Slackware 13.0 Released

willy everlearn and several other readers let us know that Slackware 13.0 is out. "Wed Aug 26 10:00:38 CDT 2009: Slackware 13.0 x86_64 is released as stable! Thanks to everyone who helped make this release possible — see the RELEASE_NOTES for the credits. The ISOs are off to the replicator. This time it will be a 6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD. We're taking pre-orders now at store.slackware.com. Please consider picking up a copy to help support the project. Once again, thanks to the entire Slackware community for all the help testing and fixing things and offering suggestions during this development cycle. As always, have fun and enjoy!"

Re:Purpose

[willy everlearn]

It seems that deb/rpm people don't like/understand Slackware.

Re:Purpose

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, there is purpose and other advantages. May I introduce you to "Bob"? He will tell you all you need to know about the purpose and advantages of having "Slack".

Re:I wish the Pirate Bay was still around

[FlyingBishop]

Or you could just use the torrent page. [slackware.com]

But, if you want to download your operating system from a completely unknown and untrusted source, go right ahead.

Granted, TPB would probably link you to the same torrent, but why would you take the risk? Because you find searching, poring over a search list, and deciding on one that looks safe is a more efficient use of your time than just going to the source's torrents?

Re:I wish the Pirate Bay was still around

[zwei2stein]

http://www.slackware.com/getslack/torrents.php [slackware.com]

Since when did you need TPB for this kind of sharing. Ain't best place for torrent of sotware on its offical pages? Thou, http://www.legaltorrents.com/ [legaltorrents.com] really could use linux / opensource section.

Re:Purpose

[ewirt]

I would argue that Slackware is for people who have a better understanding of how the system fits together than many (but certainly not all!) of the rpm/deb package users. I use Slackware in an Enterprise setting on 70+ servers that cover everything from email to web-hosting to firewalls to custom built "sales presentation" devices. For us, slackware gives us complete control over the systems, without having to guess at what other services or programs may muddle with different parts of the configuration. It's easy for us to disable and remove any services that are not necessary on a particular computer, and we have our own custom installation, testing, and deployment scripts that allow us to keep machines with similar purposes up to date and in sync. While we could accomplish the same things with virtually any distro, Slackware is (for us) the easiest to do these things with, and "Just Works".

Re:Purpose

[ground.zero.612]

The main purpose of Slackware is to provide a Linux distribution that is very BSD-like. People familiar with FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD that need to use Linux will find Slackware very pleasant to work with.

Linux users that have no experience with UNIX and the CLI will find themselves stumbling around and complaining and asking stupid questions like: "Does Slackware have a real purpose?"

I look forward to upgrading.

Re:Overweight

[Noryungi]

Slack is great but overweight.

Slackware, overweight? You obviously don't know what you are talking about.

Usually, you only need the 1st CD to install a minimal Slackware system, including fluxbox if memory serves well. CD2 is usually KDE and XFCE. CD3 are optional packages. CD4 through CD6 is source code.

Since I have installed Slackware on countless servers, I hope Slackware 13.0 still follows this simple rule.

And "Everything plus the kitchen sink" is precisely the opposite of the Slackware philosophy [slackware.com] (= KISS).

good job

[muckracer]

This release is, IMHO, a real milestone for Slackware. A major version jump in the desktop, a new package format, a 64-bit version, ext4, 2.6.29/30 kernels with all their goodies...wow, it's come a long way. Thanks to Pat and all other Slack'ers for putting it all together. Waiting eagerly for my subscription to arrive (yes, I put my money where my mouth is and Slackware is well worth the support). :-)

Try DistroWatch For Linux Torrents

[eldavojohn]

TPB really helps me find my torrents. This kind of file sharing is exactly what BT is great for.

I've used DistroWatch [distrowatch.com] since the first time someone told me to try out Debian in college and it turned out I needed a different distribution because Debian was for me to start out on. Very memorable learning experience.

Even today, the site does a really good job of keeping up to date. An example is Slackware 13.0 [distrowatch.com] that was released today and there in one paragraph with all the links you could want and direct links to mirrors for torrents and the MD5s.

A lot of times when I want to know what a distro is up to, I click that pull down bar -- like say Fedora -- and get a convenient history of recent releases with a paragraph about the release. Hats off to the people who maintain that site.

Re:Overweight

[psm321]

Check out SLAX

Re:Purpose

[ericrost]

However, once I get the Slackware systems set up, they just run and run, practically zero maintenance or fiddling required. That part I love.

Aside from Gentoo, I've found that to be common with every Linux distro I've tried.

Re:Purpose

[hydroponx]

I've run Slackware in production plenty of times for years at a time with no issues, maybe you just don't how to configure it for your purposes? You don't HAVE to pick every package you want, but it does give you that option. It sounds more like you're not familiar enough with the installer to manage a successful installation to end up having only the tools needed for the function said production machine is going to require.

That said, I've not had much of a problem with package management for Slackware, maybe you should check out /var/log/packages, learn to use grep, put together a few simple scripts, and check out slackbuilds.org [slackbuilds.org].

I'll admit this does require more working than just slamming a distro because it doesn't take 3days+ to install or doesn't have a nice pretty GUI that's point'n'click easy. But what I do know? I just want stable/secure servers that aren't that difficult to patch, to me Slackware covers all that once you get through the learning curve.

Re:Games

[Gothmolly]

Classic troll. I've been using Linux since 1992. Yes, 1992. Tseng Labs VLB video, reading the timings off the clock crystals on the video card, the whole thing. I have never smoked a monitor, nor has anyone I have ever talked to about Linux.

Re:Purpose

[ThatComputerGuy]

Really? I don't think I've reinstalled any of the Slackware installs (of which there are plenty) since ~2000, other than for corrupt filesystems.

Before doing a Slackware upgrade, definitely consult UPGRADE.TXT and CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT. Together they provide a very simple set of instructions for doing your upgrade, as well as a list of which packages have been split or merged, and details on any software that's been replaced and may need to be reconfigured.

Re:Games

[Snowhare]

Linux user since 1994. And yes, I have 'smoked' a monitor by using a too fast a vertical sync. To be fair, the monitor had run at that speed before but had aged out of spec.

Re:Purpose

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean you've finished compiling it? I thought Gentoo was more of an ongoing process ...