Slackware 9 Unleashed to World 351
kiltedtaco writes "Slackware Linux 9.0 is out! Based on gcc 3.2, and equipped with kernel 2.4.20 (ptrace-patched), XFree86 4.3, GNOME 2.2 and KDE 3.1. You can read the full announcement, or just go grab a copy for yourself at either the Slackware Store or these lovely mirrors." I know a lot of people who first cut their teeth on Slack when trying Linux. It's cool to see that it's still around.
darn (Score:3, Funny)
Re:darn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:darn (Score:3, Insightful)
I prefer that my system is running the latest and greatest.. Someday, when apt-get isn't broken, and you can easily use CVS X *and* automatically update programs it will be nice.
Please no comments from the Debian policy freaks. It's my system, I should be able to do what I want w/it whether Debia
Re:darn (Score:4, Insightful)
Download and use apt-get
Download and use Rpm
Download the sources of the most bleeding edge
Chances are the latest and greatest is going to be SOURCE anyway, not a package.
CVS is always available.
Please learn. Don't give people the wrong about slack.
fp (Score:5, Funny)
Re:fp (Score:3)
And while I'm posting... I think I speak for all of us loyal Slack users everywhere in thanking you for your hard work in making yet another fine release. Slackware forever!
Re: fp (Score:5, Informative)
Personally, I laughed out loud when I saw this post.
I think it's unfortunate that Mr. Volkerding, who has worked very hard for MANY years to help Linux, is rarely recognized.
Or maybe it just seems that way...
Beware TPB
Re: fp (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:fp (Score:2)
Re:fp (Score:2, Interesting)
Isn't slackware's motto something along the lines of "the most unix-like linux"?
Even though I switch between XP and NetBSD, I would not have gotten into NetBSD if I hadn't gotten into FreeBSD. And I wouldn't have gotten into FreeBSD without having learned on slackware.
So thank you, Pat.
Re:fp (Score:2)
Re:fp (Score:2, Insightful)
Saints preserve us (Score:4, Funny)
Re:fp (Score:3, Insightful)
Or I could just come up with something meaningful to contribute to
man... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:man... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:GO FUCK YOURSELF, LIBERAL SCUM! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:man... (Score:5, Funny)
We roll our own!
Re:man... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:man... (Score:5, Insightful)
Here are some reasons why I love Slackware:
1. The package manager is simple and easy to understand.
2. When something breaks, you have a good chance of knowing what you did to f*** it up, and how to fix it again.
3. It doesn't need RPM or APT.
4. It encourages you to use the source.
5. Nothing breaks unless you tell it to break (unlike RPM).
6. The most up-to-date software.
7. The best compiler.
8. The best user groups.
9. The best desktops and the best driver support.
10. Less "compulsive upgrading" than other distributions.
Slackware just ROCKS. I have used Mandrake, Redhat, Debian, Knoppix and Slackware, and Slackware is my favorite by far. Keep up the great work!
What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2)
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:3, Informative)
So in a sense, yes Slackware is for the newbie, but no it won't hold your hand: you have to walk the path yourself.
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2, Insightful)
I mean, what's with this, found in mandrake and redhat: What!?!?! Coz it's a good idea to get used to an interactive rm, isn't it?
GO PATRICK!
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally, I found tweaking mdk's or rh's scripts in /etc a bit of a chore, because I don't like the way they're written and organised. Pat's scripts are written pretty much as if I had done it myself, so I find them easy to follow.
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is clean and tidy distribution which keeps everything as simple as possible. It is beautiful.
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:3, Informative)
I've found that it is much more forgiving in the way of dependencies than RPM based systems-- in other words, you can install slack-packages and
At my company we're moving our mix of Suse and Red Hat servers to all s
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:5, Informative)
It does have package management: installpkg, removepkg, and upgradepkg. It is far, far superior to RPM-based hell. RPM breaks the golden rule of programming (KISS) with a giant sledgehammer; just look at rpm --help, which I won't list here, as it's 154 lines of help options. That's just inexcusable.
