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Slackware 9.1RC 2 Out, Mandrake 9.2 Soon 267

Posted by timothy from the distro-news dept.
Colin writes "The founder of Slackware, Patrick Volkerding, released version 9.1 RC-2 of the upcoming Slackware. Good ol' Slack comes with new versions of packages while the addition of the Swaret tool adds dependency checking on Slackware for the first time! Here is an enthusiastic preview of Slackware 9.1 with plenty of screenshots." And pacc points out that Mandrake 9.2 will soon be ready, but only for Mandrake Club members at first. "But it will soon come to a mirror near you(TM). Though by choosing to distribute it with BitTorrent, do they effectively limit the downloads for a limited release?"
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Slackware 9.1RC 2 Out, Mandrake 9.2 Soon More

Slackware 9.1RC 2 Out, Mandrake 9.2 Soon

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  • No Fun. (Score:5, Funny)

    by tarquin_fim_bim ( 649994 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:43PM (#7050677)
    "adds dependency checking on Slackware for the first time!"

    Well that's going to take all the fun out of it, I'll have to change distros, it just wouldn't be the same if after 2 hours of compiling it doesn't bork. Hell, I'd even pay extra for that, dependency checking is for pussies, with too little time on their hands.

    • Re:No Fun. (Score:5, Informative)

      by BusterB ( 10791 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:01PM (#7050798)
      Swaret's dependency checking is actually pretty neat. For some dependencies, it is able to get a list of package relations from an external site maintained by the swaret project. For other dependencies, does something like an ldd on the binaries in a package to determine which libraries are missing. Sometimes, it can then deduce which packages need to be installed from this information. If not, at least you have some clue as to what is missing.

      As for building software on Slack, usually 'configure' catches any missing dependencies before compiling begins. One nice thing about Slackware is there are no '-dev' packages. Just install the compiler, and all of the necessary include files are already there from the other packages.

    • Re:No Fun. (Score:3, Informative)

      by narfbot ( 515956 )
      Nothing has really changed as Swaret is not required, or installed by default, or even in the standard package set. It's in extra. So have all the fun you want with 9.1.
      • Exactly. Slackware is still Slackware, and it will remain that way, as evidenced by Pat's entries in the Changelog for another similar package:

        extra/slackpkg-0.99/slackpkg-0.99-noarch-4.tgz: Added slackpkg, a simple tool for keeping a Slackware system up-to-date. Thanks to Piter Punk for quickly fixing a few last-minute bugs, and reminding me that I'd promised to add this. It's only fair, especially as I'm not a big believer in automated dependency handling. :-)
    • I'd have to agree with you. Having computers check the dependencies takes the humanity out of the computer experience.

      Your answer, my friend, is right under your nose. Either:

      a) Don't install Swaret.
      b) Donwload an earlier version of Slackware.

    • Christ mate, you're going to have to change your sig with your current track record. Last 4 comments, all +5 rated.

      Want to sign up to my OS project? [slashdot.org]

  • And I love things spelled with an "e" (Score:5, Funny)

    by nsample ( 261457 ) <nsample@sta n f o r d.edu> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:48PM (#7050701) Homepage
    From the review:
    Slackware is my new favorite operating system along with FreeBSD, Windows Server 2003 and Mac OS X.

    Um, what is there that this guy *doesn't* like? I guess he didn't mention Commodore Basic...

  • sound wasn't really Slack's fault, and others (Score:3, Informative)

    by motorsabbath ( 243336 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:53PM (#7050733) Homepage
    Alsa is a separate entity from Slack - if Alsa had issues with the sound card it wasn't Slack's fault. Also, the driver on the cheaper onboard sound rigs emulates full-duplex in software, right? At least sometimes? Setting up full duplex in software can probably be done but with quite a bit of work. The issues never exist on a card with onboard full-duplex support but one must still learn and use Alsa. The Slack/Alsa combo worked fine for basic sound support.

    As to the Slack install, it is what is is - easy and quick. Just like FreeBSD's - there's no reason to change it, it's fine.
    • I agree. At least the sound hardware was autodetected, which is a lot better than the old days. The new hotplug package works wonders on my laptop (except for the soft-modem), and my rc.modules file is completely empty. Even my orinoco card automatically grabs an IP address with no extra configuration.

