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Operating Systems Software Linux

Slackware 10.0 Officially Released 521

Posted by simoniker from the not-so-slack dept.
BRTB writes "Slackware 10.0 is out! X.org 6.7.0, kernel 2.4.26 (2.6.7 optional), KDE 3.2.3, GNOME 2.6.1, GCC 3.3.4... it's all new, and just as stable as you'd expect from Slackware, if RC2 was any indication. There's an official announcement, as well as some ISO BitTorrent links, and a mirror list. Of course, the non-cheapskates among us should go buy the CD-set to support the project. Have fun, everybody..."
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Slackware 10.0 Officially Released More

Slackware 10.0 Officially Released

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  • xorg + radeon (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Coneasfast ( 690509 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:26PM (#9514018)
    anyone tested x.org 6.7.0 . i want to know if it supports proper 2D drivers for later radeons (9600 and later) out-of-box? i know xfree86 4.4.0 does.
    • I've been using the VESA drivers since the Radeon driver doesn't work with my 9600 XT (or at least the one included with x.org 6.70 as packaged with Slackware).

      Is there anyway to add the file to the X.org driver list or something? What speed differences are there between the GPL'd driver and the ATI one for just general X use and no OPEN-GL stuff?

    • Re:xorg + radeon (Score:3, Informative)

      by sp0rk173 ( 609022 )
      I'm running it right now with a 9700 pro. No problems. Runs beautifully.

    • It works alright (Score:5, Informative)

      by tarballedtux ( 770160 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @11:05PM (#9514667)
      I've using a 9600XT with X.Org 6.7.0 and the ATI binary driver 3.7.6 (3.9.0 was making mplayer crash or at least refuse to do usual operations). I'd say it works well. If only ATI could beef up there Alternative OS drivers it could be alot better.

      --tarballedtux

  • Yay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by thenextpresident ( 559469 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:26PM (#9514021) Homepage Journal
    Damn, and I am going home now too. Wait, I know...

    Me: Hey, can you go grab slackware 10 for me?
    My GF: Sure.
    Me: They have bittorrents...
    My GF: I know. Already downloading...

    Oh yeah. Tech girlfriends...the only way to download distro's. =)

    • Re:Yay! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Of course, no one actually believes you have a geek girlfriend.

    • Re:Yay! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      More like:

      Me: Hey, can you go grab slackware 10 for me?

      My GF: Are you kidding? I used slack in HIGH SCHOOL. Stick with gentoo, big guy.

      Me: Well, I wanted to try it out. Maybe it's gotten better!

      My GF: Tell you what, I'll start giving you a blow job and I won't stop until the distro finishes installing. Now which distro do you want to try?

      Me: HOLY SHIT! Gentoo, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And remember I use both KDE and Gnome!!

      Oh yeah. Made-up fantasy girlfriends are the BEST. =)
    • I bow in respect. Some day I hope to find the nirvana that you have reached.

      My last techie girlfriend owned a Wallstreet model Powerbook *shudder*

      • Re:Yay! (Score:3, Funny)

        by TiMac ( 621390 )
        My last techie girlfriend owned a Wallstreet model Powerbook *shudder*

        Which should be perfectly fine, since one can assume that probably WAS around 1998...I know that some /.ers can go a decade without 2 girlfriends.

        Unless you've got something against the PowerBook...

        • Re:Yay! (Score:3, Funny)

          by Bandman ( 86149 )
          actually, it was around december :-/ and the Wallstreet had more wrong with it than our relationship (Ba-ZING)

    • Re:Yay! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by zoloto ( 586738 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:54PM (#9514599)
      Now if the slashdot effect would take effect on the following torrets, we'd be in business much quicker:

      Slackware 10.0 Installation ISO disc 1 [slackware.com]
      Slackware 10.0 Installation ISO disc 2 (GNOME/KDE/KDEI, /testing, live rescue disc) [slackware.com]
      Slackware 10.0 ISO disc 3 (Sources part 1, /extra , Slackware book) [slackware.com]
      Slackware 10.0 ISO disc 4 (Sources part 2, ZipSlack, /pasture) [slackware.com]

      Please download and keep your torrents open to at least a 1:1 ratio! I do it, so can you! LEave it on ALL NIGHT BABY!

      Offtopic: I for one welcome our slashdotting overlords.

