Slackware 13.1 Released

Several readers made sure we are aware that Slackware 13.1 release is out. Here's the list of mirrors. "Slackware 13.1 brings many updates and enhancements, among which you'll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: Xfce 4.6.1, a fast and lightweight but visually appealing and easy-to-use desktop environment, and KDE 4.4.3, a recent stable release of the new 4.4.x series of the award-winning KDE desktop environment."

wow version 13.1 thats quite a lot of slackin

[Rivalz]

cheers to the developers. they really work their slacks off.

Re:Wait...

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, it's for us old farts who have long since stopped worrying about whether we're considered 'cool' but know how to spell 'Kernel' in addition to being able to build one.

Re:Wait...

[Rakshasa Taisab]

Yeah, and we're so old-fart'ish that at the time when we installed it on our system Slackware was the hottest new thing around.

Over the years every component in our systems might have been replaces 2-3 times each, yet the soul of the machine is still slack.

Re:

[Yert]

At least I don't have to find 40 floppies to do the install...

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh those great old days LOL
When bad floppies ruled and a root/boot floppy was needed to get your system off the ground.
Kernels took forever to compile and modelines in X were a bitch and one feared the burning smell from their monitor.
4MB VRAM video cards ruled the day, 3d was a novelty that virge made painful
oh and dotmatrix printers, fanfold paper and cassette tapes too

Re:

[Yert]

I nuked a monitor once by transposing the horizontal and vertical modelines... man, it was crisp for about half a second, then *pop*! A learning experience, that one was...

Re:

[toolie]

I tried using my hard drive as an soundcard once while encoding MP3s. That was a pain in the ass to recover. It did teach me to check the device in a commandline a couple times before hitting enter though.

40 floppies...

[gravis777]

I haven't been around Slackware in a while. I thought Slackware's main selling point back in the day was that it was an 18 floppy install. What's up with this 6 cd / 1 dvd thing? I get modern distros come with apps and stuff, but it just seems a sad day when a slackware iso is larger than a Windows iso (yes, I know the Windows iso doesn't come with apps, that's besides the point). Just saying. My first Linux box was a 486 with 12 meg of ram, 500 meg harddrive, I ran X, an FTP server and a webserver off of

Re:

[gravis777]

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-3.3/ [slackware.com] :-) Floppies!!!!

Re:

[mehemiah]

actually, I really wish they would advertise this more but you can stop at the first CD which normally has a good WM on it like xfce or fluxbox. I figured this out myself. You can install KDE from the net. I just stopped using it when i did a mass upgrade and it segfaulted. That happened once and hosed my install i think. I would like them to fix that. I've tried installing zenwalk sense but that didn't like my graphics card (an ancient ATI) so I stuck with Ubuntu. This reminded me to compile a kernel for i

Re:

[gravis777]

Thanks. Yeah, if installing on an older system, really do not want KDE on it.

As for the old one, the old 486 I was using but the dust a few years back (lightning storm). Got an old k5 that I am thinking about getting up and running, though.

Re:

[FreonTrip]

Times and expectations change. Slackware is now capable of meeting the needs of a very wide range of people, and showcases lots of new functionality. However, nobody said you have to install everything, and if you're installing onto an old system it's still i486-compatible. The best bet is to pop a DVD-ROM drive into Ol' Bessy (or whatever you call the system liberated from storage) and install only those applications you're likely to use. It's a much safer bet than dealing with RedHat 6.

Re:

[gravis777]

Thanks, that answered my question. :-)

Re:

[omarius]

I had the floppy wrangling down to a science. I'd take over a row of stations in the 24-hour computer lab late at night, moving all but one rolling chair out of the way. Start one disk...next...next, rolling along, and by the time the last one was running the first one would be done. I had 19200 IVDM service at the apartment, so all I needed were A, AP, and N, and I'd go get the rest @ home.

Re:

[dzfoo]

So, tell me, Oh Wise One, how do do you properly spell 'Kernel'?

        -dZ.

Re:

[mehemiah]

read the parent of your parent, they spelled it kernal

Re:

[dzfoo]

*Whoosh!*

        -dZ.

Re:

[damien_kane]

So, tell me, Oh Wise One, how do do you properly spell 'Kernel'?

