The latest release of Slackware, 10.2, was just released to the mirrors.
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2005-06-29
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Considering all the hardships that Pat had been under, and all the big work this release has had (2.6 kernel release, many updates, etc) this is very nice to see become released. It's a very nice distro, especially for those of you looking to get one-step more into the ideals of Linux, or looking for a rather minimal system. With a 2.6 kernel now, it should be even better all across the board (newer and older systems). Any other particular things to note aside from the changelog?
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2005-07-12
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>>"Longtime slackware user and here's my only gripe--there's got to be a more sensible way to list the changes aside from the usage of a overtly verbose changelog!!!"
You kidding me? It only takes about 5 minutes a month to read it. The upside being you get to actully know why/what/when the changes were made. IMO, it's one of the perks, not something to be changed.
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Oh come now, the Sarge installer is a usability mess! Partitioning and assigning filesystems is especially unintuitive, and the interface has all sorts of little niggles. If you want a better Slackware installer, look at Arch for an example. After a few installs, I'm in and out in 10 minutes.
The only other better installer I've seen is Libranet, and that's a completely different beast.
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Yes, it's that Arch. We're talking about Slackware here, that's not much of a stretch for this market. And like I mentioned already, once you figure out what's expected in the configs, it takes a couple minutes to write them. It takes me longer to choose my package set.
The thing I love is how centralized it is around a single menu, rather than dragging you along a predetermined path at it's own pace. Arch lets me take my time when I needed it, and lets me blaze through now that I don't.
Also, something about the whole thing makes it feel more natural to drop to a command line. It's like you're still in control, so there isn't any added barrier to the notion.
Comparatively, the Slackware installer seems rather... overgrown. It's still one of my favorite OS installers, but I'm of the opinion that it needs to be heavily consolidated.
But it's been awhile since I played with Slackware, 9.1 if I remember. Maybe I'll grab the ISO at work tomorrow, and give it another go once I'm done playing with Foresight and Vector. I need to try out that new upgrade to 7Mbps DSL anyway 
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Lots of newsgroups and IRC are filled with tools. Try some of the Debian IRC and newsgroups -- you get the same thing.
However, the official Slackware forum at Linuxquestions.org is filled with the nicest, most helpful Slackware veterans I have ever come across. I urge all Slack users to check it out. It's an excellent resource.
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2005-07-06
This is awesome newz! Slackware is the grandpappy of many "spin-off" distro's (28 to be exact) according to DistroWatch. But they forgot to include the very promising newcomer PocketLinux in their count, so actually it's 29...either way it goes to show that Slackware must be doing something right for so many distro's to follow its footsteps. ;-)
Distro's based on Slackware:
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=independence
PocketLinux:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pocket
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Slackware is deff an awesome distrobution, its something you wouldnt run in the corporate world especially if your managing many linux boxes, but is deff the best for learning, and using it as a hobby OS, very simple clean, and very easy to understand Not only that its the first real distribution to package a whole Operating system including the kernel and GNU base, the other thing that I really like is nothing really has changed since the last 9 years of slackware, except for updates.. Good work Pat..
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I would agree in a general way. I learned on slack, and would consider it by far to be the best for that purpose. But I find it makes a good workstation computer, pat doesnt do what the majority of vendors do and custom patch the crap out of everything. If something isnt ready yet, he doesnt include it. The result is a suprisingly stable system with a real lack of those wierdo distro specific bugs.
But then again, I'm an ubuntu user now.
Cause I'm hip ;-)
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Firstly Slackware has been one of my main distro's for years along with debian.
I've found that any box i dont wish to tinker with say a router or a ssh server, i'd tend to use slackware, for workstations etc i'd use debian.
I think slackware is great but when all i wanna do is tinker doing everything by hand is alittle frustrating, granted in debian i dont go much further than say apt and dpkg and alittle cvs.
Standard slackware is great, but i'd like to plug and slander a few slackware based distro.
I tend to think slackware is much cleaner than debian, i know somethings gonna be there without having to take a guess.
Guess i'm a bitch for standards so take the rest of this with a pinch of salt;)
1c3d0g mentioned that distrowatch had 29 distro's based on slackware, of course it's a great based as i am sure you know!
But imvho (and this affects all distro's) is the generic me too, we shaved 50mb off, this ones designed for users, yadadadadad kde plastick-uber-theme distro
Of course it's a personal gpled right to change and modify their code for their own liking.
Pocketlinux- sorry to pick on this distro but since it's number 29 i will, i like 29.
It's great huh? I must confess i've never used it but what makes it better or EVEN different from the likes of Vector linux or Slax (more so slax).
They do what they do well add extra features to slackware, such as package managment a more user/dev whatever based interface.
