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Slackware 8.1 rc1 Announced
Demerol writes with word that "about 12 hours ago, Patrick announced the that Slackware is now in Release Candidate stage in preparation for the long-awaited 8.1 release. Hundreds of updated to the current tree in the last few months have had all the slackers drooling, and now it is almost upon us. Now, I don't want to hear any more talk of Slackware being dead. Thanks. ;) Here is the ChangeLog
and the Userlocal announcement"
At first sight. At second sight Slackwares simplicity and stability is refreshing and unmatched, especially by Gentoo.
This from an ex-FreeBSD user that instinctively started with Gentoo, but who was very dissapointed; it is only superficially like FreeBSD (due to the ports system) but on closer look it is very diffent. Slackware truely remains the best choice if you're forced to run Linux (instead of FreeBSD), in my case because of lack of vmware-3 and decent Java in FreeBSD.
Have you looked at the package list? It is one of the most up-to-date Linux distributions in fact; just look at the package versions and compare to any other Linux distribution. All this coming from one man, and offering the most stable and understandable Linux distribution is truely amazing.
wow, everyone's putting out a new relase, even slackware(never realized how apropropriate the name was until now.) maybe I'll have to fire up a test box and try it again.
...and now she's ready to learn.
The question is; why?
slackware has a new one, redhat, mandrake, suse, debian(shortly)... even the packages like mozilla and kde are having long awaited releases....
maybe we're about to stumble on the turning point on the computer era... maybe 10 years from now we'll look at the 1995-2002 as the dark ages of the operating systems.
As a side note, I showed my girlfriend the article about sherwin williams, and she replied, "this linux thing isn't going away, is it?"
Looking for Book Reviews? Check out Literary Escapism.
You can check your email and receive messages from the world wide web! Slackware will help you stay in touch with all your friends by making a buddy list. I know that I instant message my friends all the time. Plus the new Slackware comes with bright shiny buttons, surprising sounds that make you excited about the interweb and being in-touch with folks from around the world who are just like you!!!!!
"Slackware's tech support has been nothing but patient, understanding and helpful!" says grandmother Eunice Haversham.
"It's so easy even I can use it!" says Michigan resident Robert Malda.
The best thing of all about Slackware is the fact that it's FREE !!! Just pick up a copy at McDonalds in their Tux Happy Meal or download it from your favorite website or give us a call at 1-800-LUNIX4U right away and we'll tell you about our other great offers!
It's simple, quick, has a decent interface for installing (non-graphical, non-slow) and once you get it up and running, it is running. It was one of the few distrubutions left where you can get it up, upgrade the kernel to whatever the hell you want and it will [b]still[/b] run. It knows it's target group and delivers.
Packages are good, decently up to date (now) and are not overkill. I couldn't be more pleased
I'm a slackware whore. I sure wish someone would update slackware.com once in a while, pretty sad that some other site has news on this before there's a peep of it on slackware's own web site.
I've used 8.1-beta2 at work, I love it.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
What really amazes me about slackware is that it really does seem to be a one-man show.
This is reassuring to me. It's good to know that there really is one authoritative voice on at leat one distro.
It lacks bells and whistles and requires some expertise, which is why I couldn't stick with it, but philosophically, it appeals to me.
evanchik.net
I was going to download Slack so I could install the base and just do the ./config, make, make install dance for a buncha stuff I like to use, like evilwm. My intentions was to pull something together from installing just the bare libs and packages I need, and create a desktop box for myself that just plain works.
Slackware may not be for everyone, but that doesn't make their efforts any less relevant. They're a proven distro. Looking forward to this!
spam, spam, spam, spam, e-mail, news and spam.
Some people may be wondering why someone would use slackware when there are distros like Mandrake which have a graphical configuration utility for everything. There is a very good reason: to learn about Operating Systems and about Linux. To change a configuration in Slackware, you have to edit text files. But that's not really bad, because Slackware has amazing comments in the config files. You are encouraged to learn the filesystem and the config file structure. If you want to learn Linux as opposed to simply use Linux, run Slackware!
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Latest's of every thing I need:
Apache-1.3.24
php-4.2.1,
with all the php packages I have to move over,
MySQL-3.23.49,
LOTS of standard stuff (Nautilus, Mozilla etc.)