Easy; "Colonel"

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

No, I think you're confusing it with Gentoo.

Re:

[BrokenHalo]

True, but I always did do a lot of hand-compiling on my Slackware boxes. The thing is, Slackware offers a great platform for tearing stuff down and tinkering with it, while leaving enough of a world to stand on while you do so. I used Slack on my desktop systems for many years (from 1995) until I discovered Arch [archlinux.org], which is similar in everything I like about Slack, but with a more powerful package system.

But Slackware is still my preference for any kind of server. It's so simple, I can set it up from bare d

Re:

[Vectormatic]

isnt that Gentoo?

Slackware is slightly more hardcore AFAIK, if you just want to compile to max out ur MEGAHURTZ, gentoo is the way to go

Re:

[H3xx]

If by "max out our megahertz" you mean sit there with your CPU at 100% capacity, waiting for a source-based install to compile then yes, I would suggest using Gentoo Linux for that.

For me, on the other hand, I trust the uniformity of the x86_64 architecture and Patrick Volkerding's willingness to listen to those who find bugs in the Slackware-Current tree.

Comfort food

[oldhack]

Slackware release announcement on slashdot is like fried chicken dinner to me. Is Patrick still at it?

After a half dozen distros

[by (1706743)]

on 4 architectures, I still have a special place in my heart for Slackware (though I use Arch and Debian on my main boxes now). Great distribution -- I even sent Pat "The Man" Volkerding home-made cookies when he was sick [slashdot.org].

As the adage goes, Give a man Debian, and he'll learn Debian. Give a man SUSE, and he'll learn SUSE. But give a man Slackware, and he'll learn Linux. I certainly picked up more *NIX tricks from Slack than the other distros combined.

Re:After a half dozen distros

[gmrath]

It's a little early yet, but I wonder: will there be any comments written by the slashdotter whose sig is '"Ubuntu" is an African word meaning "Slackware is too hard for me"'?

Re:

[xtracto]

I LOLed because my sig is almost like that... maybe there was someone else or you mistook my sig for that (btw, I got my sig from another slashddoter)

Re:

[omarius]

No, the other one is a real poster.

Re:After a half dozen distros

[plasticsquirrel]

I also cut my teeth on Linux with Slackware and used it for years, and it's the only reason I learned what I did about Linux. After switching to Ubuntu, I naturally got lazy and now I barely know what is happening on my own system. I can't remember the last time I compiled my own kernel, or really dug through "/etc" to figure out what everything does. That quote about Slackware has been around for a long time, and it has really earned the reputation as being THE distro to learn if you want to understand Linux. Its design is so clean and simple that it isn't nearly as intimidating as some people would expect. It also gives you a true appreciation for the elegance of the Unix design. Slackware is old school, from the era of beige boxes and Linux people who did things the old Unix way. It comes from the best place in the Linux tradition.

Patrick ("The Man") is also a stand-up guy who has been doing basically everything for the distro from the very beginning. He's a living legend in Linux history, and he had the guts to make the right call to drop GNOME when it became too convoluted to maintain. He also gave Slackware the Subgenius trappings, and is otherwise a true long-haired geek who really GETS the Unix philosophy and does things the Right Way.

Re:After a half dozen distros

[thegarbz]

Lazy may have little to do with it. Between fundamental changes in the way kernel handles various parts of the systems (what the heck is /sys anyway) and the move from actually setting something up to having things automated there are very few underlying fundamental things you can now change yourself when tinkering with a modern user friendly system like Ubuntu.

For one thing try and get Ubuntu to StartX with no screen attached. With older distros some level of xconfig would allow me to run X on a virtual framebuffer, but not Ubuntu. If Ubuntu isn't able to detect it via hotplug it just doesn't exist. Suppose you manually massage your fstab file then the gui filesystem utility in ubuntu breaks. In my case it's able unmount but not remount any file systems.

Re:After a half dozen distros

[BrokenHalo]

He's a living legend in Linux history, and he had the guts to make the right call to drop GNOME when it became too convoluted to maintain.

Pat's a great guy, but his dropping GNOME pissed off a lot of people too, though I understand his reasoning. KDE was at the time a lot easier to build, while GNOME was riddled with circular dependencies that made maintaining it a bitch of a job.

