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Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days"

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On Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:53:27 +0000, Joseph Rosevear wrote:
> OK, I talked to Grok.  He advised that I shouldn't call my project
> "ZombieSlack" due to trademark issues.

> This is new territory for me.  Any comments?

I think that the best source of information for this kind of questions is 
the file COPYRIGHT.TXT included on Slackware installation media and at 
http://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware64-15.0/COPYRIGHT.TXT

A snippet of that file says:

-8<------------------------------------------------
Slackware is a registered trademark of Patrick Volkerding and Slackware 
Linux, Inc.
Permission to use the Slackware trademark to refer to the Slackware 
distribution
of Linux is hereby granted if the following conditions are met:

1.  In order to be called "Slackware", the distribution may not be altered
    from the way it appears on the central FTP site (ftp.slackware.com).  
This
    is to protect the integrity, reliability, and reputation of the 
Slackware
    distribution.  (Note that moving entire directories like "source" or
    "contrib" to a second CD-ROM is allowable, but leaving them out and 
    distributing a single source-free disc is *not*, as indicated below)
    Anyone wishing to distribute an altered version must have the changes
    approved by volkerdi@slackware.com (i.e. certified to be reasonably
    bug-free).  If the changed distribution meets the required standards 
for
    quality, then written permission to use the Slackware trademark may be
    provided.

2.  All related source code must be included.  (This is also required by 
the
    GNU General Public License, and other licenses)

3.  Except by written permission from Slackware Linux, Inc., the Slackware
    trademark may not be used as (or as part of) a product name, company
    name, or registered domain name.

4.  Any approved use of "Slackware" must be followed by a circle-R, and 
must
    acknowledge our ownership of the mark.

Note that you can still redistribute a distribution that doesn't meet 
these
criteria, you just can't call it "Slackware".  Personally, I hate 
restricting
things in any way, but these restrictions are not designed to make life
difficult for anyone.  I just want to make sure that bugs are not added to
commercial redistributions of Slackware.  They have been in the past, and
the resulting requests for help have flooded my mailbox!  I'm just trying 
to
make sure that I have some recourse when something like that happens.

Any questions about this policy should be directed to:
    Patrick Volkerding <volkerdi@slackware.com>
-8<------------------------------------------------

To me it seems that it would be OK to call your customized Slackware 
"ZombieSlack", but just to make sure, you might want to check with 
Patrick himself.

During the years, there have been many official and unofficial forks of 
Slackware. I can't say for sure which of those have gotten their blessing 
from Patrick, but examples of forks with names slightly resembling 
Slackware are:

Slackel
ARMedslack
Slackintosh
Slack 390 (I think this one was an official fork)
Minislack (later renamed to Zenwalk)

regards Henrik

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It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Eric Pozharski <apple.universe@posteo.net> - 2026-02-22 15:34 +0000
  Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2026-02-23 06:34 +0000
  Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2026-02-23 10:54 -0500
    Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Popping Mad <rainbow@colition.gov> - 2026-02-26 09:59 -0500
      Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Mike Small <smallm@panix.com> - 2026-03-05 09:22 -0500
  Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Joseph Rosevear <Mail@JoesLife.org> - 2026-02-23 20:46 +0000
    Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Joseph Rosevear <Mail@JoesLife.org> - 2026-02-26 18:53 +0000
      Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2026-02-27 06:21 +0000
    Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (MummyChunk) - 2026-02-26 14:00 -0500
      Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Joseph Rosevear <Mail@JoesLife.org> - 2026-02-26 19:56 +0000
        Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (MummyChunk) - 2026-02-26 20:03 -0500
          Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Joseph Rosevear <Mail@JoesLife.org> - 2026-04-22 20:13 +0000
      Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2026-02-27 15:47 -0500
        Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" mummycullen@gmail-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (MummyChunk) - 2026-03-05 11:27 -0500
  Re: It's official, slashdot enters phase of "slow days" Eric Pozharski <apple.universe@posteo.net> - 2026-02-26 13:50 +0000

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