We all need different things for different tasks, but we still havent got we dont need 10 things to do the one task.(tho i'm really not sure this one ring(app) for all idea)
Sure anyone can make their own distro, but do the majortity offer anything new?
yes i know i'm an idiot but ya need them too:p
Will
Slax
http://slax.linux-live.org/ - small fast modular slack
Does what it sets out to do well, it wasnt the first and it hasnt been the last, but it's the most effective slackware based newbie like distro i've used, and it's a live cd! sound like number 29?
P.s. pocketlinux guys - simplified installer 1 app per task and kde light, sorry guys/gals just think your reinventing the wheel
it's also 6am i'm grumpy
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I've used Slackware and really liked it, but I work with both Chinese and English and I never could get Chinese fonts to install. I admit that the ignorance is on my part, but after scouring the forums and seeing others having the same difficulty, I'm at a loss. With Debian it's just a "apt-get install name-of-font-file" and it's done.
I realize that not everyone needs to use a non-Roman font, so for most users this is a total non-issue. However, I wish I could find a solution to this particular problem - I'd give Slackware another go if I could work out how to do this.
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you guys are really some strange kind... You can install XFree on your own, but installing some freaking fonts is such an issue?
Well, if you've got a quick and dirty solution, I'd love to hear it. I spent a lot of time trying to get Chinese fonts to install, but no luck. Read the forums, closely followed the advice, but no luck. I just wish Asian language fonts were enabled by default. Maybe less than 5% of Slack users need this, but hey, we exist.
I would still consider Slack for a server though.
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if you want install from FTP try installer from slackware fork: http://tukaani.org/installer/download
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Or SlackNET.
http://slacknet.slackforge.net/
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I've got an idea, an asian derivative of slackware. it'll be the equivalent of red flag to red hat. so we'll call it hardworkingware. lol, j/k, no offense.
but honestly, i think this would be great. i can finally go over to asia to start my own company, <sigh> <grin> who's coming with me>!
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For the japanese part we have Plamo already:
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=plamo
or
http://plamo-linux.jp/
You need japanese fonts to read this. ;-)
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Well, you can find the packages of chinese/Japanese/Korean fonts for slack if you try harder with your google
http://cle.linux.org.tw/Slackware/slackware-10.1/packages/
Here is the Chinese (Traditional) packages set from CLE (Chinese Linux Extension - from Taiwan)
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2005-07-08
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And it's really nice to see people making some noise about it, it eases my sinking feeling that users have been abandoning slack lately.
I myself was a long-time slack user before I found another distro I actually liked better after slack 8.0, (not arch, gentoo or debian, not gonna pimp it either.. :p ) and I've seen quite few "slack-vets" like myself pop up as new users recently.
It would be sad if everyone would leave slack, since that would not only take away a great distro, but also a valuable tool for those who have decided to move beyond red hat or suse and really learn how the system works, without getting too uncomfortable. It would also further strengthen the misbelif a lot of ignorant people have that red hat and rpm is all there is to linux, since slack is probably the only non-rpm and non-deb based distro that gets any form of brand recognition.
Slack is important! Congratulations to Pat and all slack users.
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And it's really nice to see people making some noise about it, it eases my sinking feeling that users have been abandoning slack lately.
I have used Linux since 2001 and I just moved to Slack from Debian within the past year and I couldn't be happier. I actually have seen somewhat of a resurgence of Slack users, and according to the linuxcounter stats, Slack is still the distro with the 3rd or 4th largest reported usage, so I think there is a very large Slackware user base that is not going anywhere anytime soon.
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2005-07-07
What I like about Slackware is that you can forget about it. It's easy enough to only update the packages you need to, and it gives you that "I can!" feeling over your PC.
Yes, you can say this can be true for Linux in general, but, still, it's more true for SW.
Kudos to Pat!
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...since so much effort is being put into revising and adding to the "Book" - the Slackware reference guide. Check it and and you might want to play with Slackware. I hope it gets as good as the FreeBSD Handbook, the NetBSD Guide and the Gentoo Handbook. Great going Pat Volkerding and all involved!
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hi - for my work development box i used freebsd (4 and 5) very happily for a long time.
then i was persuaded to move to debian 3.1/kernel 2.6. however, it runs slower, there are too many unresponsive "gaps" - redraws take a long time, desktop response takes too long to become active after leaving it idle.
both freebsd 4,5 and debian 3.1 were run on the same hardware (128MB RAM, 10GB disk) and using XFCE desktop with minimal daemons/services.
will slackware be any better?
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well I cant really comment on your preformance problems, as far as i know debian does have preempt etc enabled by default in it's 2.6 kernel? you may want to check that, also consider googling for from desktop linux preformance tips. check dma settings x driver etc
will slackware be better? Well it's certainly alittle different than debian, more akin to a linux based bsd unix (tho even that line is getting very hazy these days, e.g. debian with a bsd..funky)
Ermm the most important point you should consider is why on earth did you even move from freebsd if you were happy with it, sure it's great to try new things, but if it's not broken...
Will
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