Slackware 12.2 Released 351
pilsner.urquell submitted a quote from the announcement saying "Well folks, it's that time to announce a new stable Slackware release again. So, without further ado, announcing Slackware version 12.2! Since we've moved to supporting the 2.6 kernel series exclusively (and fine-tuned the system to get the most out of it), we feel that Slackware 12.2 has many improvements over our last release (Slackware 12.1) and is a must-have upgrade for any Slackware user."
Re:What's still missing (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd also like to note that we continue our Slackware subscription because we appreciate what Patrick and Slack has done for us.
Will it still run on '386 machines (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the plusses of this distro was that it was able to run on ANYTHING from the 80386 on up... with the move to the 2.6 kernel, is that still possible or do I need a Pentium as a minimum machine?
(yes, I have 25 80386 machines out in the wilderness (solar powered) of Canada doing remote sensing work all running Slackware)
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)
The rugged individualists all left Slackware and went to Gentoo. After the fighting got out of hand, those that didn't move off to one of the Gentoo forks went to one of the BSDs.
The rest of us got sick of spending most of our waiting for our system software and applications to compile and moved Debian. Some of us got sick of Debian's lack of polish and went to Ubuntu. Probably a few went back to Slackware.
In the meantime, predictably so, a bunch of n00bs started using Ubuntu mostly because we told them it was a good idea. Now the Ubuntu forums are filled with n00b posts flaming the world because 'Ubuntu sucks' and 'it ate my computer', etc.
Personally, I'm getting sick of the whole mess. Slackware is looking cooler by the minute... ;)
Re:Great work! (Score:5, Interesting)
You might be surprised how many people use this easy to re-configure distribution.
I came to slackware seeking a clean and simple distro (10 yrs ago now)! I was in the middle of building a custom diskless cluster for CFD and grew tired of Redhat's complex init scripts made even more so by the need to Guify everything.
My only complaint is that there is no (official) slackware 64bit build. If this does not change soon, I will be forced to move on....sadly.
Re:This article should be tagged "nostalgia" (Score:3, Interesting)
You would be surprised how many large workstation, server installations use Slackware. A very big example could be weatherunderground.com
I am on OS X and I still use my knowledge from Slackware. If I had to use a x86/Linux, it would be either Slackware or Debian.
Some of us still want to use Linux in Linux way.
Re:Ha! (Score:3, Interesting)
This is the lesson for all linux distros. When forums are full of "it ate my computer", figure out why. Don't be so quick to get pissy with the user.
I started with slackware in the late 90's and have been using various distros ever since. I use Ubuntu now. I still get pissed when I run updates in Ubuntu and have to spend another 30 mins fixing my vid driver.
All the silliness about binary drivers aside, we're talking about a VERY common video chipset here, and honestly, the vast majority of video cards in the world come from a very short list of manufacturers who only release closed binaries. It's time to start being a little more realistic about making sure the upgrade processes account for that.
Re:Ha! (Score:3, Interesting)
First Linux I tried was Slackware. I downloaded a slew of 1.44 diskette images, 14 or 15 I think over a 14.4 modem connection on a 386sx25 with 4 meg of ram running win 3.1. My ISP had a usage limit except from midnight to 8 am. It took we over a week to download because I would start a disk downloading at midnight and maybe stay up to start the second disk and go to bed. Once it was all downloaded I used rawwrite to write all the images to disk, put in an extra 20 meg hard drive to avoid trashing my system. I installed with no problem and was able to connect to the net and access email and Usenet, I was impressed.
That was the last time I installed Slackware.
Re:Ha! (Score:3, Interesting)
I was considering flaming you, then I remembered that Ubuntu did the same to me. I'm a fairly hardcore linux user (Software Engineer, posix threads, C and crypto, amatteur and professional Linux sysadmin) and *I* got pissed off with it.
Could not get any of the nVidia blobs playing nicely with my laptop, alsa sound needed rebuilding to detect the headphone jack, a bunch of other stuff. And then on upgrade it would undo all the work I'd done to get it going and I'd have to solve the same problems again.
I solved it by switching to Debian, but then I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty, just annoyed when I can't see how or why things are broken.
Re:What's still missing (Score:1, Interesting)
slackware missed 2 or 3 remote vulnerabilities just becouse it doesn't use pam(one was in sshd)
so, pat has an excuse this time :)
Is there 64-bit support? (Score:3, Interesting)
What about 64-bit Slackware?
Re:Great work! (Score:1, Interesting)
as do i. out there anyway. hardcore linux kids run slackware. by the sweat of my brow, rock solid, and develops a keen and deep understanding of how linux works.
slackware was my first distro, and one i always come back to, and i credit am a better sys engineer because of it.
when people ask me how to "learn linux" i tell them to go back to 1996 and run slackware.
ubuntu and the other desktop targeted distros make linux desktop users, and i love them.
slackware makes linux geeks, and systems admins, and i love it more.
Re:The Only Reason This Distro Exists (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not convinced that the normalization on a "standard" distro is a bad thing. Choice is freedom for some and confusion for others. I like the fact that Ubuntu provides a standard interface for hardware manufacturers to say "here are the working drivers", and they release a .deb for the hardware. I'd love to get the source code too, but that's not possible all the time, so I'll take binary. And it's possible to create packages for other OSes by using the files contained in the .deb package and recycling them, which allows other more knowledgeable users to take advantage of them.
Given a choice between "We release drivers for Ubuntu (and/or maybe some RedHat derivative)" or "We don't release drivers for linux", I know which one I'll take.
And it's not a false dichotomy, because lots of companies don't have the resources to release packages for every distro out there, and many of them don't own all of the IP to release open source drivers, so binary is the only option. In those cases, I welcome the Ubuntu packages.
Why the negativity ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wow. Still chugging... (Score:2, Interesting)
I had a 14inch monitor I originally used with my Amiga but with X managed 1240x968 (or something like that). It was interlaced, and whined a bit. Every few months it needed a slightly different setting as for some reason it could no longer handle the frequency. I had to adjust vertical stretch to minimum and have the horizontal control all the way over to one side, and iirc a few lines along one edge were funny colored.
Been using Slackware for over 10 years ;)