Fortunately for GNOME fans, the job was ably taken up by maintainers of the Dropline GNOME [droplinegnome.org] distribution. I have the impression they're getting a bit tired of it now, but others are around to fill the gap.

Re:

[muckracer]

> Fortunately for GNOME fans, the job was ably taken up by maintainers of the Dropline GNOME distribution.

Well, for the record Dropline had already existed at that time. In fact, BECAUSE it existed Pat saw the need for GNOME on Slackware already taken care of and chose to remove it from the main distro ('if you want it, then install Dropline!).

Re:

[eosp]

Learn Slackware and you learn Linux. Learn Gentoo and you are Linux.

Re:After a half dozen distros

[BrokenHalo]

Learn Gentoo and you are Linux.

Not so sure I'd agree that. Most people I know who learn Gentoo are simply following a cookbook. If you really want to feel that you're in control, giving Linux From Scratch a try is a good idea, but most of us wouldn't want the burden of trying to maintain a desktop system with that.

Re:

[tokul]

But give a man Slackware, and he'll learn Linux.

He will learn Linux (and other Unixes), but he will use other Linux distro later. In my case I started with Slackware and ended up with Debian.

Re:

[DoctorPepper]

Slackware was my second distro, after Red Hat. I tend to flit around and change distros almost at will, but I am running Slackware 13.0 on my main desktop at the moment. I also ordered the 13.1 CD set, and will install that when it arrives.

I have to agree with the parent, I have certainly learned a lot about Linux from Slackware.

Re:After a half dozen distros

[ChipMonk]

Give a man Slackware, and he'll go right back to Microsoft. Good lord those were terrible experiences the two or three times I tried Slackware.

Speak for yourself. In 1998, I was dual-booting Windows 95 and Linux. When my Windows caught the Chernobyl virus, I lost my partition tables, and the rest of my data with it. I went 100% Linux, Slackware at the time, and never looked back. I did explore other Linux distros over a 4-year period (2002-2006), but eventually I came back to Slackware. You never forget your first love.

Amazingly enough, in 2001, I had set up my parents with a Mandrake system. It was my mother's idea, based on my high praise for Linux's transparency and comparative stability. I tried to talk her out of it, but when she pointed out that it wouldn't crash as often as Windows (making lighter support work for me), I was convinced. Today, she uses Fedora 12 and loves it.

Even back in 1998, I could see that there were great possibilities and ideas that could make a wonderful OS, and Linux was a lot closer to them than Windows was. Now, twelve years later, I still haven't seen any reason to allow a Microsoft OS under my roof.

Re:

[sconeu]

Amazingly enough, in 2001, I had set up my parents with a Mandrake system.

Ah, Mandrake. My first real attempt to use a distro (I mucked around with RH5 for a few hours). 8.1. Good distro.
I still have a soft spot for Mandriva -- in fact, my EeePC runs Mandriva One 2010.

Re:

[Enigma23]

Not that I'm wanting to hijack this thread and make it all about different distros, but I'll put in a recommendation for using Easy Peasy, which I've got installed on my EeePC and runs quite happily. :) I simply had to try something different; the Xandros distro that it came preinstalled on it was just too twee for words...

Re:

[Bing Tsher E]

By 1998 I had learned enough Unix from running Slackware to switch to NetBSD. Things were getting shrill by that point in Linux-land. There came a day when I wanted to install a freenix on my laptop over NFS. I used a Slackware based NFS server, but the PC-Card services for Linux were an ugly side-car diskette that you had to insert. NetBSD had the PCMCIA NIC I was using simply built into the base installer kernel.

And... almost everything I need to do to use and configure my NetBSD systems, I can get fr

Re:

[higuita]

No, you are wrong, you still dont understand slackware...

if YOU want to *learn*, you MUST get the hands dirty and do the needed things... research, read scripts, read man pages and howtos, even compile.... slackware is perfect for that!

if you dont want to to learn about the details, then slackware is not for you, no matter how "c00l" it might make you look!

if you want a distro to use and dont care how things work, use ubuntu, mint, mandriva and use the mouse, bullets and drop-down boxes

if i want to learn ho

Re:

[BrokenHalo]

...mainly hoping to find a distro that is "more user friendly" than Slackware, and after two weeks I just gave up and installed Slackware 12.