  • Slack and X.org (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dancingmad ( 128588 )
    Perhaps its not completely germane, since it was announced a while ago, but again, kudos to Slack for moving to X.org so quickly. The faster everyone gets away from X the better we all are.
    • kudos to Slack for moving to X.org so quickly. The faster everyone gets away from X the better we all are. Aren't you contradicting yourself a bit there?

    • Re:Slack and X.org (Score:5, Funny)

      by rmohr02 ( 208447 ) * <mohr.42NO@SPAMosu.edu> on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:32PM (#9514066)
      The faster everyone gets away from X the better we all are.
      Away from XFree86 anyway. Personally, I prefer distros that still support X in some manner ;).
      • Personally, I prefer distros that still support X in some manner ;).

        E actly. It would seem a rather pointless and e treme measure to fail to support in some manner, at least lower case.

        The Window System is also nice to have around, but if you at least have support you can always still work at the console, although that might suck on an Window System oriented distro like andros.

        KFG
  • Well, I guess that explains why my connection is so slow today.

  • I'm definately going to have to get this (Score:3, Funny)

    by ChairmanMeow ( 787164 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:30PM (#9514052) Journal
    Slackware 9.1 gave me a great few days setting it up. I'm definately going to have to try Slack 10.

    ok... so I'm a total nerd... so what?

  • Not Slackware X? (Score:5, Funny)

    by PornMaster ( 749461 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:31PM (#9514056) Homepage
    Bah. Not Slackware X, not Slackware XP.

    C'mon! Where's the marketing, folks? ;)

    -PM
    • Bah. Not Slackware X, not Slackware XP.

      I'm waiting for Slackware XPalidocious myself.

      Out here on the east coast we won't get the special edition slated for distribution in California, but I hear that one's not so stable anyway.

      KFG
  • Any recommendations out there on how to move from SUSE 9.1 to Slack 10.0? I recently started using Linux again. The previous was Slack 4.0 or something like that. Really old, 5 years ago. I always liked Slackware back then and would like to go back to it, really just for the sake of doing it. Rather than blowing out my linux partition and restarting, is there a way I could migrate?

  • So, honest question. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Does Slackware have an apt/"windows update"-style auto-update tool yet?

  • distribution based on slackware still using xfre86 (Score:3, Informative)

    by cyfer2000 ( 548592 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:34PM (#9514083) Journal
    available from this link [xfree86.org] Buffalo Linux.
    JoLinux
    Plamo Linux
    Slax Live Linux

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:34PM (#9514087)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Twin kernels (Score:3, Informative)

      by Googo ( 695955 )
      "If you actually cared to read the release note"(that's slashdot for you), you would realize that it is a released with two kernels compiled with different configurations. This was the same during the previous kernel change and was probably the same before that. Slackware 10 comes with 2.4.26 default with 2.6.7 selectable during install I believe.
    • Why are some linux releases still hanging onto the 2.4.26 kernel

      I am not sure what is going on, but a samba 3.0 server I maintain has been quite slow at processing domain logons with 2.6.x. Switching back to the debian provided 2.4.18 kernel speeded them up quite a bit.

      Admittedly it might be because I compiled the 2.6.x one myself, but things like this make me uneasy about using newer kernels that haven't been so rigorously tested.

    • Re:Twin kernels (Score:3, Insightful)

      by dangerz ( 540904 )
      Why are some linux releases still hanging onto the 2.4.26 kernel

      The 2.4 kernel has had 26 revisions in it fixing bugs.

      The 2.6 kernel has had 7.

      That's why :)

    • Re:Twin kernels (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bender647 ( 705126 )
      For what its worth, I've been dual-booting Slackware-current (now known as 10.0) with the latest 2.4 and 2.6 kernels and it's been rock solid. He's done his homework and the distribution seems well set-up for either kernel. Of late, most everything I want is now supported in 2.6, so its probably time to cut 2.4 free (although the CAD tools I use are not yet certified for a 2.6 kernel).

    • Re:Twin kernels (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MicroBerto ( 91055 )
      I disagree, this is very un-exciting. The 2.6 series is VERY stable for only being the 7th release. I definitely think that it should be the default install by now.

      If you take two identical PCs, load Mandrake 10 on one, and Slackware 10 on the other, have the same window manager and everything else, you'll definitely see a difference in that Mandrake 10 has a MUCH faster feel.

      Granted, Mandrake shipped it perhaps a bit early with 2.6.3, but the 2.6.x is that much better, as testified by basically everyone

  • Hrm, seems my writeup was rearranged a bit... I _do_ know how to write, I promise! =] Slightly corrected one below.

