4: The minimal base system * b1-b7: Base system extras (

man pages A man page (short for manual page) is a form of software documentation found on Unix and Unix-like operating systems. Topics covered include programs, system libraries, system calls, and sometimes local system details. The local host administ ...

Emacs Emacs (), originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor Macros"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, s ...

, etc.) * c1-c3: The compiler(s), gcc/ g++/p2c/ f2c * d1-d2: Documentation * s1: Source * t1-t3:

TeX Tex, TeX, TEX, may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname * Tex Earnhardt (1930–2020), U.S. businessman * Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer ...

document processing * x1-x10:

distribution, documentation and idraw

Version History

References

External links

SLS
at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

SLS version 1.02
at

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

SLS version 1.03
at ibiblio *https://archiveos.org/sls/ {{Linux-distro Discontinued Linux distributions 1992 software Linux distributions