I had my wife using Slackware 8.0 through 10. She is not a techie of any kind, but there is nothing unfriendly about Slackware once it is fully set up as a desktop machine. She eventually went over to using Macs because she decided she wanted to use EndNote [endnote.com] to handle bibliographic referencing in her PhD thesis, since at the time there was nothing available that was

I love me some Slack

[Riddler Sensei]

I started using Slackware when I began college, and I still use it today. I'm sort of a "medium" user. I can work the scripts and the config files, and I even compiled some custom kernels in the past. But I'm not a CS guy - I majored in music. Even I, with my liberal arts degree, find Slackware delightful to use and I appreciate it's lack of fluff and its overall feel of being MY computer.

I salute you Pat. May you keep on Slacking.

Re:

[xandroid]

Me too!

(Well, I majored in Chinese. But during my first month in China, before I knew any of the language, my preferred method of coping with culture shock and homesickness was recompiling some 2.4.2x kernel to try to get my laptop to work with the weird networking setup they had at the school I was living in. Trial-and-error style too since their computer guy didn't speak a lick of English, he only knew how to click the buttons on Windows 95 in Chinese. Fun times!)

(Oh yeah I played a bunch of Unreal too.)

Congratulations to the Slackware team

[seyyah]

I've been running current, which is now equivalent to 13.1 and it's working well.

A reminder to all: please seed the SW torrents and come to Linux Questions [linuxquestions.org] to discuss problems.

Damn, now I'm two versions behind!

[GRH]

I'm still using Slack 12.2 on my work laptop. The trouble is that VMware Workstation has to work, and new kernel versions inevitably cause problems for VMware until they catch up. Pain in the ass, really.

At home, I migrated over to BSD years ago, which was easy to do after learning all of Linux's internals running Slackware.

Keep up the great work Patrick!

Re:Damn, now I'm two versions behind!

[DamnStupidElf]

Is VMWare a work requirement? If not, is kvm an option? I'm using kvm on slackware64 13.0 at work with no problems. An Ethertap bridge or qemu's userspace NAT works fine with Windows in an AD environment (although there are some limitations with userspace NAT). The Windows VirtIO drivers for disk and network were pretty easy to get working.

Re:

[TheTurtlesMoves]

One reason i am using slackware on all my home machines, is that you really don't need to upgrade. One desktop is running slack 13, the laptop and one more desktop is running 12.2. If its not broke --don't fix it.

Re:

[0racle]

The latest VMWare player works fine on 13, I doubt Workstation will have a problem. The hosted VMWare products work fine on the latest Fedora, I think it will be able to handle the more stable versions of Slackware.

Another modest announcement from Slackware

[Anonymous Coward]

Another modest announcement for a release that doesn't promise to change the world or make you hip.

Slackware: It gets the damn work done. Without the fancy.

Gah!

[DoctorPepper]

Just freakin installed 13.0 on my computer yesterday!

Thanks Patrick! ;)

Re:Gah!

[ChipMonk]

On behalf of Patrick:

Hey, no problem. Have a lot of fun!

I salute you Pat

[kokoko1]

Being a slackware users and still love to follow slackware release and love to see that 'The Man' the living legend is working hard to give the community the stable and secure Linux. I salute you Pat and congrats on releasing Slackware 13.1

recent convert

[DreadPirateShawn]

I'm admittedly a Johnny-come-lately Linux user, a mid-ish 20's (three cubed!) developer who switched to Linux (openSuSE) last spring. Loved it. Then a month ago, I (re)stumbled upon Slackware, which the online distro choosers (I know, I know) said was a match for me -- great performance mixed with not-quite-crazy learning curve, and even the learning curve would give me oh-so-adaptable "purity of Unix" skills. While downloading this new toy, I met Bob, who truly changed my life -- I became a fledgling membe

award-winning KDE desktop environment...

[1s44c]

Can someone enlighten me as to what awards KDE has won since it started with version 4?

As far as I can tell KDE 4 is still an overcomplicated mess and a long, long way behind the simple elegance of KDE 3.

Re:award-winning KDE desktop environment...

[TheTurtlesMoves]

Well there was the "cool background image" award from '03, the "don't release dev version to the public" award for KDE 4 (though i understand that has more to do distros carrying it too early). Then there was "doesn't sux as much as gnome and doesn't use the memory of windows" award in '05.