      Arts, which is part of KDE, does a passable job of duplexing cards that lack mixing in hardware or in the driver. One can just run 'artsdsp xmms' with xmms running with the OSS driver, and the sound will auto
    • I think most of this type of activity is typically done with a sound daemon, isn't it? The sound daemon maintains absolute control of the sound device, and then it maintains responsibility for mixing the sounds in software, and sending it to the device. I could be wrong, though.

  • Don't get BitTorrent comment . . . (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Idou ( 572394 ) * on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:54PM (#7050747) Journal
    "Though by choosing to distribute it with BitTorrent, do they effectively limit the downloads for a limited release?"

    As opposed to NOT using BitTorrent and having all the bandwidth eaten up so that each person gets 4k/s ?

    Oh, I get it . . . you meant "Though by limiting the release, do they effectively make the BitTorrent method of distribution less effective?"

    Well, there are over 16,000 Mandrake members. Let's say only 10% decide to download at the same time (an obviously conservative figure), that is still 1,600 simultaneous downloads. Is that suboptimal for BitTorrent?

    Personally, I don't think Mandrake cares. The other way couldn't handle the traffic so they are using BitTorrent. If members get 150k/s instead 200k/s because of the limitted release, big deal. That is a small price to pay to get freeloaders involved in the actual realities behind creating a product they obviously value.
    • I don't get how they intend to limit the downloads to just Mandrake Club members. Its a lot easier to pass on a few hundred KB .torrent file than ISOs.
      • it says "Bittorrent technology" they could have co-opted the protocol, but changed bits and pieces of headers and tracker communication so only a 'mandrake-club' downloader will work with it..

        or they could just be using the honor system to ask their members not to hand out the .torrents
      • I don't get how they intend to limit the downloads to just Mandrake Club members. Its a lot easier to pass on a few hundred KB .torrent file than ISOs.

        I think this is only going to be for a couple days. It's like the 'secret' Mandrake mirrors that they give members an urpmi string to. There is nothing preventing a non-member from discovering one of them and using it, except Mandrake asks their club members not to publish the addresses. I'm sure the bittorrent thing will be like that too, they will publish

  • Version 10.2 to follow next week (Score:3, Insightful)

    by melted ( 227442 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:55PM (#7050748) Homepage
    Man when will they switch to numbering schemes even remotely resembling anything real? Come on, the version is based on kernel 2.4.x - name it version 2.4.x, that's it. Not 9.2 or 22.34!

  • Setup, where art thou? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by imag0 ( 605684 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:56PM (#7050756) Homepage
    Just installed the latest Slack on an extra drive the other day and was suprised that the venerable and much appreciated 'setup' was missing.

    I've used Slack off and on since the 0.96-pre-1 days and it was the first time since then that I noticed it was gone from the system.

    Here's hoping for a new, revamped (still curses!) 'setup' app in the near future.

    Thanks for years of great software, Patrick and company!

  • DAMN YOU MANDRAKE!!!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Lord Kano ( 13027 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:59PM (#7050779) Homepage Journal
    For always releasing such sweet, sweet distros!

    Like many of the other geeks here, my tastes are very peculiar. It takes me months to get my system customized just the way I want it. As soon as I do, Mandrake comes out with a new version of their distro with all kinds of creamy goodness that I just can't pass up.

    LK

  • Swaret Kicks! (Score:5, Informative)

    by big_groo ( 237634 ) <groovis AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @08:59PM (#7050783) Homepage
    I have this installed now...it *really* is simple.

    swaret --update
    swaret --upgrade

    Lots of options, you can even specify default 'yes' for all upgrades. Resolves dependencies too.

    • Wow. That doesn't sound at all like apt-get.

      Why don't they just manage Slackware packages with apt?

      • Re:Swaret Kicks! (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Why don't they just manage Slackware packages with apt?

        Cause if they did their system would be automatically out_of_date.
    • I agree! My main complaint about Slackware was that major upgrades were a PITA. With swaret, I upgraded from 9.0 to 9.1-rc2 so easily I almost thought I was using Debian.

  • Linux Mandrake 9.1 HOWTO and Documentation Guide (Score:3, Informative)

    by mandrakewilson ( 686178 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:01PM (#7050796) Homepage
    Just posting this link again to try to get through to new users. Time for M$ whores to take the plunge!