The beauty of slackware's package management is that is doesn't check for dependencies. At first that might seem like a bad idea, but for power users (which is Slackware's target) that is best. What if I've upgraded a package manually, by installing from source (or really any way besides installpkg/upgradepkg)? For Redhat, you've got to fight rpm because it really doesn't like to install without all the dependencies listed in its rpm database. On Slackware there is no problem at all.
Additionally, RPM files suck. How do you get the files out of the package, if you just want to see the files and don't want to install? Use alien [kitenet.net] to convert it to Slackware tgz format.
And how do you see what files each package includes? For rpm, you've got to use rpm to "query" the binary database. Uck. Not very powerful. However for Slackware, all the files are listed in text files in /var/log/packages/, each file representing a package. You can use any of the many powerful file and text processing tools that come with all GNU systems, for example to see what packages put files into /sbin, just do "grep ^sbin /var/log/packages/*" - now that's powerful! And to find what files are in a Slackware .tgz package, just do "tar ztvf package.tgz".
I understand (Score:2)
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2, Interesting)
RPMS can be your best friend or you worst enemy depending on what you are doing.
I have a fetish for compiling everything from source, so a minimal slackware is a step above LFS.
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2, Interesting)
I think most of the people who use or want to use Slackware is for the challenge - for the most part you generally have to edit config files yourself to administer it, or upgrade stuff. Compiling new packages yourself is done more often than using the package management system - it isn't anything like apt-get or rpm (though rpm is available and I've noticed quite [wanwanscappel.free.fr] a few [yorku.ca] package [sf.net] management [xbone.be] tools [slackware.com] around).
For
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2)
Slack has had a reputation for being difficult, but compated to installing Gentoo it's quite simple to install.
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What's so special about Slackware? (Score:2)
YES!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you Patrick.
Of *course* Slackware is still around! (Score:3, Interesting)
Then, today, and tomorrow... (Score:2)
I love Slack! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I love Slack! (Score:3, Informative)
First useful post? (Score:5, Informative)
alphageek.dyndns.org [dyndns.org]
AbnormalPenguin.com [abnormalpenguin.com]
I've already downloaded mine, so everybody have at it.
It's been out for 2 days. (Score:2, Insightful)
Real-World Experience (Score:5, Interesting)
I've also got it running nicely on my laptop (HP Omnibook 9000), it's damn fine. Kudos to Pat and the gang.
Waiting for Zipslack/Bigslack (Score:5, Interesting)
Have a old computer that doesn't have a whole lot of space? ZipSlack.
Have no CD-Rom on a computer or just want a FAST easy ready made distro? Big slack. (just extract the zipped files over from a zip disk on the Hard Drive. Edit a text file... reboot :-) Fully functional Linux Distro.
The problem is that usually it takes a bit after the main release before the goodies really come out.
I use SuSE for most everything else but these ready made Distro are great.
Damn you... (Score:2, Funny)
you keep your mouth shut for at least few days?
low disk space (Score:2)
I haven't tried version 9.0 yet. Have they improved the installation process? I found the text mode one took quite a bit of time to select the individual packages I wanted.
Re:low disk space (Score:2)
Re:low disk space (Score:2)
Re:Debian! (Score:2, Informative)
And a few years ago, it was still possible to install Slackware on a 486 w/ 8 MB of RAM and 40 MB hard drive, including the development tools such as gcc. Arguably there wasn't left space to be of any real use, but that was more of an exercise to the reader!!
Re:Debian! (Score:2)
Re:Debian! (Score:2)
should have said dhcp server, obviously.
Speaking of cutting teeth... (Score:5, Interesting)
I almost didn't become a Linux convert thanks to Slackware...I made the mistake of trying to install Slackware as my first Linux O/S back in '96. It was a nightmare straight from the bowels of O/S hell. I spent weeks trying to get my 486 running with X (this with no prior Unix knowledge). I finally gave up, and a few years later discovered SuSE and their YaST installer.