Seriously though "simple elegance" is not a description i would use for kde 3.5 kede 4 or gnome. I say this typing on kde 3.5 and the other machine in the room uses kde 4 (its fine, don't know what the fuss is about). When i want simple elegance outside a command line, I stick with icewm.

Re:

[tokul]

Can someone enlighten me as to what awards KDE has won since it started with version 4?

Nominated for Darwin award. "How to f*** up things" category.

Awesome

[muckracer]

Thanx to Pat and all other folks for the great work!

Already??

[Noryungi]

Man, and I was just getting used to 13.0 13.0-64... I should really read the ChnageLog more often!!

Great job Pat & crew, and here is to another great release of the best Linux distro ever!

Still running Slackware 11

[SphericalCrusher]

I'm currently still running Slackware 11, but I've been considering making the jump to 13 for quite some time. The only thing though, is the laptop I'm running 11 on has a 32 bit processor. My desktop, which is only meant for gaming, runs Win7 Ultimate x64 and I don't want to bother with dualbooting/virtual machine or just running it on that. We purchased a new Dell laptop which has a 64 bit CPU, but I don't think the wife wants touching it, ha. One of the biggest factors that I love about Slackware 13 is t

Re:

[0racle]

What exactly is your problem? Slackware's default DE is technically KDE and has been for a very long time. Slackware 13 moved to KDE4 as it's default, but there are people that packaged up KDE3 if that's not what you want to run or it also ships XFCE, or several plain window managers if the full on desktop environment isn't what you want.

Slackware 13 ran just as well as any other Slackware has, I doubt 13.1 will be any different.

Re:

[SphericalCrusher]

KDE was just too flashy for me. I've always been a huge fan of GNOME. It's just a personal preference. Thanks.

Diskettes

[blantonl]

Looks like I'm going to need to purchase a 50 pack of diskettes today

Re:No GNOME then?

[adbge]

Slackware hasn't officially packaged GNOME since 2005. There are various community projects [gnomeslackbuild.org] which allow you to use GNOME on Slackware, however.

Re:

[Bing Tsher E]

You're acting like it's either KDE or GNOME. Neither is also an option, you know.

Even for regular users, it's easy to pull together a simple workable desktop using for one example, a ~/.fvwm/.fvwm2rc file that has everything they need. New programs are easily added to the start menu as needed with a simple text editor. But that isn't even necessary for regular users.

But I know. I know. It doesn't have the complexity of a 'modern desktop' from Microsoft or Apple. It's not at all 'cool.'

Re:

[icebraining]

But I know. I know. It doesn't have the complexity of a 'modern desktop' from Microsoft or Apple. It's not at all 'cool.'

And if it doesn't take four hours to start.

Seriously, installed Ubuntu 10.04 and I can't believe how fucking long it takes from login to a ready desktop in my quad-core AMD - it's slower than Win7!

Re:

[0racle]

Slackware dropped packaging Gnome themselves because others were doing it better. Dropline was the group pointed to when it happened, but I doubt they're the only ones.
However most likely I've been trolled, Gnome is the default desktop in Fedora, including Fedora 13, you have to go out of your way to get a roll with KDE as default or use yum and install it later.

Re:

[h4rr4r]

Obvious troll is obvious.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, enough of the 4chanese already.

Re:

[oldhack]

Ok, what's with excluding GNOME?

Re:

[MichaelSmith]

Ok, what's with excluding GNOME?

IIRC it is too hard to build. I also have the impression that the user base for GNOME and Slackware don't have much overlap.

Re:No GNOME then?

[ChipMonk]

It created a lot of extra test/patch load [slashdot.org] for Pat. He uses KDE typically, so it gets a lot of daily use on his desktop. Not so much GNOME.

The "lightweight" desktops (of which XFCE is probably the heaviest) don't involve as much code, or configuration management, so they are shipped in their stock forms. Bugs found in Slackware's XFCE/Blackbox/Fluxbox/etc. should be reported to the programmers.

Re:

[mehemiah]

im not a fan boy but i use Ubuntu on a 933mhz pIII and 512 mb ram. i was at 128 and having a problem, so i had slackware. some how I dont think the ram performance is better but, there should be comparisons done soon. Phoronix anyone? Im sure there's already been a slack vs arch right?.