I should be able to upgrade my box, install ZendStudio_Server, use the journalling file system to mirror my drives and have the bullet proof system I need to support my Community Wikis.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
This is the release I've been waiting for. I've tried Redhat, I've tried Mandrake, but I fell in love with Slackware. The Sys V init on the redhat-ish distros annoy me... I really love Slack's BSD style init (and it supports Sys V style too if required!). It's much easier to edit.
Hooray for Patrick and gang! A job well done.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
I used to be a Slackware user. I'm fairly advanced when it comes to Linux and UNIX in general so I don't care at all about graphical interfaces or configuration tools. However, I have fallen in love with advanced package management tools and distro companies that are really quick to update packages.
I just don't have the time to spend a few hours grabbing the latest source patches and doing a recompile. I use to like to compile everything from source so that I could optimise it for my machine but real life eventually got in the way of that and it stopped being fun.
So for the past 3-4 years I've been using Mandrake. But the first thing I do is 'rpm -e linuxconf drakx* kde* gnome*' etc. The reason I like it is not because of the ease of use but because Mandrake is really quick to release security updates and all it takes is a simple urpmi command to download them. Plus every release comes with tons of new toys that I like to play around with when I'm bored.
There's lots of other reasons I choose Mandrake too but I mean this as constructive critisism towards Slackware so I'll leave those out.
Comming from a BSD background I always felt right at home with Slack but when you just want something that you can use and keep up to date and secure with minimum effort then it just doesn't cut it.
I don't feel that you need to be user friendly and geared towards windows and mac users to fill this gap. Just a few command line tools that make a UNIX administrator's life easier when it comes to managing what's installed on the system (and the pkg_* tools are not up to speed on this IMO).
So I'm going to go off on a limb here and get ready to be flamed by all the Slackware lovers. I would probably switch back to Slackware if they were to switch to rpm or deb pkg. They can keep the "no easy configuration tools" or the bsd-style init scripts which I love so much. But I really need a way to customize my system and keep it up to date with minimal effort.
I know Slack has come with rpm installed optionally for a while but all of the system stuff like glibc, bash etc. should be installed as rpms so that it's really easy to updgrade them without taking hours to recompile.
--
Garett
They were acquired by BSDI, because of their support for FreeBSD. Then BSDI was acquired by Wind River Software, entirely for BSD/OS. Pretty much everything associated with them is dead now, AFAIK. Well, FreeBSD has survived, because its development was never dependent on commercial support. And slackware has been hurt by the loss of all of its paid developers, but its always just pretty much been Pat's distribution and despite the lack of support 8.1 looks to be coming along very nicely.
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
The Linux distro business model just doesn't work...
Um, last I heard, Slackware has always been profitable. Quit spreading FUD.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Lazy wimp. Go build your own distro.
In all seriousness, LFS is great when you've got a fast spare machine to play with and want to learn about how Linux works (I've got a "play box" just for this purpose), but I love Slackware for when I need absolute stability and resource efficiency. Good for desktops and servers, 486s to P4s. Thanks for the work, Patrick!
used slackware for about 4 years and i was a gentoo lover within seconds :)
But this doesnt mean i wouldnt use Slack if i need a system up and running fast, cause gentoo is still a slow bastard with all the nice compile time needed...
A few years ago, I installed Slackware on a spare box and thought it was a nice distro. As you said, this is really nice if you want to learn how your OS works rather than just using it.
I don't use it anymore because all of my boxes (including my server) are running linux from scratch which while being much longer to setup (especially the first time), it is the ultimate learning experience. Everything on my workstation was compiled manually by me, including the shell, the compiler, X, etc...
One good thing about slack and linuxfromscratch is that you *know* exactly what is installed on your machine.
IP Therefore I am.
The new slack is coming. Great.
But what is more important - it still has users that loves slack.
Look at comments here! There are no angry posts. Almost everyone claims almost love to slackware, even users that had to go away from slackware. They were made to leave slack, but they still love it.
There are no post like BSD is dying, there are no troll or flamebaits commonly accompaning RedHat or Mandrake releases. Everyone seems to have warm feelings about Slack.
I think that slackware has one of best userbase around here.
Go slack!
:wq
Straight from slackware's server, actually... ftp.slackware.com:slackware/slackware-current, something like that. Unfortunately I haven't been able to actually get in with rsync for a couple weeks now, so I just did a wget mirror from the ftp instead. Max speed I get from there is about 8k/sec so probably be prepared to let it run at least overnight.
Death to the lame distros. Real SA's do Slack.