Ironically, I now run Slackware on most of my machines...go figure. It's a slick distro, and I've learned a lot since those dark days of '96.
Re:Speaking of cutting teeth... (Score:5, Insightful)
Provided, of course, you do want to learn :P
Re:Speaking of cutting teeth... (Score:2)
As the distrowatch.com page said: "If you want to know something about Linux, ask a Slackware user."
--RJ
Re:Speaking of cutting teeth... (Score:2)
Re:Speaking of cutting teeth... (Score:2)
Then I tried RedHat 4.1, and it was OK, and then RH 5.2, which was worse (quality went down, overall) and OpenLinux Lite 1
Re:Speaking of cutting teeth... (Score:2)
Then 3DFX and all those ex SGI engineers just had to go and start a 3D revolution that left my l33t slackware game box in the dust.
Beta (Score:2, Interesting)
Check it out - Slackware is still alive and kicking ass!
ISO image available anywhere yet? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ISO image available anywhere yet? (Score:2)
Re:ISO image available anywhere yet? (Score:2)
It makes me feel a lot more 31337 if I know I built my bootable ISO by manually reconstructing and downloading the entire directory/file structure.
Simplicity should be listed as one of the seven deadly sins.
A true throwback distro (Score:2, Insightful)
Usually this is when a Slackware user starts crowing about bloat and spewing phrasing like "redhate". Slackwares's installer and system maintenace methods were normal in 1993, a bit dated by 1996, and positively outdated by 2000. Now that were in 2003 I'm still amazed that anyone wants to deal
Re:A true throwback distro (Score:2, Interesting)
All the linux boxes in my home run slackware (save my coyotelinux based router), because they are all headless; a samba based PDC, a squid proxy, a VPN host, a couple more samba based storage machines. All are built out of spare parts.
None require X, only one has compilation tools. None need the plethora of stuff that come with other distros.
Slackware works just the way I want it. All I want is a kernel and a few basic utilities.
I've never considered i
Re:A true throwback distro (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people think the ease of use found in modern distros is a sign of weakness. I think its a sign of progress.
This is such a troll, but I'll bite anyway. Slackware is not a "throwback" distro. It is all about simplicity. Believe it or not, some people don't WANT to use lots of GUI stuff, and they don't WANT everything set up for them from the start. Slackware is great for building a system that does what YOU want, and ONLY what you want. It also does so while being more UNIXy than other distributions, which is either a feature or a curse depending on your point of view.
And IMO, the installer is not hard to use. It's very straightforward and offers details that make it pretty simple to get things set up the way you want. Okay, it's not going to go through and auto detect your sound card for you, and it's not going to resize your partitions. But honestly that's not what Slackware is for. It's about being simple, clean, and full featured (or not, as you desire).
There is without doubt elitism in the Slackware community, but that is not what Slack is all about. And for the record I have never seen someone use the term "Redhate". If they did, they still wouldn't be half as trollish as you, my friend.
Re:A true throwback distro (Score:3, Insightful)
Que?
The installer is simpler than simple. Fdisk, setup, choose formatting & swap, autodetect cdrom, select full from packages (unlike many other distros this will fit on all but the worst sized hard drives, yet will provide you with just about everything you need, including MP3 decoding [wow]), select to probe for your network and voila! All done!
That's har
Re:A true throwback distro (Score:2)
I'd be annoyed, but since you picked such a difficult to install OS (in comparison to slackware) it's dead easy to rebut:
It's excellent your daughter is building your computers for you. I'm glad she's decided to get computer experience with such a complicated to install operating system.
Installing windows XP, where do I start?
You have to use a totally undocume
Thinking about Linux install... (Score:2)
God Bless America
Re:Thinking about Linux install... (Score:2)
I am thinking of heading back to Slack. I miss the hacking.