    A MANDRAKE HOWTO
    The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to LINUX Mandrake 9.1
    http://mandrakeuser.cjb.net [cjb.net]

    New web site up on how to set up mandrake 9.1 to ease the configuration pains of the new linux user. Written and catered for the moderate computer user. It covers how to get and install mandrake and add in most of the needed applications. Covers most of the major software included in the distribution, other freely available applications, newbie command line tutorial, how to handle some common and annoying bugs peculiar to each application.

    PART I [cjb.net]
    1. Introduction
    2. Indispensable Tools for the Linux User
    3. Useful links

    PART II - Mandrake Installation [cjb.net]
    1. Getting Mandrake 9.1
    2. Installing Mandrake 9.1
    3. Going through the install sequence
    4. Using Mandrake
    5. Nice things to add easily
    6. Configuration with Mandrake Control Center
    7. Configuration with Gnome Control Center
    8. Important Configuration of Menus and MIME Types
    9. More Advanced Configuration

    PART III - Linux Shell and Apps [cjb.net]
    1. Navigating around terminal
    2. Shells -- bash, csh, rsh, sh
    3. Environments and Paths
    4. File Permissions
    5. Editing files
    6. Linking
    7. Finding Files
    8. Using grep
    9. Basic bash scripts knowledge
    10. Running Remote X applications
    11. Mounting Remote File Systems
    12. Language setup for man pages
    13. Handling Print Jobs

    PART IV - Software Packages [cjb.net]
    1. What are packages?
    2. Specifying Sources For Online Downloading - Mandrake Mirrors, Texstar, PLF
    3. Packages to be installed from Mandrake CDs - Mesa, mplayer, Timidity, pan, gaim, mozplugger
    4. Packages to install from Texstar - Macromedia Flash, nano, Real Player
    5. Mplayer and Codecs
    6. Other essential packages- Open Office, Sun Java, Adobe Acrobat 5, BitTorrent
    7. Setting up SMB share for Windows
    8. Using vncserver for remote desktop applications
    9. File Sharing - p2p networks - Limewire, edonkey, lmule
    10. Running M$ Office under Linux.
    11. Games - SNES, MAME, WineX

    PART V - Advanced FAQ [cjb.net]
    1. How do I get DRI 3D acceleration to work?
    2. Mandrake Fonts Deuglification and Anti-aliasing
    3. Email Clients and Web Browsers (Handling mailto: and http:)
    4. Full Mozilla Plugins Configuration (Quicktime, Java, Flash, Mplayer)
    5. Konquerer Plugins Configuration
    6. X Windows xmatrix screensaver
    7. How to adjust the sound volume permanently

    This HOWTO is my first contribution to the linux user community, and since I have found documentation sorely lacking for the total newbie, I have decided to write one myself. It is based on my experience in the past month trying to install everything from scratch. This HOWTO will be short, brief and to the point. Further information can be found in documentations on other websites, this one is just for the impatient, and users who want to reduce their startup time. Why Mandrake? Firstly, it is easy-to-install, and the first distribution that I've tried that has come very close to the ease-of-use of windows. If you can install and customize windows, you will not have much trouble with the Linux installation. Who is this HOWTO written for? This document is meant for the average user who is at least accustomed to tweaking and customizing their own OS. It will definitely not be a tutorial on how to point and click or use GUI interfaces.
    This HOWTO [cjb.net] is my first contribution community, and since I found newbie documentation wanting, I wrote one myself. It is for

    • M$ Whores??? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by borgboy ( 218060 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:59PM (#7051193)
      Hmmm. This whole OSS business is supposed to engender, among other things, choice.

      Now, for various reasons, some geek, some pragmatic, some even business-like, I - a die-hard Windows user/programmer of over 10 years - am interested in Linux. Not to the exclusion of Windows, hoever.

      It's not necessary to call us whores. Not all of us. At worst, there are the vast majority who think there is no choice, and they certainly need to be educated. But, having educated myself on the alternatives, I still choose to use Windows, and damned if I will apologize for it. If you want to convert the intelligent Windows geeks, (we're out there, lost in a sea of clue-bies) you might want to consider that we're worth a little respect.

      By the way, I'm loading Mandrake on a virtual as I type this.
      • Really?

