Slackware, Slax Archive

Slackware 14.0 released

"Slackware 14.0 brings many updates and enhancements, among which you'll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: Xfce 4.10.0, a fast and lightweight but visually appealing and easy to use desktop environment, and KDE 4.8.5, a recent stable release of the 4.8.x series of the award-winning KDE desktop environment. Slackware uses the 3.2.29 kernel bringing you advanced performance features such as journaling filesystems, SCSI and ATA RAID volume support, SATA support, Software RAID, LVM (the Logical Volume Manager), and encrypted filesystems. Kernel support for X DRI (the Direct Rendering Interface) brings high-speed hardware accelerated 3D graphics to Linux."

Interview: Patrick Volkerding, founder of Slackware

LinuxQuestions.org has an in-depth interview with Patrick Volkerding. "The goal back when the project was started was to make it easy, and to keep things simple. But to paraphrase Einstein, you want to make things as simple as possible, but not simpler. There's a point of diminishing return when adding additional layers and interfaces, especially when it comes to system configuration. I've seen automated configuration do things like strip out all the comments in a config file, or worse just completely rewrite the thing because you had the nerve to try editing it outside of the approved system. And I do feel like Slackware has been shafted in some of the reviews over the years, largely because there's a tendency to review only the installer and not the system itself. There is certainly a learning curve, but that's true for all versions of Linux. We've never tried to make things hard, but perhaps we also haven't tried to prevent people from shooting themselves in the foot. Things like aliasing rm to 'rm -i' don't help the user learn to be careful." Patrick gets it.

Parabola GNU/Linux: Freedom Packaged

There are different reasons people use Unix-like operating systems, including configurable, availability free of charge, powerful command line interface an many more. Some people are motivated by the moral issue: they reject non-free software. Specifically for such users Free Software Foundation developed Guidelines for Free System Distributions and created the list of absolutely free ("as in freedom") distributions. In this article we are going to look at the most recent entry on the list - Parabola GNU/Linux.

Slackware 13.1 Released

Pat Volkerding has released Slackware 13.1. "We have chosen to use the 2.6.33.4 kernel after testing the 2.6.33.x kernel branch extensively. Slackware 13.1 contains version 4.4.3 of the KDE Software Compilation. Several Xfce components have been updated as well. Xfce continues to be a great lightweight desktop that doesn't get in your way. If you haven't looked at this great desktop environment lately, you might want to give it another try. If you prefer GNOME, there are teams online producing GNOME for Slackware."

Slackware 13.0 RC1 Released

Slackware 13.0 RC1 has been released. Or tagged. Or whatever you'd call it in the Slackware world. "The TODO isn't entirely empty here, but it's pretty much down to minor nits, and so we're going to call this release candidate #1 and (mostly) freeze further updates unless they happen to fix problems. Regarding the kernel, 2.6.29.x has been well tested with this userspace and seems like the best choice to ship for production use. Perhaps we can put something else (at least source and configs) in /testing, though."

Slackware Goes 64Bit

Yes, yes, Slackware has gone 64bit. "Ready or not, Slackware has now gone 64-bit with an official x86_64 port being maintained in-sync with the regular x86 -current branch. DVDs will be available for purchase from the Slackware store when Slackware 13.0 is released. Many thanks go out to the Slackware team for their help with this branch and a special thank you to Eric Hameleers who did the real heavy lifting re-compiling everything for this architecture, testing, re-testing, and staying in-sync with -current."

VectorLinux 6.0 Released

VectorLinux 6.0 has been released. "The final release of VectorLinux 6.0 (code name 'Voyager') is now available. This release is a major milestone in the ten year history of Vectorlinux. With the unbridled enthusiasm of a community gone wild, we have forged our very own stable GUI installer and our repository now hosts over a thousand packages. VectorLinux is the fastest Linux desktop in it's class. We have exceeded our original goals of VectorLinux 6.0 and produced a beautiful, full featured stable desktop for a rocket fueled experience. The main desktop is based on Xfce-4.4.3 with a custom theme and artwork again unique to VectorLinux. LXDE is installed as a secondary desktop option. Much work has been done on localization and we know users from all over the globe will find VectorLinux a stellar experience."

Slackware 12.1 Released

One of the oldest Linux distributions, Slackware, has pushed out another release. "Well folks, it's that time to announce a new stable Slackware release again. So, without further ado, announcing Slackware version 12.1! Since we've moved to supporting the 2.6 kernel series exclusively (and fine-tuned the system to get the most out of it), we feel that Slackware 12.1 has many improvements over our last release (Slackware 12.0) and is a must-have upgrade for any Slackware user."

Slackware 12.0 Released

Patrick Volkerding has released Slackware 12.0. From the changelog: "Released as Slackware 12.0 with no changes since the last batch. Big Thanks again are due to the CREW, without whom this just wouldn't be possible to do with the level of quality that Slackware users demand. We had a lot of help this time, and I hope it shows in project output that you'll enjoy. Thanks for the support of the Slackware community, because without your support I wouldn't be able to keep leading this project."

‘VectorLinux SOHO: a Better Slackware Than Slackware’

"VectorLinux has been one of my favorite projects since my first test of the distribution almost 18 months ago. I like VectorLinux because its roots are firmly planted in the stability and simplicity of Slackware, yet it comes with an extensive software base and lots of out-of-the-box great looks; in other words, a rock solid foundation with eye candy and useful functionality. While standard VectorLinux comes with the Xfce desktop environment and a variety of general-purpose applications, VectorLinux 5.8 SOHO offers the KDE desktop and a host of applications for small and home office users."

Review: Slackware 11.0

Open Addict reviews Slackware Linux 11.0, and concludes: "The latest Slackware release is more of the same pure Slackware goodness from Patrick and Company. It doesn't drastically diverge from 10.2 but adds some new software packages and includes some newer kernel support. Hardware detection is pretty much as basic as it can be with much of the configuration and tweaking on you - the end user. Thankfully, it isn't hard to configure Slackware through its easy to find textfile-based configuration files, but newbies might be lost."