Dang (Score:2)
Re:Dang (Score:2)
Heh (Score:2, Funny)
Oh the memories ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Happy memories.
*raises glass* This one for you, Patrick, thanks.
"unleashed" (Score:5, Funny)
I remember back when software was soft and cuddly, with short little legs; we didn't need leashes for it. And we *liked* it that way!
W007 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:W007 (Score:2, Funny)
My first time. (Score:2)
Yep, Slackware was my first try at a distro. I bought the 4-disc set of Slackware 3.0 in January '96 because I wanted to buy something but I didn't have enough for a music CD and hey, this was FOUR CDS for ten bucks! Awesome!
So I got it home and read the exhaustive 48 page installation manual-cum-liner notes and figured out how to make the boot disc for my Sound Blaster OmniCD.
I never got PPP to auto dial and never had sound, but I somehow managed to wrap m
Not easy to install? (Score:2)
Could any of the 'not easy to install' posters please elaborate? Is a curses-style interface really so difficult?
To me, 'not easy to install' means something like a GUI where you can't navigate to the list of packages because your mouse is unsupported.
Re:Not easy to install? (Score:2)
What I REALLY want is, a way to upgrade from version n to version n+1 without reinstalling from scratch. It is saddening that no easy way to do it exists, while Debian users are just a "apt-get upgrade" away from a complete upgrade.
Re:Not easy to install? (Score:3, Informative)
Slackware has had an easy-upgrade capability since 8.0. I upgraded from 7.1 to 8 with absolutely no problems. And it was easy.
Check this out [ryerson.ca] - easy upgrade instructions. While it's not as simple as "apt-get upgrade", it's hardly a nightmare. Give it a shot.
Slackware is still great! (Score:2)
ttyl
Farrell
Enlightenment? (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyone know why?
Enlightenment... (Score:2)
Re:Enlightenment... (Score:3, Informative)
# mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /cdrom /cdrom/PACKAGES/enlightenment*
I found it in my copy...# ls
enlightenment-0.16.1-i386.tgz
#
Re:Enlightenment? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Enlightenment? (Score:2)
Oh well. It will just add a few steps to the process of a new install for me.
Re:Enlightenment? (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, and with any luck, it might just be finished by the time Duke Nukem Forever is released, too
Mirror Listing google style (Score:2)
Here ya go [google.com]
Slackware - a sharp tools distro (Score:5, Informative)
My first "real" computer was a 486/66. I bought it used, and it came with Windows 3.1 on it. After firing it up and marvelling that people actually paid money for such a piece of crap, I went to the local bookstore and came home with a book that included a Slackware CD. Dunno what distro, but it would have been an old one (3.0?). I've run Slackware ever since.
I had no difficulty getting the thing going, PPP, sound (an excellent excuse for boning up on DSP!), the works. It ran fine in 8 MB RAM. OK, except for Netscape, which page-thrashed for about 2 minutes then ran fine. Upgrading to 32 MB (the capacity of the motherboard) cured that. Now I run a Pentium 3 with 768 MB RAM, plugged in to ADSL. The OS started as Slackware 8.0, but I've upgraded many packages, and run a 2.4.20 kernel. It flies...
To this day I recommend Slackware as a "sharp tools" distro - if you know what you're doing, it's immensely powerful and flexible. If you don't know what you're doing, you're screwed.
FWIW, my most recent Slackware install was Slackware 8.0 on a Toshiba laptop that RedHat 7.3 (the company standard) refused to install on. It would get to about 3 packages before the end, crash, reboot, say GRUB and sit there staring at me. The PCMCIA network card did all the right things, automagically. I had to fiddle a bit with the X configuration to set up yet another weird-ass laptop video card. Big deal.
Thanks, Patrick. Well done!