        Do you not find the Win32 API and all existing wrappers utter crap like most good programmers do?
        If you do - how can you program on Windows, are you masochistic?

        Do you not believe in the freedom to change and redistribute software [gnu.org]?

        Do you use weak editors and tools like Visual Studio, C#, etc or the vastly superior alternatives such as (a well-configured) emacs, Python, Pyrex, etc?

        Do you, as a programmer, not appriciate the ability to debug, seek or at least report bugs in the software you use?

        Do
        • I may be a Windows whore, I may be a Windows programmer ... but at least I'm a programmer with a JOB.

        • Re:M$ Whores??? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by borgboy ( 218060 )
          Yes.

          No. Maybe I'm not a good programmer, but I've got someone fooled then. I've seen some pretty decent wrappers of Win32, though MFC aint one of them.
          By typing. No.

          I do.

          I currently use, among other things, Visual Studio .Net 2003, WSAD 5, Delphi 7, TextPad and XmlSpy. If they are weak in comparison to the tools you mention, I do not notice it.
          I notice in other posts of yours that you seem not to prefer staticly typed dynamically bound languages, so I doubt we'll see eye to eye much on anything.

          I do app
          • Linux has many good points in it's favour. It is more secure. I can if I so choose audit code. It is great for a server demanding minimal and well managed downtime. It is free as in speech and free as in beer.

            But it also has negative points, at least from my viewpoint. Drivers are not commonly available to provide the full functionality of many pieces of harware. The code for many applications is convoluted, and requires more time than I have to fix. Taking a stock system (Compaq, Dell, etc.) it is difficu
          • I currently use, among other things, Visual Studio .Net 2003, WSAD 5, Delphi 7, TextPad and XmlSpy. If they are weak in comparison to the tools you mention, I do not notice it.

            I know previous versions of most of those tools, and yes they are far weaker and less efficient than the Free Software solutions that have been in development for decades - by far more talented programmers (including RMS).

            The main example of this is Emacs. Being based on a dynamic language and still beating the static-language Mic
      • Hey, it was only meant in jest. No offence intended, don't take it seriously.

        Well, you're in the majority of users and have just Linux users to complain about. You know, you should look it at from the Linux's user's point of view as well.

        Everyone around you is a Windows geek. They all know where to get their Windows Warez, and the passwords, they all use illegal software, and yet shout about the RIAA.

        You have to troubleshoot any problems alone. The others have each other to pass warez around when somethi

        • People think you're crazy if you don't run Windows, that u're a fringe lunatic.

          And then they do everything possible to make it happen. That shit sucks.

          You know, I don't care much that the people around me have made their choices. I don't go over to their houses telling them their computers are shit, assembled by a bunch of college-kid-dope-smoking-non-programming-smelly-r a ts. But they come knocking on my door just to tell me that about my computer. I really don't understand it. Guess the Golden Ru

    • A MANDRAKE HOWTO - The Condensed Version

      1) Insert CD.
      2) Click.
      3) Click.
      4) Click.
      5) Click.
      6) Click.
      7) Take CD out and reboot.
    • M$ Whores ?

      For such a helpful post, was that really neccessary ?

      It's people like you who give Linux a bad name.

  • The message at Mandrake Linux... (Score:3, Redundant)

    by joestar ( 225875 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:03PM (#7050802) Homepage
    It's a very interesting approach: Mandrake Club & contributors (developers, translators...) are thanked, while business (retail sales) is boosted!

    Here is the full message posted on their website:
    ____

    Mandrake 9.2 ISOs available for Club and contributors in advance!

    Next ISOs of Mandrake 9.2 Download Edition will be available for Club Members and all people who have contributed to the new version (including developers and translators), prior to retail packs and public download release.

    This new policy was strongly suggested by Club Members for a long time. It is now possible to offer this opportunity with the new BitTorrent technology.

    Mandrake 9.2 ISO images will be released in advance to Mandrake Club users, hopefully before October 15th, when all last tests will have been achieved.

    Thanks to all people who made possible this new promising release of Mandrake Linux.

    MandrakeSoft Team.
    ____
    • Mandrake Club & contributors (developers, translators...) are thanked, while business (retail sales) is boosted!

      Funnily enough, Mandrake Expert contributors are left out. I remember when I signed up you were supposed to get some stuff + VIP club membership if you came in the top 5 experts in any month. This took between 2 and 4 hours a night for me to come in at 4th place but so far nothing.