    BRTB writes "Slackware 10.0 is out! X.org 6.7.0, kernel 2.4.26 (2.6.7 optional), KDE 3.2.3, GNOME 2.6.1, GCC 3.3.4... it's all new, and just as stable as you'd expect from Slackware, if RC2 was any indication. There's an official announcement and some ISO BitTorrent links, as well as a mirror list. Of course, the non-cheapskates among us should go buy the CD-set to support the project. Have fu

  • for ppc? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by wooby ( 786765 )

    I ran Slackware on my PC for years, but have recently switched to a Powerbook. I'd like to run Linux, and I've investigated dual-booting with either Debian or Gentoo.

    I'm having trouble finding good resources, though these people [exploits.org] seem to have made some progress... last November.

    I've had a difficult time finding a current PPC port of Slackware. Has anyone experimented with building a Slackware base system on a G4 from some other distro, or had any luck with some other approach?

  • grass is always greener (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:43PM (#9514165) Homepage
    I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I keep getting disgusted with FreeBSD and wanting to switch to a different unix...until I actually try a different unix and get just as annoyed with it :-)

    What do slackware users perceive as its strengths? My perception is that slackware is the distro where you install everything from tarballs, with no automatic system for satisfying dependencies (as you'd have in Debian, Gentoo, or FreeBSD, for instance).

    Actually I'm starting to feel that automatic systems for installing software and satisfying dependencies are more trouble than they're worth. In FreeBSD, I often feel like a prisoner of the ports system. If I want to run application A, it forces me to upgrade library B. But then the new version of B breaks application C. Oops! Try recompiling C. No, that doesn't work. Oh, it's because C depends on library D, which then depends on B, so you really need to recompile D. Note how the whole story started because this automated system felt it was so important for me to upgrade library B, when in fact I would have probably been fine not upgrading it.

    The real issues are (a) software needs careful testing, and (b) open-source hackers are sloppy about making changes that break stuff. If slackware is really thoroughly tested, that could be great...

    • The biggest strength of Slackware, for me, is its rock solid stability. It just doesn't crash or do anything weird. It definitely isn't "bleeding edge" (although it does contain the most recent KDE, for example), but that's just fine by me.

      I've also grown to appreciate Slack's lack of dependency checking. Basically, Slack just gets out of your way. The KISS principle applies everywhere. I've used Red Hat and Mandrake, but now that I know what I'm doing, I think I'm a Slackware lifer.

    • Re:grass is always greener (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ag0ny ( 59629 ) <javi@lavand[ ]a.net ['eir' in gap]> on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:06PM (#9514308) Homepage
      Back when I wass still using Linux (Slackware had been always my distro of choice), I used to download, compile and install everything myself instead of using the precompiled packages.

      Perhaps that's because I'm a do-it-yourself guy.

      Around 3-4 years ago I started using FreeBSD. In the beginning I was using the ports system for everything, and often got into the same dependency hell that you're talking about.

      Now I'm using a "hybrid" approach:

      - Things that don't change often, I install from ports and forget about them.
      - Programs that I think will need to update from time to time, I download, compile and install under /usr/local/software/packagename-version/

      I feel quite comfortable doing this because each package is sitting on its own directory. It's also easier to handle dependencies:

      Say FooProgram-1.0 requires libFooBar-1.0 and BarProgram-1.0 requires libFooBar-2.0. I would have this:
      /usr/local/software/FooProgram-1.0/

      /usr/local/software/BarProgram-1.0/
      /usr/local/software/libFooBar-1.0/
      /usr/local/software/libFooBar-2.0/

      Of course, the compilation phase sometimes gets a bit messy and requires some tweaking, but IMHO it is worth the extra effort. There should be no dependency problems. Also, removing an old version of a program is as easy as removing the directory where it has been installed.

      I know this approach will not be suitable for everyone, but it works for me. I hope this helps you.

      • Re:grass is always greener (Score:4, Interesting)

        by captaineo ( 87164 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @01:09AM (#9515336)
        That sounds eerily familiar... I think most admins that need a stable production system probably end up doing about the same thing!

        I was spoiled starting out as a Windows programmer. I hate to say it, but Windows has the best attitude towards backwards compatibility of any mainstream platform I've seen. System APIs are preseved, bug-for-bug, *forever*. If I ship or buy a Windows package today, I'm virtually guaranteed it will run on any Windows platform years into the future. Whereas Linux binaries age like meat in the summer sun.