...laura
Re:Slackware - a sharp tools distro (Score:2)
one thing slack teaches you is to build packages yourself and actually take the time to find/report/patch compile-time bugs. I can't count the number of times I had to fix the netpbm headers...
no one impressed by timing of post? (Score:2)
does no one remember what happened last time around when michael posted early? good times.... (and then was rude about it to top it off...)
Erg... no GALEON or EVOLUTION!!! (Score:2)
I trust slackware for servers (Score:3)
Pat Volkerding has done a great job with this distribution; it really is carefully put together. I've been a fan since version 7 and I have already purchased Slackware 9 to show my support. If you like Slackware, please buy a copy from the Slackware Store [slackware.com] to help keep the project alive.
Thanks slack (Score:2)
Slackware Linux Essentials (Score:5, Informative)
You'll notice at the slackware store that there is a wonderful paperback book licensed under the GPL entitles, "Slackware Linux Essentials". It is perhaps one of the best linux books I have ever read and am thankful to be involved with.
Mysel and many of the "BOZOs" in alt.os.linux.slackware are currently working on a revised edition to bring this book up to date with the latest release of Slackware Linux. You can take a look at our (so far meager) progress here [yoshiwara.org.uk]. I encourage anyone who wants to participate to give me an e-mail, you can find my address at that link, as well as a mailing list for this project. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Slack on!
Good for older systems too (Score:3, Informative)
Still around?!?!
Of course it is still around and it is really good. I use it for older or "non-standard" systems that other distros won't install on without a lot of hand-holding and research into why the next newest and greatest graphical installer for distro X keeps hanging.
Two things that are great about Slack. First, it doesn't assume much about a system, but at the same time holds your hand enough that you don't have to know the scan rates (et al) or other specs your hardware intimately unlike *cough*debian*cough* (though I really like debian). Second, it fails gracefully. If something doesn't launch or was scanned improperly (or whatever) Slack will try to bring it up. If it can't, it throws and error exception, and continues about its way as best it can. I HATE when many systems just hang on installs. THAT is the WORST behavior. Graceful failure is an art and Slackware is very good with its paint brushes.
Case in point. Work gave us these crappy IBM laptops that actually are ACER low-enders. I love IBM and hoped for a better model, but we got these. Having a dual-boot situation of 2000 and Linux woud be really helpful for the types of problems these laptops were meant to help us troubleshoot, but getting SuSE (one of my favorites), RedHat, or Debian to load was a nightmare... mainly due to the USB configuration (it uses an internal hub architecture to split the USB ports... or something... whatever, Linux doesn't like it) among other things. Slackware (the distro that I cut my teeth on, Slackware 96 from Walnut Creek) was mentioned as a possible route. After grabbing the CDs, It installed (with a much easier to use installer than I remember) without one hitch. I love it.
So... give it a try. It is stable, it looks a lot like System V Unix and it is a great little OS.
Re:My first linux (Score:2)
Good luck. I really mean it. Admire your courage.
Personally I spent a good while messing about with Red Hat (7.0, 7.2, 7.3) and Mandrake (9.0) before settling down on Gentoo. Slack's good, though; fellow in the next room uses it, loves the thing. I have a Slackware boot CD around here somewhere, but I never did get around to trying it - I did use it as a rescue disk once or twice though.
It just struck me... you'
Re:My first linux (Score:2, Interesting)
fellow in the next room uses it, loves the thing.
Fellow in the next room here,
Slackware is nice and simple. I first started with Redhat 7.3 but I didn't get on with the Redhat way of doing things. Much generic documentation found online didn't apply because Redhat had rearranged the backend so that it would work with their GUIs.
Slackware pretty much installs software where it was intended and encourages you to configure manually or use standard configuration tools such as XF86Config that you can re
Re:Too much crud (Score:3, Informative)
1. Slack has Samba included in the N disk set weather you choose to install it or not is up to you.
2, Slack uses Popa3d by default but your welcome to chang it to whatever you like.