      Given Mandrake's financial state I couldn't be arsed to hassle them for the goods but the club membership would

  • Slackware kicking ass (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Phroggy ( 441 ) * <slashdot3@ p h roggy.com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:04PM (#7050807) Homepage
    A few months ago I tried setting up Linux From Scratch. I discovered that to make it not completely suck, I had to patch various things. It occurred to me that Slackware has already done exactly these things (plus more I wouldn't think of) for me.

    The other day I upgraded BIND to the new version which I downloaded from ISC, so I could work around Verisign's DNS hijacking. I ran into a snag: it wanted to save a PID file in /var/run, but I want to run named as a non-root user, meaning /var/run wouldn't be writable. The only configure option is --localstatedir which defaults to /var, meaning it would create a subdir called "run" under wherever I chose to put it, which is pretty stupid IMHO. Slackware uses /var/run/named/named.pid so you can change the ownership of /var/run/named to match the user you run named as.

    So I popped in the source CD to see how they do it, since I couldn't find a config option for that. Guess what? There's a diff file, and a shell script that patches the source (along with other build options). The changes are toward the end of ./bin/named/include/named/globals.h.

    Yes, that's right, when I got the source off the CD, I got the original unmodified source tarball, a diff file, and a shell script with build options - not some mysteriously customized source tarball that the distro thinks is somehow better than the original, but the original tarball plus Slackware's modifications - meaning, I can easily make the same modifications to a new version of the source.

    Is Slackware perfect? Well, no, maybe not - but that's OK, because if something's not to my liking, Slackware doesn't get in my way if I want to do it myself. I can just build a new version of BIND from source, uninstall the old one, install the new one, and not worry about other packages maybe depending on BIND somehow, or anything else weird.

    So, let me join the other Slackware fans here with a hearty "THANKS, PATRICK!"

  • SlackwareUsers--; (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chrysrobyn ( 106763 ) * on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:11PM (#7050859)

    In college, I was the ideal Slackware user. I wanted to learn programming, loved to compile my own stuff and felt that Redhat was only useful in removing the user from my goal of learning *nix. I extolled its virtues at every opportunity. I didn't have to hunt down an RPM just to install a new kernel, and I certainly knew how to compile my own kernel. I didn't know of any other serious distributions in 1996.

    When I entered the real world and had a job and non-computer hobbies, I still had the need (perceived need as opposed to life or death need) for a *nix machine for my home mail, DNS and web serving. I no longer had the time, however, for fixing dependencies, applying source code patches and hunting down the minor details that I had arduously learned how to hunt down in the previous years. Debian came to my rescue. Dselect may be rough around the intuitive UI edges, and it's not quick on my 486, but it's consistent and only requires occasional answers to keep my machine well patched. It's been years since I've had to compile my own kernel, let alone wanted to.

    I fondly remember Slackware as I remember my first girlfriend. It was a good idea at the time, but that time has since past and I have moved on. I am much happier now, but the lessons and memories will stay with me for a long time.

    • It's been years since I've had to compile my own kernel, let alone wanted to.

      Hmmm...what's your IP?

      CB

    • Oddly enough time does not follow you particularly.

      Some people have yet to learn those lessons and for them Slack remains just as relevant today as it was for you "back in the day."

      There's always a new generation looking for their first "girlfriend," and even the occassional older man who has no objections to a fresh face that has yet to learn to adulterate itself with makeup and "chrome" and an air of false, unearned sophistication and commercial cynicism.

      Although Slack may be "high maintainence" as "sh

      • Have I beaten your metaphor into the ground yet?

        Near as I can tell, there's only one thing missing from the metaphor so far, so I'll gladly provide it.

        All women sooner or later get hitched and wind up spending the rest of their lives with someone, and Slack is certainly no exception. Just like your first girlfriend is now screwing her brains out with some other dude, Slack will be, always. And like your first girlfriend, as a Slack installation gets older and more and more patched and updated and so fo

    • Re:SlackwareUsers--; (Score:5, Funny)

      by rampant mac ( 561036 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:44PM (#7051058)
      "In college, I was the ideal Slackware user. ... I fondly remember Slackware as I remember my first girlfriend. "

      That's so ironic, because when I was in college during the same timeframe and I felt the same way about Slackware!