        Perhaps one day a Linux or BSD vendor will get their act together and offer a truly stable system (in the sense of minor upgrades not routinely breaking everything). This will probably require a lot of effort to modularize the various component packages and strictly enforce versioning of interfaces. (Debian seems furthest ahead - e.g. they understand that unstable libraries need a unqie API version for each and every release, regardless of whether the original authors care to provide one)

        The LSB seemed like it was intended to move forward in this direction, but instead it just seems to have codified the existing (poor) situation. RedHat provided a pretty good solution (100% compatibility within major releases) but with the discontinuation of support for their low-end distros, Linux software vendors are left with no clear standard target system.
    • What do slackware users perceive as its strengths?

      you can install it on old machines and get better access to latest file systems and linux kernel and openSSH. Thought I've got it to install on a 16M machine I've yet to start installation on a 8M machine.

    • Welcome to Unix (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Billly Gates ( 198444 )
      One of Windows strengths (only) is that you can have multiple versions of dll's. This started with Windows2k.

      Yes the infamouse GP faults were the cause of conflicts and wrong dll versions but Windows tracks each one and applies the right version of the dll for the right app at runtime.

      Why can't unix do this? ALso instead of having everything in /usr/lib most non system dlls are in seperate directories of where the apps are installed. When you run an .exe setup program it only copies the dlls that are need
    • The important thing with Slackware is to make sure that you compile your programs properly. Generally, this means using "./configure --prefix-/usr" (maybe even sysconfdir as well) to make sure that you don't have crap going everywhere.

      Otherwise, dependancies have never been an issue for me. Slack has most of the important stuff. There are a few obscure libraries, like those used in games (Battle of Wesnoth comes to mind), but the majority of programs will install on a Slackware machine with minimal need

  • Somebody help me out... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by rindeee ( 530084 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @09:56PM (#9514248)
    ...what is the draw to Slackware? I have used (and loved) both SUSE and Debian for years and use them as my primary systems (along with OS X and Solaris). SUSE has YAST. Debian (and based distros) has the best (in my opinion) package management system. RedHat has....ummmm...well, I'm sure it has something. Anyway, since I've never used Slackware, what are its best qualities? I'm very curious as it seems to garner a lot of respect.
    • Simplicity and elegance. It's a great starting point for many purposes.

    • Re:Somebody help me out... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by johnnyb ( 4816 ) <jonathan@bartlettpublishing.com> on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:58PM (#9514623) Homepage
      Slack appeals to the "traditional UNIX" group of people. I actually started on Slack 3.(5|6) that came bundled with a book. The book said it came with a complete UNIX system. I didn't really believe it - I was assuming it was some sort of trialware - and learning about people who actually shared code with each other freely really changed my perception of the field of computer science while I was in college.

      Slackware today still has a lot going for it:
      * it doesn't assume much about you, except that you know what you're doing
      * it is built for speed - it attempts to be cruft-less (and from what I've seen it succeeds quite well)
      * it's packages are backwards-compatible w/ .tar.gz formats
      * BSD-style init for those who like it (I'm a SysV guy, myself)
      * a competent community

      It's kind of a do-it-yourself kind of environment, which, for some reason, Linux people often enjoy :)

    • Re:Somebody help me out... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @02:16AM (#9515604) Journal
      I think it's simple. Slackware is the most simple of all distros. It doesn't have SysV scripts, just the basic /etc/rc scripts, which are incredibly simple, easy to configure, etc.

      It has the simpliest package manager of any. It doesn't get in your way, and it's trivial to make a package. In fact, it's trivial to install a slackware package without the package manager.

      All packages come with the dev files (headers, libs) so you don't need to mess around with all the roadblocks other distros put in your way that make it harder to install the dev files for your programs.

      There's plenty more reasons, but I find that to be a good run-down of the biggest reasons to use it.

  • WMP54G (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jeffkjo1 ( 663413 )
    If slackware will work, out of the box, with my Linksys WMP54G wireless card, I'll start using it yesterday.

    Anybody know?

    • Re:WMP54G (Score:2, Interesting)

      by osmin626 ( 66171 )
      There's an old saying that been floating around in the hallowed halls of Slack for a long time:

      'Ask ten Slackers a question; get eleven answers.'

      I.e. Slackers tend to know exactly what they are doing.

      They don't have to hide behind any fancy-pants tools to get the job done. With Slack, you get down to the bare metal, and most Slackers like it that way.