Re:No GNOME then?

[Excelcia]

Unfortunately, Slackware hasn't carried GNOME since 2005. Mr. Volkerding dropped it because it was "too much work". There are other third party GNOME packagers for Slackware. However, GNOME isn't just a desktop - it needs support from underneath X for some things, so any set of GNOME packages makes changes to Slackware that are more or less compatible with a basic Slackware install. I used Dropline for a while, but came to the decision that I wanted my desktop to be officially supported on my distro, not an afterthought. And, in the end, the "one-man-distro" concept that Slackware is just wasn't enough any more.

This really made me sad. Slackware is the garage-built Apple II of the Linux world (I figure SLS was the Apple I). Unfortunately, Linux has moved on from what one person can really package together. Slackware losing GNOME was just a symptom of this larger issue. I know for a fact that many people have offered to help Mr. Volkerding with various aspects of Slackware. I know at least one of the major GNOME packagers for Slackware has offered to do all the GNOME work for Slackware. I myself have made the offer too. Mr. Volkerding just doesn't seem interested in a community for Slackware. As I said, a one-man garage OS just isn't enough, unfortunately.

I ended up standardizing on Debian for all my machines. I've ugraded two production machines across three versions of Debian now - it just works, always. Debian is conservative, which is perfect for production machines. And it has real package management.

Every time I see a new Slackware version it makes me sad. Like seeing an old man wheezing on for another birthday. I'd rather see it go now, than continue to bleed marketshare into complete irrelevancy.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup - 100% true... it's well-known that Slackware has not had any sort of GUI-support since 2005 when they dropped Gnome.

It's amazing that they even keep X.org packages in mainline.

Oh wait - someone just told me KDE and XFCE are fully-supported! How in the world did you and I both miss that?

Re:

[oldhack]

Hey, I hear you. My first Linux installation was with Slackware - stack of 3.5" floppies and a green CD with Bob.

I moved on to Debian ages ago, but I share your warm feeling for Slackware.

Thanks for the replies to other guys here. As for that AC rambling on about Patrick kicking the bucket, the fuck, why are you even here?! Go hang out in MSDN or Apple bullfuckingshit or whatever it's called.

Re:

[abigor]

So you're deploying to servers and yet you're crying a river about the lack of Gnome? What am I missing here?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

you're not missing anything my good sir!

the grandparent is missing a boot in his ass.

(lights pipe)

what a wonderful day.

Re:

[Bing Tsher E]

You know, it's almost 2AM here right now. But you've inspired me.

My wife is fast asleep, so I can do this. I'm lighting up a pipe of burley tobacco, in the house. Something strictly forbidden, but nobody will ever know.

Praise Bob.

Re:

[Kjella]

What am I missing here?

This: "I ended up standardizing on Debian for all my machines.", because Linux distros are almost the same except for all the tiny little ways they aren't. Particularly if your own desktop doubles as the development/experimental box, it makes perfect sense to run your server distro on your desktop. Of course you can complicate it by running Slackware on your desktop and either work remotely on a Debian machine or deal with any distro variations later in the process, but it's not the KISS solution.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

Hm, I always thought that Slackware's conservatism is what made it one of the most stable and unix like that kept it ahead of the pack for me. The server market also doesn't need a lot of extra packages installed either. Gnome libraries would be nice though. I wouldn't mind if he dropped the KDE window manager also. I want stability, not pretty. Xfce is fine. Back to his "roots" on the server/developer side. Easier for one guy to handle. It might sound a bit "Apple" like, but having that kind of control is

Re:

[Riddler Sensei]

I, personally, would drop my jaw if he dropped KDE from the default package. I may be a rarity but I do use Slackware for my day to day email reading, movie watching, and music listening. It is nice to have that extra bit of eye candy available as an option for us who want to use it.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

Some assembly required :-)

Re:

[ChipMonk]

Only if you can't do it in C or C++ and you need the speed.

Re:

[FreonTrip]

It's doubtful that Patrick would drop KDE. It's too widely used, the build system is (relatively) straightforward, and the horrors of Gnome were well-known before he made the decision that brought its issues into stark relief for the community. Dropline and company have worked very well in its absence.

