Slackware is a popular distribution of Linux maintained by Patrick
Volkerding.
It is easy to install and
fairly complete, and may be obtained both from the Internet as well
as on CD-ROM from a number of vendors (see Appendix B).
The Slackware distribution consists of a number of ``disk sets'', each one containing a particular type of software (for example, the d disk set contains development tools such as the gcc compiler, and the x disk set contains the X Window System software). You can elect to install whatever disk sets you like, and can install new ones later.
The version of Slackware described here is 2.0.0, of 25 June 1994. Installation of later versions of Slackware should be very similar to the information given here.