Stupid RedHat and other GUI installs suck. If I wanted GUI I'd get a Mac.
I was there from the beginning. Slack is the best.
Give me Slack or give me Death!
I agree entirely, but have one thing to add.
Slackware users don't want a packaging system for everyday use.
Try encap. Not really a traditional package manager, but works very well with source.
Basically, instead of "make install", you do "make prefix=/usr/local/encap/(programname-version) install", type "epkg /usr/local/encap/(program-version)", and it symlinks everything to the appropriate /usr/local locations automatically, deleting previous symlinks from old versions beforehand. Yes, you could do symlinks by hand, but that's a pain if the program uses a few hundred different files that can take too much time. Epkg does it in a few seconds.
New version of, say, your favourite email client is misbehaving? "epkg -r /usr/local/encap/(programname-version)" deletes the symlinks. Easy as pie. I love the encap concept since I try lots of bleeding-edge CVS versions of programs. If a new version sucks, I can go back to an older, working version with just a few commands. I don't have to recompile old versions over again.
This is a slackware FAQ.
Patrick won't use bzip2 because it's too resource-hungry for the very low-end that slackware still supports, and also he claims that the difference at gzip -9 vs bzip2 -9 isn't enough to make it worthwhile anyway.
I'm immensely proud of my association with Slackware and with Patrick, but credit where it's due and all that.
--Logan
I looked in the changelog yesterday and it's really impressive to see so much important software beeing up to date.
Slackware isn't anymore using old outdated software. Take a careful look in the changelog and drool.
Also note the boot/root disks supporting the new journaling filesystems directly from a fresh installation.
//Pingo
--- Linux or FreeBSD, it's like blondes or brunettes. I like both. ---
Damnit! Now I'm extra proud of being a Finn. Our parliament made the right decision. I'm happy they weren't swayed by all kinds of luddites with absolutely no clue about the issues regarding nuclear power.
Oh, please. As you know, Slackware has its own package management system, the same one it uses to install with. glibc, bash, and so forth *are* installed via binary packages. No need to recompile. Just follow slackware-current.
I upgraded KDE 2.2.1 to KDE 3.0.1 just by downloading the packages and using upgradepkg. I've also upgraded the kernel, a bunch of my X apps, and even X itself. All without compiling.
I should probably point this out--I'm an idiot. I probably shouldn't even be using a Linux system. But someone like me got Slackware Linux up and running and using all my devices. Wasn't hard at all. And now I have no reason to use Windows except to run certain games.
Then again, maybe I'm just ignorant since I haven't used any other distros since I first used Slackware 4.0. I guess I don't need to try the others when I've already got the best. :)
(shameless plug) Slackersguild will always use Slackware... ;)
Friends dont let friends use src packages...
.tgz is easy to use, and contains the binaries. You just install and go.
Binary packages only. Src packages have too many problems. Theres an effort over at OpenBSD to audit all the ports tree due to the compile errors on a large percentage of the ports.
RPM is a damn good idea, but it falls short when you get hit with dependancy hell. On Solaris pkg is another good example, and a little easier to manage, and no compile problems.
Slackeware
Theres a time and place for source, and not everyone needs to compile for third party options, or try to milk 5% extra speed out of a program. A generic install base has advantages. I can setup a nat server with internal dns, port forwarding, and services in 20 minutes with packages. If I had to use src, it would take me much longer to compile everything. Slackware has been one truely small, efficent distro. I dont use it much anymore except when space is a premium. I'm using *.rpms mostly, so I use suse or mandrake for my workstations, I can get a computer up and running in minutes. Tweak time shouldnt take hours, even thou its enjoyable. (-;
-
for f in `ls -la *.rpm | awk '{print $9}'` ; do rpm -ivvh --force --nodeps $f ; done
I'll say this. Because of Slackware's "raw" way of doing things, Linux isn't really as intimidating as it once was when I was but a newbie. Redhat's RPMs were nice, but I always wondered where everything was going, what it was doing behind the scenes, etc.
Having used Slack, that mystique is gone, and I'm okay now with the basic internals of Linux. I just grew comfortable with it since Slackware exposes it all. Hell, I'm even toying with doing Linux from scratch. As someone pointed out before, Slackware is one of the best ways to truly learn Linux.
I agree. From now on hamster powered engines equipped with free-range unionized hamsters will be the norm. We should implement this immediately or dire consequences will result.
