Volkerding is a Church of the SubGenius affiliate/member. The use of the word slack in "Slackware" is an homage to J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. About the SubGenius influence on Slackware, Volkerding has stated: "I'll admit that it was SubGenius inspired. In fact, back in the 2.0 through 3.0 days we used to print a dobbshead on each CD."[12]
Volkerding is an avid homebrewer and beer lover.[11] Early versions of Slackware would entreat users to send him a bottle of local beer in appreciation for his work.
Volkerding was married in 2001 to Andrea and has a daughter Briah Cecilia Volkerding (b. 2005).[2][3][8]
Illness
In 2004, Volkerding announced via mailing list post that he was suffering from actinomycosis,[13] a serious illness requiring multiple rounds of antibiotics and with an uncertain prognosis. This announcement caused a number of tech news outlets to wonder about the future of the Slackware project.[14] As of 2012, both Volkerding and the Slackware project were reported to be in a healthy state again.[15]
Slackware Linux
Michael Johnston of Morse Telecommunications paid Volkerding $1 per copy sold. After that six-month contract, Robert Bruce of Walnut Creek CDROM began publishing Slackware as a CD-ROM set. Robert Bruce later became Volkerding's partner in Slackware Linux, Inc. with Volkerding owning a non-controlling, minority, 40% share.[16] Due to underpayment, Patrick Volkerding, "told them to take it down or I'd suspend the DNS for the Slackware store".[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
Volkerding, Patrick, and Reichard, Kevin, Linux System Commands, IDG Books/M&T Books, 2000, ISBN0-7645-4669-4
Volkerding, Patrick, Reichard, Kevin, and Foster-Johnson, Eric, Instalación y configuración de Linux, Temas profesionales. Madrid: Anaya Multimedia, 1999 ISBN84-415-0816-X
Volkerding, Patrick, Reichard, Kevin, and Foster-Johnson, Eric, LINUX Configuration and Installation, M&T Books, 1998, ISBN0-7645-7005-6
Volkerding, Patrick, and Reichard, Kevin, Linux in Plain English, MIS:Press, 1997, ISBN1-55828-542-3
^ abSlackware Updates, 2002-01-07, DistroWatch.com, ...This is the first update since the middle of December and here is the reason - Patrick Volkerding, the founder and currently the sole maintainer of the Slackware project was too busy getting married over the holiday season...
^ abDistroWatch Weekly, Issue 130, 12 December 2005, ...Patrick Volkerding...were greeted with a rather unusual entry last weekend. "It's a girl!" declared the title of a new post, the first one in over a month. It turned out...had just had his first child: "I know a lot of you have been wondering what's going on here, and the news is that my wife Andrea delivered our first child, a daughter Briah Cecilia."...
^ abPatrick Volkerding, 24th of July 2018, ArticleWorld, ...On December 10 2005, Patrick Volkerding announced that he has a daughter named Briah Cecilia...
^ ab"The Linux distribution that's always in the black". The Sydney Morning Herald. 4 October 2002. Archived from the original on 2018-11-24. Retrieved 20 July 2021. Slackware started in early 1993, but it wasn't until the middle of 1994 that I was contacted by Michael Johnston of Morse Telecommunications and asked if I was interested in having them publish Slackware commercially...Since then, Slackware has always made enough money through publishing arrangements to be my full time job. I didn't stay with Morse long because they were only giving me $US1 per copy sold. When the initial six-month agreement expired, I moved on to Walnut Creek CDROM since they were better established and were willing to give Slackware a fair share of the profits. Their founder, Robert Bruce, is my current partner in Slackware Linux, Inc.
^
jake. "Financial woes for Slackware's Patrick Volkerding". LWN.net. Retrieved 20 July 2021. Patrick Volkerding, who is the founder and benevolent dictator for life of the Slackware Linux distribution, posted a note at LinuxQuestions.org detailing some financial problems. It appears they mostly stem from a deal that he made with the Slackware Store that has gone badly awry....Note that there is at least one person out there soliciting Bitcoin who is not affiliated with Volkerding, in what looks like a scam of some sort; it is particularly sad because that is similar to what he alleges has happened with Slackware Store as well.
^ abc
Varghese, Sam (25 July 2018). "Slackware creator in strife, claims store has not paid him". iTWire. Retrieved 20 July 2021. Volkerding said he had discovered how bad things were in 2017 when he managed to get some numbers out of the people running the store. "I thought the sales were just that bad, and was really rather depressed about it. Another side note – the ownership of the 60% portion of the store changed hands behind my back. Nobody thought they needed to tell me about this. At that point I'd say things got considerably worse for me." The commercialisation of Slackware was initially undertaken with Michael Johnston of Morse Telecommunications in 1994. After that, Volkerding moved to a venture with the founder of Walnut Creek CDROM, Robert Bruce. Later, Volkerding teamed up with Bruce to set up a Slackware company. iTWire has written to the Slackware store, seeking comment on Volkerding's claims.