  • Slackware through the years (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ziggyboy ( 232080 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:00PM (#9514279)
    I have been a Slackware user since 1996. I've seen it grow all through these years, and even though it didn't get as popular as Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE or Debian, I stuck with them. It's been Slackware from the first Internet server I've installed in 1996 to my new personal server this year. I've never been so proud of my distribution of choice! My thanks goes to Patrick Volkerding for all his effort. He actually replied to my emails years back...however minor my concerns were. Thank you for taking care of your Slackware users.

    Slackware has always been releasing the latest software, although this time they sounded 'too Debian' by releasing a 2.4 kernel claiming it was more 'stable' than 2.6. This is a first. They still don't have a packaging tool to match apt. Well, maybe someday... Nonetheless, viva la Slackware!

  • About mysql_pconnect (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nihilogos ( 87025 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:07PM (#9514313)
    Slightly off-topic, but hey. The site is slashdotted with a "too many connections error"

    <rant>
    This is why just about no-one should use php's mysql_pconnect function. It sounds great, "Oh cool it will keep the connection open so apache doesn't have to reconnect to the server." The connection overhead when mysql is running on the same machine is minimal, and you don't run into this problem where apache spawns 50 child processes, each of with its own persistent connection, and eventually you get the "too many connections error".
    </rant>
  • The torrents save the first set of files to slackware-10.0-iso/, the rest to subdirectories under it, kind of weird, so you end up with this:
    • slackware-10.0-iso/
      • slackware-10.0-install-d1.iso
      • slackware-10.0-install-d1.iso.asc
      • slackware-10.0-install-d1.iso.md5
      • slackware-10.0-iso/ (subdir with same name as parent dir!)
      • slackware-10.0-install-d2.iso
      • slackware-10.0-install-d2.iso.asc
      • slackware-10.0-install-d2.iso.md5
      • slackware-10.0-source-d3.iso
      • slackware-10.0-source-d3.iso.asc
      • slackware-10.0-source-d3.iso.md5
      • slackware-10.0-source-d4.iso
      • slackware-10.0-source-d4.iso.asc
      • slackware-10.0-source-d4.iso.md5
    Not the prettiest layout for the disks, IMO.

    Nevertheless, I'll leave it running for the next few days (got to use my 1mb upload for something, right :-)

    This may be an artifact of linux, as I've noticed it before with a few pieces of code I wrote where a directory already existed, and it created another with the same name under it ...

  • Donations (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Via_Patrino ( 702161 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:15PM (#9514371)
    "non-cheapskates among us should go buy the CD-set to support the project"

    If you want to support the project you dont need to buy anything, donate directly and all the money you wanted to donate (not just part of it) you reach the end you wanted.

  • My Love (Score:5, Informative)

    by dangerz ( 540904 ) <`ten.soidutsadlit' `ta' `ffuts'> on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:19PM (#9514402) Homepage
    RedHat was the very first distro I ever used, which was several years ago. Eventually, I tried out several other distros once I was comfortable with RedHat and once I came to Slackware, I hated it more than life. It was so hard to configure and was much different than RedHat.

    Eventually, I did get it working and I am so happy that I did. Slackware has been my favorite distribution of Linux ever since, and I continue to use it today on all my linux pc's. Gentoo was ok, but something about Slackware keeps me coming back. I'm currently on my P4 3.2ghz Laptop running Slackware 9.1, while my server upstairs which hosts all my projects and work is running Slackware 9. At my parents' house (I live with my gf in an apartment at college), my mp3 server still runs to this day running some oooold version of Slackware from 1998. It still is just as stable and just as good. It's a 486, so it has no reason to upgrade anything. The system runs stable and fine for all the hardware and all the tasks it needs.

    Eventually, I'd like to have my desktop upstairs running linux. It's hard to part with MS Flight Simulator though and I need Macromedia Flash for development.

    Either way, this is my thank you to Patrick for giving me a beautiful and stable distro.

  • "Awesome!" say 95% of computer users. (Score:3, Funny)

    by copponex ( 13876 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:33PM (#9514476) Homepage
    This is meant to be sarcastic. I know it's not always this bad, but I love playing the Devil's (Microsoft's) Advocate.

    "I bet with Slack 10, I can add my friend's windows printer! Oh... It's okay. I bet my wireless card will work now! Well, shit... my laptop isn't even supported. And I can't even get the sound to work. Oh, alright. Read the manual, huh?"