You have been warned.
peace.
I've been waiting for this a long time - Gives me a good reason to reinstall. I was expecting it to come during the last few weeks and I've been trolling the slackware ftp to see if anything had changed - and I was kinda hoping to be the first to post it here on slashdot. Heh, only to find that somebody else posted it first and it even had more than 100 comments already... makes me wonder how you ppl are spending your time.
Great this is good news!!! This is cause for a celebration!
Well.... I for one have no idea who this Ted Nugent fella is, but I am what you might call a gun-tottin', coon-hutin' redneck. Doesn't mean I don't know my way around a computer though.
Slackware forever. Honestly, what else would you trust when it absolutely positively has to be stable, secure, and easy
As All slackers know "Simplicity is the Divine" A LinuX distro who really saw linux kernel 0.99.15 in its first release!
Now troll on this if you can!
Never learn by your mistakes, if you do you may never dare to try again
The main disadvantage of bzip2 is that it's MUCH slower than gzip.
They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
I'm a happy Slackware user. I've been a Slack user for years - and not just out of "being used to it". I used Slackware in my first job, I built mailservers on it in my second job, I used it to run a complete ISP in my third job, and a complete domain registry in my fourth job (incidentally, I'm still on a heck of a salary and really enjoy my work).
I've actually looked at other distributions to make maintainence easier, but:
- Debian I found was populated by anal freaks who were real religious fanatics - we had a department full of Debian people and I said "ok, let's do Debian then" and two years later I'm finding it hard to work out just where they put everything [1].
- RedHat just had too many problems and decided to SetUID root a load of crap (plus there's the obvious rootkits).
- SuSE fell apart at the seams.
So I went back to Slackware.It's quite funny when someone came along, found a security hole such as the recent OpenSSH hole, and tried to crack a Slack box - it was fairly obvious from the start, because the rootkits failed. Then I built Slack packages for tripwire and stuff.
Pat's got it right, IMHO. It's a good, simple distro with decent ground-up building. And there's a lot of misconception that you have to build stuff on Slack boxes - you don't - you can quite happily build packages.
I now run Slack on my laptop, on the company servers, on my desktop, and loads of other places. It works for me. I'm pleased to see Pat's finally got it together for 8.1 (I've been following the updates for some time).
But one bit of advice: update slackware.com - it's bloody old.
Snogs,
Joel.
[1] Admittedly I haven't got used to it in the same way I got used to Slack, but there's enough people in the company who can get used to Slack. Standardising means getting other people to learn it too.
Smegma.
Yes, I have used both.
I started with Slackware in 0.98 kernel times (when was that, about 1992?). After one year I switched to FreeBSD, been using it since a few months ago as my main OS. Now back to Linux, my first try was Gentoo because of the ports system which should be FreeBSD like.
Unfortunately, while the ports system is nifty and interesting, I think Gentoo as a whole still very immature. Also it is really more a sysv-like linux, Slackware being the only linux that feels like FreeBSD (mainly due to the BSD-style simple init scripts). Also slackware packages are so easy to roll yourself.
The main problem with Gentoo, IMO, is that not only add-on software are packages (as is the case with FreeBSD, the base system being one big consistent piece) but everything. The result is that every user is running a configuration of ports making up the (basic) system that is quite unique, i.e. that is hardly tested. It depends on the time that you rsync the Gentoo ports tree. The 'locking-down' mechanism, which fixes certain versions of ports even when other (newer) versions are available can prevent this 'version hell', but in the current configuration it is not used enough. Many users complain on essential ports not being compilable or crashing, due to the fact that they have slightly different versions of other packages that have interactions.
I think that gentoo has potential, but at this time is no match for slackware. Also the quality of a distribution does not (only) depend on how nifty its package system is. What is more important is how well tested the system as a whole is, and (for me) especially how simple and understandable it is.
vmware-3 does not run on freebsd alas (i bought the linux version, and it has substantial advantages over vmware-2).
you can run linux jdk, but no hotspot variants (so no jdk 1.4 at this time).
still, if only i would have vmware-3 running well under freebsd i'd switch back in a minute.
I have been with Slackware since 1995, when they released 2.3.
Now the introductions are over, let's think about Netscape.
IMHO Netscape is bound to have more users than Slackware it runs on multi-platform, it is released with almost every Linux distribution.
Enough... you must be a troll?
Yet someone (a moderator) found this funny?