      I loved to recompile binaries and ...

      Who the fuck am I kidding? I drank my ass off and chased after every skirt I could. Which is the reason you're a UN*X admin and I'm stuck "slaving" every day working a civil service job for the government. I wish I would've studied harder while I was in college.. Oh wait, damn... Nevermind. Back to my FreeCell game.

    • I have to say amen to that. My experiances are nearly identical. I love slackware for all it taught me and the simlpicity in design that made it easy to learn how linux worked.

      Where our paths depart is that when I grew tired of doing everything myself I was decieved into the way of redhat. I dare say that the RPM dependancies I found were far worse than the dependencies that I had to deal with in slackware. In slackware, all the dependencies were real - if you can't compile a package it is because you real
    • For me, Slackware and my first love are very much intertwined memories. I lost the girl to time & distance, but thanks to Pat, I've still got a good OS.

  • Love this guy's writing... (Score:3, Funny)

    by big_groo ( 237634 ) <groovis AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:17PM (#7050898) Homepage
    ...I believe that the via82xx Alsa driver does not support advanced mixer capabilities and this is something that needs fixing in my opinion as these onboard VIA sound cards are very wildly used.

    Call me dull, but I usually just plug some speakers into them. Anyone else?

  • Hey, I love Slackware, but this is not a "fix" to dependancy checking.

    This uses Swaret to actually declare and manage the dependancies.

    TGZ and PKGTOOL still have no idea what a dependancy is. This is a problem of course, because you rely on Swaret being right.

    Not to mention, that it only works on the official Slack servers, which basically have what's on the ISO, and maybe 5-10 /extra packages.

    I think Slack should go with PACMAN/ABS from archlinux.org. GREAT package manager and "PORTS" system.
    • A "fix" to the problem might be to not use slackware in the first place? What's wrong with gentoo?

      If manually fixing deps isn't your thing, and dealing with broken packages isn't either, then slack probably isn't the right distro for you.

  • I'm buying Mandrake 9.2 (Score:4, Informative)

    by LittleLebowskiUrbanA ( 619114 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:19PM (#7050911) Homepage Journal
    I'm buying Mandrake 9.2 I use Redhat, Debian, and OpenBSD mainly but I tried Mandrake 9.1 on my laptop and replaced Redhat w/ it. urpmi surprised me (almost as good as apt) and the overall speed is noticeably better than Redhat. Combine this w/ the excellent packages from texstar and plf and I'm very happy.

    • Just curious, but why would you use Texstar's packages? AFAIK, there's not a single package that Texstar provides that's not available in Mandrake contribs (which are essentially maintained as part of the distribution) or in PLF (which is largely maintained by the same contributors to the distribution from outside Mandrakesoft). If you just use main, contribs, and PLF, you're virtually guaranteed to be able to get bugs and conflicts fixed; as Texstar does not in any way participate in the development of M

      • I'm pretty sure there's a few specialized packages of Texstar's like Java for Mozilla that aren't in contribs. I am not for sure however.
        In short, I just started using Mandrake. I was not aware of the issue you raised. Nothing of Texstar's has caused any problems on my box. I am primarily a Redhat/OpenBSD guy so I am still figuring out Mandrake.
        • Texstar's packages are often patched with cool/new features that aren't in the standard distribution.

          For example, install his KDE packages and you will have options for drop shadows on your desktop text, drop shadows on windows, etc.

          However these features are not always production quality so keep that in mind.
    • I've bought up to 9.0 Powerpack, but I didn't buy 9.1 because I couldn't find it in any store - they only offer it on their site, shipped from the US - so I'd probably have to pay customs on top of their rather high price. They were almost at the beta for 9.2 by the time they actually stopped listing 9.1 as "pre-order" anyway.
  • I like how every single message in the email client is spam. Mostly pr0n spam, for that matter.
  • I hope they have sorted out their problems. My Mandrake installation 9.1 is all Fuxored up. I installed ok, and used it for a little while, and I liked it much. I added software and had some fun. Mandrake really lets you try some net stuff out. But then it messed up Mozilla, and now mozilla wont save any preferences. Its like starting it new over and over. Additionally, I found Mandrake very slow compared to my latop using Suse 8.2 and my workstatins using Redhat 7.3 and 8 and 9. I have been thinking about
    • I have Mandrake 9.1 and Slackware 9.0 dual-booted on one machine (cheap no-name 1.1 GHz with 224 Mb RAM). I was able to get Mandrake to work, but it was problematic enough to not recommend it. I hope 9.2 is better.

