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."

Re:But...

[/dev/trash]

YOU BITE YOUR FORKED TONGUE.

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: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:No GNOME then?

[abigor]

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

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.

Re:No GNOME then?

[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:Gah!

[ChipMonk]

On behalf of Patrick:

Hey, no problem. Have a lot of fun!

Re:No GNOME then?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, enough of the 4chanese already.

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

[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:Wait...

[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:No GNOME then?

[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 good that you want a thick GUI layer on top of your OS. It's okay to want contortionist "integration" changes to enforce a distro configuration regime. There are a lot of options for you if you like those things. However, if you don't, Slackware is your AAA Ace A #1 option.

A GUI-less Debian install is still Debianized (not that this is a bad thing intrinsically but could be undesirable) . A GUI-less Centos install is still full of Red Hat crap (this is a bad thing). BSD is, well, fine if you're interested in that sort of thing, but most of the useful stuff is in ports anyway.

Slackware has none of that garbage. It's pure, unadulterated Linux, carefully crafted to not just work, but work right.

Pat is The Man. The only better Linux is the one you handcraft yourself from a ttso boot/root floppy and a mini-gcc binary.