I just built a Dual Athlon system... I installed XP just waiting for 8.1 - no other Operating System will do, until 8.1 is avaiable.
PS Has anyone noticed this on the BBC? Is it a scoop or is it old news?
alt.os.linux.slackware has known that rc1 on was out for a few days now and someone on the group even makes the effort to make current ISOs on a weekly bases. Other innovations mentioned in that group are the ability's to easily install slackware from ftp or DOS.
Ascii artist &
I've been using Slackware since 3.5 back in 1997, and I continue using it today. In fact, I'm posting this from my Slackware 8-ish box. So why Slackware? It's all about simplicity. Let's get more specific...
The lack of "forced" package dependencies is a good thing. When I know exactly what I want, I don't need to care about "forced" package dependencies. I run a Debian laptop at home, and when package dependencies break (ok so I'm trying out the unstable branch), it can be a real pain to fix that back. And I don't even want to get started on RPM (yes I run a Red Hat box too). But if I know exactly what I want, I can fix everything myself in Slackware. I'm not forced to accept what a package/distro maintainer wants me to install. It's all about control.
Learning Linux/UNIX. Some of you have already mentioned this. If you really want to learn about Linux/UNIX administration/development, Slackware is a great distro for that purpose. Now, people who would just want to use Linux as a desktop (for non-programming purposes) should use another distro. Slack's not for you. However, people who really want to learn will love the DIY-ness of Slackware. When you have to compile stuff yourself, or figure out why a certain library isn't working, you'll learn a whole heap of skills and tricks that will be really useful to you later. For example...
Moving back and forth from/to BSD is a breeze. When I first had to admin an OpenBSD box, I felt right at home. The similar *.tgz-style packages were easy to admin, and so was editing/configuring the system via editing text files. I later had to do some research using FreeBSD boxes, and again, I'm on familiar ground.
There are a whole lot of other reasons too, but I can't spell it out right now due to my current semi-hangover mode...
The downside: Of course, the obvious downside to using Slackware is time. You need to have heaps of time to learn and use it. But once you're done with that phase, you'll find your investment in Slackware will be worth it all. Again, I stress that Slackware is not for everyone. I certainly don't expect some of my less-obsessed-with-UNIX friends to like it. But hey, if you're the adventurous type who loves to learn and tinker around with stuff, go try it out. I think you'll like it.
Checking Linux Counter you will find that Slackware runs 12.09% of the registerd boxes. I couldn't find any current numbers indicateing how many netscape users there are. Maybe someone else knows.
Ascii artist &
You may be right,
:-D
but having said that Slackware places an email in every root's inbox asking them to register for the Linux Counter Project, how many other distributions do that?
Looking at the numbers of the project I would say that their numbers are a huge underestimate.
Don't say that this is a smart marketing ploy by Slackware, they've been doing this for over 7 years. It's just a shame that other distributions don't do the same...
There are AFAIK two analyses of Slashdottings to the Linux couter project so I won't provide a Link
As I said in another comment, slackware users don't want a packaging system for every day use. We like to compile things, and tweak them for our own uses.
How about not speaking for all us Slack users, eh?
I have been using slack since '95 and while I do like the fact that I can compile things from source and not fuck up the system since there is no sense of dependencies, I prefer to create my own packages using checkinstall; I maintain about a dozen or so firewalls and when a security problem is identified I remake the package and push it out to all the systems. That way I have no need for compilers on all the systems.
So to conclude: this Slackware user wants a packaging system for day-to-day use. I compile+tweak once and push the new package to all the production servers.
Actually, when I first installed Linux in 1998 i considered lots of distros (Debian, Caldera, RH, Slackware, and probably some more). Finally I installed Slackware because that was the only distribution that had an installation procedure that felt... solid (and worked from floppies). I had never used Linux, and had only little experience of Solaris from University. In a month I had Slackware 3.6 running on a Compaq LTE 5300 laptop. The PCMCIA modem worked. The TFT-display worked. I downloaded tarballs and recompiled my kernel.
I dont think I would have made it with another distribution. Whats so good with Slackware is that if something does not work, then you know it is your fault. There is always something you have done wrong, or something you dont know or understand. I'm a pretty experience Windows user, and when things dont work in Windows, its always Windows fault (Its true!). Its never slackwares' fault! I find it much more reassuring to know that solving a problem is just a matter of gaining more insight into it, not a matter of luck. It is always possible to understand what is wrong when using Slackware.