    The next step is to configure /etc/conf.modules. Make sure that none of the following aliases is commented:

    # alias char-major-14 off
    # alias sound on
    # alias midi off

    Then insert (if not already there) the following lines:

    alias char-major-14 ad1848
    options ad1848 io=0x530 irq=10 dma=1 dma2=0
    post-install ad1848 modprobe "-k" opl3; modprobe "-k" v_midi; modprobe "-k" softoss2
    options opl3 io=0x388

    Furthermore, it might be necessary to configure your pcmcia (/etc/pcmcia/config.opts), because there might be an IRQ conflict. Exclude at least the IRQs 7 and 10. Now you should be ready to boot your new kernel. Good luck!

    "Umm, fuck Linux."

    • Your points are all perfectly valid. That's why I don't recommend Slackware to the casual user. If you want to see what this whole "compooter" thing is about, run SuSE, Fedora, or (zealots, please have mercy) Windows. :) If you want to have a fairly user-friendly system with minimal viruses and spyware, at low cost, run any of the first two. If you want to get your feet wet, try Knoppix; it doesn't require any drastic alterations to your current system since it's a LiveCD, and it's pretty usable.

      If you're

  • Bad binaries support (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Via_Patrino ( 702161 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @10:42PM (#9514525)
    Slackware is a nice distribution, its easy to understand its package system for example. But it has bad binaries/package support.

    You can live happily with it if all packages you need are in the distro, which include all packages needed for servers and small offices machines, but it can be a nightmare if youre a home user.

    Slackware is a "one man" distribution, the reason for that is its low number of official packages.

    And if you need some other software outside of that its better you compile all yourself or youll be in a jungle of amateur made packages.

    People with different software and hardware configurations generating packages and spreading it around.

    That lead to missing libraries messages (even when you have them), missing new versions of libraries that are on the official distro (but not yet updated), complaints about not finding your remote control (even when you dont have one), binaries compiled with strange options (some missing other unuseful) and so on.

    A slackware zealot may say "compile your own", but sometimes you cant, because of time restrictions, or just dont want to waste a lot of time compiling a "one task application" and its dependencies.

    And in that situations youre SOL in the jungle, and is not a good experience at all.
    • That's what linuxpackages.net is for. It's an independent location for slack packages.

    • And if you need some other software outside of that its better you compile all yourself or youll be in a jungle of amateur made packages.

      That's what I love most about Slackware... It's about the only Linux distro left where you can mix source and packages. All slackware packages have the devel stuff, not just the binaries, so you don't have to jump through extra hoops to get the -dev packages like with all other distros.

      The Slackware package manager doesn't screw with you on dependencies either. If y

  • As a recent slack user: (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JoeShmoe950 ( 605274 ) <CrazyNorman@gmail.com> on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @11:42PM (#9514890) Homepage
    I'd tried Debian, Mandrake, and a few minor distro's. I don't know why everyone says that slack is hard to configure. Atleast in the newer versions , it isn't. I installed slack 9.1 I think it was. It went without a hitch, not at all confusing compared to debian, although a graphical install would have been nice for anyone new. It finished the install and then restarted. I typed startx. On most computers, it would have been fine. I looked in the file and it was configured, except for my integrated graphics, which I no longer used (put in a GeForce but never disabled integrated). I changed that one line in the file to NV, and X worked. Network worked, CDRoms worked, etc. I don't get why people say its hard to install. Although nongraphical, the install is still menu driven and straight forwards. The configuration is minimal, and its fast and rock solid. I never looked back after that. Swaret works great, and for things not in a slack package, they will usually compile perfectly. GO SLACK!

  • Buy the CD folks... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by linuxhansl ( 764171 ) on Wednesday June 23, 2004 @11:46PM (#9514909)
    support Patrick's effort...

    I was using Slackware from its inception in 1993 (ahhh... I remember downloading a large set of floppy images over night at work from my Ultrix machine, storing the "large" files on my DEC/VMS diskspace).
    After a long digression over FreeBSD, RedHat, I came back to Slackware last year...
    I already ordered the CD, not that I couldn't download the iso's but this a great distribution and if I can help to keep it going I'll do so.

  • Kernel question (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Thursday June 24, 2004 @05:23AM (#9516159) Homepage
    Does anyone know how hard it is to upgrade to the 2.6 kernel if you go for the standard 2.4 install with this dist? Do the seperate installs literally just install different kernels or does it install different versions of libraries too which would need to updated on a manual upgrade?

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