      Slackware installed and ran without a problem, while Mandrake had several problems, notably configuring X (no screen definitions) and not seeing my wheel-mouse. I had to copy my XF86config file from my Slack partition to get Mandrake to work. Not good.

      In addition, Slackware is about 20% fast
      • I have Mandrake 9.1 and Slackware 9.0 dual-booted on one machine (cheap no-name 1.1 GHz with 224 Mb RAM).

        For display problems, it would help if you mentioned what display card it was using ...

        Mandrake had several problems, notably configuring X (no screen definitions) and not seeing my wheel-mouse. I had to copy my XF86config file from my Slack partition to get Mandrake to work.

        Alternatively you could have done:
        # mv /etc/X11/XF86Config* /tmp
        # XFdrake --expert --noauto
        (do your configuration but don't t
    • I started with Slackware 96 in 1996 and used it until the Redhat hype got to me. Ran Redhat from 6.1 to 8.0. I'm a web application developer which means I build LAMP servers (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl) from source all the time. With each release, Redhat was seriously get in my way of accomplishing this. I was singing the RPM dependency blues (install Perl to install VIM?).

      I finally decided to give a source based distribution a go, and I went with Gentoo. As most trolls on /. will make abundantly clear
    • no offense, but if you've got Mandrake 9.1 all "Fuxored up" I don't think you have much luck with Gentoo. Mandrake is pretty much an entry level distro. Gentoo is NOT entry level.
      BTW, I use both. I like Mandrake because it works very, very well with my boxes, I have 9.1 installed on 4 machines here at home, my sons' machine at college, my dad's machine, three friends, and two customers. Everyone likes it.
      I have Gentoo on a TOTAL DOG of a 200mhz Pentium1, just because I wanted to indulge in a little maso
      • I appreciate where you are comming from. Except I already have done a stage one build of Gentoo for a machine at work (in fact it was on a P2 233 with the slowest hard drives in existance!). I could do it again, its just a matter of my time. When at home I just dont wanna spend the time (both mine and the computers).

        Frankly Gentoo is easier to figure out and use once its up and running (in general), but that still doesnt explain why Mandrake is so fussy and SLOW. My laptop 1 gig 4500 rpm hd 100 Mhz FSB is
  • fixed the installer in 9.2. I had no end of trouble with mandrake 9.x's installers. Selected packages would often not be installed, hardware would be missdetected, the installer would crash. It's a real bummer after 8.2's great installer. Once it's installed, Mandrake's the best behaved linux I'ved used so far (provided you can find good urpmi mirrors).

    On a side note, I don't see much worth having in 9.2 over 9.1 otherwise. I've got nearly all the updated packages courtsy of Texstar and the PLF. Does an
    • Does anyone know why Mandrake didn't just wait for Kernel 2.6.0?
      I would guess, so they can concentrate on a solid 10.0 release with a new kernel.
      • Do you REALLY want to run a "point Oh"??
        Not me man.. I did a few point Oh's in Linux and I remember the same problems in the DOS days.

        "10.0" does not strike my fancy, I will not be using it when it does come out. I ALWAYS wait for the next up, like .1 or .2

        Don't get too excited yet. I'm also not to excited to jump on the 2.6.0 kernel
        Let everyone else debug it first.

        I personally don't have the TIME to play guinea pig for everyone else.

  • hmm (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ShadowRage ( 678728 )
    only thing making slcakware 9.1 orgasmic is swaret and pretty screenshots of gnome, not saying slackware is bad, slackware is awesome, but I dont see why people are creaming their pants over the new build, you can install swaret on your existing slack system, and swaret is optional in slack 9.1 :P

  • menus, not text based (Score:5, Informative)

    by breman ( 683776 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @09:56PM (#7051164)
    Hello fellow Slackware users and newcomers, just a few comments to help clarify a few things.

    Slackware 9.1 comes in two CDs and it's Installation is text-based.

    I would personally describe this as a menu based installation. ie: use arrow keys to select packages/options.