Nowadays I use OS X for daily work, and Debian for other needs (unfortunately OS X can do most things I ever wanted with Linux. so I hardly need Linux).
If I wanted a Linux desktop today chances are I would finally give Suse, Mandrake or Redhat a chance - they seem to be pretty good nowadays.
If I was to set up a server I would stick to Slackware or Debian.
If I wanted to learn or explore I would try Solaris/x86 or BSD, preferably on some odd hardware...
So what did I want to say? Hmm. Start with Slackware, dont give up - there is always a solution (and it is a great feeling to solve problems by really understanding them). When you know Slackware you can use any other Linux-distro you want - if it suits a particular need well. After running slackware you also have a good feeling of what UNIX is, and you feel like you basically can use any BSD or UNIX system.
> This is a troll. I grew up on Slack since '95. Go slack!
:-]
Even trolls think positively about slackware
:wq
I think it is quite interesting how slack has different boot kernels for different hardware configs for the install. Thats a pretty unique approach in my opinion. I also think that the installer rocks. Its very easy to use (even if it isn't 'Mandrake-esque') and I love curses programs. I do have a question though (haven't found the answer in the changelog). Does anyone know if there is an installer image with the base ISO that has a kernel supporting USB HID devices? The PS/2 ports on my best machine are fried and I only use USB for keyboard and mouse. I know I can download the image but I also don't have a floppy drive on that machine. Any help would be appreciated.
Your a sysadmin not a user here
This is true. I run slack on my notebook too and I *definately* use source installs for things like KDE and so on, mostly because I don't want to wait for the package to be created.
Mind you now, once I've compiled here it's a simple matter of creating the package for any of my other machines. :-)
After I downloaded Slack 8.0 Last Year some time. I was always kinda curious how long before the next release. and After A year goes by and the forum closes down I start thinking maybe they are having a problem . Maybe slack is going away. Maybe the maintainer is just to busy to keep up slack. Well after reading the changelog that guy has been busy allright maintaining and making slack better more power to ya I should have sent my 20 buck to slack instead of mandrake. Don't forget to follow the adventures of slack-girl
It's all Politics
SuSEConfig doesn't rule out using custom config files, it just makes you learn to edit them in the generator script instead of in the resulting file. Once you get the hang of it, it's really a decent system to use.
:) Then again, I'm biased because I started on Slack back when it was actually one of the more modern distros and there was no ISO available (man, that makes me feel old). I wouldn't have learned as much general linux stuff if I'd started with some other more "cutomized" distro - I would've just learned that distro.
Then again, I really think that Slackware is a good learning distro because it *forces* you to learn if you want it to work. If there's a lazy way to do something, I'll do it, so forcing me to learn is a good thing.
Exactly! And even after stating it you never understand it. Slackware does things in very standard ways, so instead of learning the peculiarities of a particular distribution, you just learn solid standard *nix.
The LSB is just wind. Slackware is the living standard that you can install on your machine, run, use, tinker with.
SysVinit is just annoying. RPM *shrug* you can install it on slack if you need it, knock yourself out.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Slackware does things in very standard ways....The LSB is just wind.
:)
No comment.
There is a site that makes binary packages of mostly everything you'll for slackware 8 and 7. You'll need some packages that are hard to compile or that you don't need much personalization or that you may want to easily remove with removepkg.
So in between official upgrade, take a loot at the linuxpackages.net site.
unfinished: (adj.)
No, the 1.3 JDK is still being ported. There are still problems with threads, and progress is very slow. Sun has done nothing, except to give a source licence a few months ago (read the freebsd-java mailing list for details).
Isn't this similar to the stow GNU utility?
unfinished: (adj.)
Hell, I run 7.x on a 486. The only reason it doesn't run 8 is because it's working so well I don't have to think about it. I put Slack on all my servers, from the 486 to a 1.8P4. Slack is good.
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
Regarding your (presumed) rant about RPM being specified in the LSB, it's not really that bad, since nobody IS forcing you (even though some RPM-based-distro users would have you believe otherwise). IIRC, all the LSB specifies is that distros should have some way of installing RPM packages. Slack users can install RPM, and Debian users can use alien.
I haven't even said I dislike Slackware, just that I can't see a benefit to forcing users to run text files (as the post I am responding to asserts is the case).
Respond. Don't moderate me into oblivion. That isn't a troll. If you think it is, explain why.