Re:

[melikamp]

In defense of Slackware, keeping both Gnome and KDE is redundant. The Ubuntu team (to name just one), apparently, agrees with me. Both DEs serve the same basic purpose: to GUIfy the system configuration and file management. Why would anyone need both? Do you like Gnome? Get a distro with Gnome. Like KDE? Get a distro with KDE. Then there are distros with both of them working, more or less: get one of those if you need to switch every day. But you wouldn't get Slackware anyway, if having a nice DE was that c

Re:No GNOME then?

[Bing Tsher E]

to GUIfy the system configuration and file management.

Get real. That's what curses is for.

or TCL/TK if you insist on being fancy.

Re:

[melikamp]

Curses? I don't think GUI means what you think it means.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Curses? I don't think GUI means what you think it means.

Whoosh!

Re:

[mehemiah]

are you really nitpicking over the definition of graphics over characters. Ok, so nethack doesn't have any graphics, u happy?

Re:

[melikamp]

Nethack does have a GUI.

Re:

[mehemiah]

then what r u talking about? You can make a "Graphical" user interface based on curses. Unless your talking about that sprite package for nethack.

Re:

[melikamp]

I am talking about this [squidoo.com].

Re:

[McDutchie]

This really made me sad. Slackware is the garage-built Apple II of the Linux world (I figure SLS was the Apple I). Unfortunately, Linux has moved on from what one person can really package together.

Has it? Somehow PV manages just fine with KDE and XFCE. Apparently, GNOME is the only thing that has moved on from what one person can really package together. I'd say that says a lot more about GNOME than it does about Linux, or Slackware.

(Never mind that, contrary to popular belief, PV has a team of helpers, residing mostly at slackbuilds.org.)

Every time I see a new Slackware version it makes me sad. Like seeing an old man wheezing on for another birthday. I'd rather see it go now, than continue to bleed marketshare into complete irrelevancy.

Boo hoo. You're just whining because PV is still snubbing GNOME for being a convoluted piece of crap.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I ended up standardizing on Debian for all my machines.

I ended up standardizing on one size fits all tees for all the family. The dog looks stupid but they're a better fit on him than the goldfish.

I've ugraded two production machines across three versions of Debian now - it just works, always.
Debian is conservative, which is perfect for production machines.

I use Arch which has a rolling release cycle, the entire concept of upgrading through OS versions is a holdover from the days of physical media.

Re:

[ChipMonk]

I have comments all over this discussion, so I can't mod you way up.

As for adding outside stuff to Slackware, that has gotten a lot easier over the past couple years, thanks to SlackBuilds.org [slackbuilds.org] and its nice TUI add-on, sbopkg [sbopkg.org].

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather see it go now, than continue to bleed marketshare into complete irrelevancy.

Slackware isn't about "market share." Neither Pat nor users of his distro care about their share of the market.

Slackware is about doing things right. And as the last remaining distro that places correctness ahead of feature bloat, Slack must continue to exist.

The fact that it doesn't run GNOME is irrelevant. I don't need my Exim box to run GNOME. I don't need my SpamAssassin box to run GNOME. I don't need my WebDAV/CalDAV server to run GNOME. I don't need GNOME to run screen and vim.

It's all well and

Re:

[CondeZer0]

> Unfortunately, Slackware hasn't carried GNOME since 2005.

Not packaging GNOME [cat-v.org] is a feature, not a bug.

Why anyone would want to use such a ridiculously bloated mess is beyond me.

Re:

[mehemiah]

Amen! but i think we may be feeding a troll anyway. that guy was clearly talking out his A** WTF is marketshare for a product that doesn't sell? Haven't you heard? This is voluntary Communism, there is no market!

Re:

[/dev/trash]

YOU BITE YOUR FORKED TONGUE.

Re:

[shadowknot]

Better than Gentoo?

Well, I'd say that it's different but similar; not better or worse. Gentoo is great when you want to spend hours building and configuring the ultimate speed machine you don't have to update too often. Slackware is great if you want to get a simple, reliable and (not quite as) fast system up and running in about an hour (sometimes less). I switched from Gentoo to Debian then hastily to Slack back in about '00 and have been using Slack since. Other distros just feel bloated now; I recently tested out Ubun