    The only snag might be that the user will need to use the command line and not extremely user-friendly fdisk application to create partitions for Slackware.

    cfdisk is also available which is menu based.
    • cfdisk is also available which is menu based.

      I was going to say...i had picked up a copy of slack 9 from cheapiso.com and just go around the installing it the other day. unfortunately, a bad ata controller prevented the full install, (replaced today) but the install process was pretty damn easy. a bit different for those of us used to redhat, but it was pretty easy and almost intuitive. It took about half the time to get to the install that it takes redhat.

      The interface is pretty. think good ansi bbs
  • So Slackware 9.1 RC2 is out, now where the fuck do I download it from?
  • $ su -
    # cd patches
    # ./download-updates
    wget -c 'ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware- 9 .0/patches/packages/*.tgz'
    wget -c 'ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-9 .0/patches/packages/kde/*.tgz'
    # ls -ltr
    # shutdown now (or) /etc/rc.d/rc.whatever stop (or) killall whatever
    # upgradepkg whatever.tgz
    # (edit whatever's config files)
    # init 3 (or) so on...

    And if it's not a Slackware package, it gets 'make uninstall'ed or otherwise deleted, and recompiled.

    Obviously, this 'Swaret' tool would jus

  • Interesting, but I'm sticking with Gentoo (Score:4, Interesting)

    by vandan ( 151516 ) on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @11:19PM (#7051684) Homepage
    Slackware is very solid, there's no doubting it. It makes a good server system. I'd rather rely on it that RedHat because you don't have to learn all the changes they make to various packages - ie things behave as they should. It's simple and clean and just works. I used Slackware for 2 or so years before moving to Gentoo.

    I've been using Gentoo ( unstable; ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=~x86 ) for about 18 months or so now. There are sometimes a few glitches, but that's what you get when you choose the unstable branch. I'm sure the stable branch is more ... stable.

    The things that set Gentoo apart from Slackware ( they're otherwise quite similar ) are:

    1) Portage. It's just beautiful. You can do incremental upgrades till the cows come home, and it even handles major changes like upgrading glibc from 2.2.5 to 2.3.2 without any hickups. Amazing!

    2) User forums. They *feel* like a nice, friendly, communal place where you go to hang, chat, and talk about Linux and stuff. In comparison, alt.os.linux.slackware feels like an Afghani desert - after the US military have finished with it. And of course it wouldn't be complete without the regular gang of vultures sitting atop their nests, waiting for the next non-boys-club member to turn up and ( God forbid ) ask a question. Yeah , yeah, I know. Tough love and all. Don't ask stupid questions. RTFM. That's all beside the point, which is that the they're just plain rude and childish, and I'd rather not go there - even if it is someone else who's getting flamed. It makes me feel bad to be a member of the Linux community when I see how they carry on.

    I have the deepest respect for Pat. To hold together a Linux distro by himself for so long is nothing short of incredible. Well done Pat. If I need to put together a no-fuss server or even someone else's desktop that I don't wanna maintain, I'll most likely choose Slackware.

  • Slack mirro (Score:3, Informative)

    by bigjnsa500 ( 575392 ) <bigjnsa500@nOSpAM.yahoo.com> on Wednesday September 24, 2003 @11:53PM (#7051877) Homepage Journal
    Being an official Slackware mirror and probably the only one that makes -current ISOs (last one made 09/17), seems like I need to make ISOs tomorrow for this RC 2 release.

    Slack rocks!

    Slackware Mirror [uthscsa.edu]

  • Why is it still so damn ugly?

    I'm looking at the screenshots; the backdrop is over-compressed and too low resolution, the KDE (or is it gnome) taskbar-wannabe still looks plain and bland, as if they've somehow tried to round the 3d appearance of the buttons (and it looks like ass), The fonts are badly hinted and waaay too thin, and just generally not visually appealing, the underlining of the letters in the menu looks like something from Windows 3.1...actually, it's mostly just the fonts (and whatever engi

  • Here [osnews.com]. Nothing beats an eye candy screenshot full of pr0n spam.


  • The next RedHat release will, of course, be "10.0", invalidating all of the people who got their RHCE on 8.0, just like they invalidated all of the 7.x RHCE's by jumping straight from 8.0 to 9.0.

    RedHat should just drop the .x extension, becuase they don't particularly seem like they're going to use it again.

    steve

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