Slackware 8.1 is Released

MrSnivvel writes: "Slackware 8.1 has been released. Highlights of this release include KDE 3.0.1, GNOME 1.4.1 (with new additions like Evolution), the long-awaited Mozilla 1.0 browser, support for many new filesystems like ext3, ReiserFS, JFS, and XFS, and support for several new SCSI and ATA RAID controllers. Remember to buy your copies at http://store.slackware.com. List of download mirrors here. Public releases of Mozilla AND Slackware in the same month, I'm so happy I've soiled myself."

Comments

how many floppies

[matthew.thompson]

My first memory of Slackware was installing it off 30 odd floppies - how many does this come on?

M@T :o)

Re:how many floppies

[forged]

The first version of Slackware was based on SLS which I used at the time. The first Slaskware 1.x used to fit on ~30 floppies as you describe, and the later versions of the distro would require ~80.

In the lot, there was always one or two floppies with bad sectors. So when we planned our install nights, it was always an event split in 2 parts! (We'd come back the following days with the missing/fixed floppies).

A quick Google search revealed that some sites have (or rather, had) kept the historic distribution here. If you look at the directory structure, the relationship with Slackware is striking (it's the same tree).

Re:how many floppies

[qurob]

I downloaded them from a WildCat! BBS, on a 2400bps modem. Thank god for Y-Modem Batch, or whatever it was.

It took me all night. I woke up in the morning, installed it. Typed cd, ls, vi. I wrote a C program (was just leaving Pascal), and waited 7 minutes for the damn thing to compile. I re-installed DOS, and went back to playing Duke Nukem, Tie Fighter, and Prince of Persia.

Timing is everything

[mustprotectdata]

I'm glad to see a distribution that is releasing at "the right" time. RedHat, the normal distie of choice, if only because of it's market dominance, seems to have developed the knack of releasing just too early.

i.e. - gcc (where is v3.1)?
- mozilla (not v1)
- kde 3.0.0 (effectively a late beta)

etc...

What I really want is the latest, reasonably stable version of everything. i.e I want to be current but not bleeding edge.

Go Patrick

Re:Timing is everything

[Charm]

When was the last time you changed a setting and your distro changed it back.
Never saw that behavior with Red Hat. Is there a case of this happening with other distros, or are you making things up?

I actually saw slackware do it to someone the other day. He changed MOTD and the system changed it back after a reboot. Because MOTD is built by a script in /etc/rc.d
After the Script was altered it worked but he was confused nonetheless

Slackware is also very stable thats why it doesn't use GCC 3.1 out of the box.
That would probably also mean that Slackware is useless for C++ development. GCC 2.95 is just not very standards compliant for C++ development. But it is a very stable C compiler.

Is there something about GCC 2.95 we should know. I assume you are talking about maybe a STL problem.

Re:Timing is everything

[SN74S181]

His point, and it is a valid one, is that going in and hand editing the config files in /etc doesn't get you started in a wrestling match with a lot of scripts run out of a baroque array of GUI config tools.

Back when I ran Red Hat for a short while, after having run Slack for a long time (this was back in the Red Hat 5.0 era) I used to say 'I run Red Hat linux for about the first ten minutes until I fix things.' I hated the awkward way the Modular kernal was slugged around by Red Hat at the time, so the first thing I'd do was go in and hard code all the stuff I needed into a monolythic kernal.

I remember how mad it made me that Red Hat hard-coded in the 'tweaked' name of their special kernel in lilo.conf, so that I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out why my rebuilt kernal wouldn't work before discovering what was going on. I remember their tweaking of the Xconfig script of their 'version' of the kernal source so that certain options couldn't be selected.

It wasn't long before I went back to Slack.

reinstall?

[stalwart]

Format the harddrives and REINSTALL Slackware!

are you nuts? why format and reinstall? use pkgtool and such (upgradpkg, installpkg) to install/upgrade your packages/libs.

this is an advanced os, it can do things most can't, such as not suck ass (or need to be 'reinstalled' whenever a newer version comes out).

most distros could learn a lot from slack.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[SealBeater]

Yep a lot more windows user and linux haters - slackware is not a product to learn linux on for beginners - it is however the best damn Linux out there and once you know a bit about linux you will love it - but please dont install it as your first attempt at linux

Sorry, no offense, but that is bullshit. I started off on slackware, downloaded 50 floppies worth over 3 days on a 14.4 and never looked back. It's the only way to properly learn. I've been using slackware ever since and have had no reason to use anything else. If the only way a person is willing to use and learn linux is to have a gui-fied windows clone in front of them, quite frankly I would rather they never make the attempt.

Slackware and Debian are oses that dont suffer fools lightly..

Thank god.

SealBeater

Why as why?

[sonnyjz]

Are you joking?

Slackware is easy as 1-2-3 to install and takes about 20 minutes to complete.

You say it supports obsolete ext/2 fs? I beg to differ, supports all of the filesystems that the 2.4.x supports. READ THE README for more information. Or do you ignore documentation?

You say you have to edit at least 2000 files? I also beg to differ. You don't have to edit a thing, but I suggest you edit a handful of the rc files to make sure you aren't loading a ton of unneccasary modules and services.

Finally recompiling your kernel is a good idea. Or do you also ignore meaningless tasks like that?

Doing all of the above is done in all distro's for any person that runs linux or is interested in running a tight ship for their favorite distro.

As far are your *hints* go I got one for you.
Read documentation and get a clue before you attempt to bash something you have no idea about.

Believe me, you won't sound as simple as you really are.

Re:excuse me but

[Zeek]

Gentoo compiles EVERYTHING specificly foryour system as you download. Slackware is just a basic i386 compiled (no enhancements in the compiling) so gentoo would in theory be faster if you can get it to run right in the first try
Zeek
now how does grub like 3 operating systems!

Re:About that 'mozilla' browser

[schon]

Is it Slackware's browser, like Konqueror for KDE?

Slackware doesn't have 'a' browser; in addition to Mozilla, it ships with Konqueror (if you installk KDE), Netscape 4.77, Lynx, Galeon, and others... all of which are optional - you're not forced to use (or even install) any of them.

Re:Woody

[BrokenHalo]

I, too seriously considered Woody when I was last looking around for a "real" distro after an abortive foray into Mandrake; I don't have the bandwidth to download ISOs, so I mostly have to buy CDs. The simple fact is that Slack 8.0 was relatively current and available, but I couldn't find anybody here in Australia who was willing to take the time to answer enquiries for Woody CDs. As it happens, having revisited Slackware now that it's outgrown it's "satan worshipper" image, I'm glad I did - it's a fscking good distro.

Re:Hooray!

[adolf]

The general trick with Slackware is to only upgrade those packages which need upgrading, with a "if it's not broke, don't fix it" mentality. Use upgradepkg, or removepkg/installpkg to get this done.

I've been upgrading my Slackware desktop machine peicemeal since 3.0. It runs the latest, greatest versions of everything I care about, but I'm pretty sure I haven't upgraded awk, sed, ncurses or SVGAlib in years. Some more frequently-used software gets updated as often as Patrick releases it, such as X, and I keep a few smaller things on the bleeding edge (LAME, grip, etc) by compiling by hand.

I don't care if I don't have the latest versions of esd, lpr, KDE, Gnome, or a slew of other random programs, because I seldom/never use them.

Subscribe to the slackware-security list and you'll stay updated as to things which might need fixing, even if they're not broke.

In my experience, old releases of slackware tend to cooperate very well with new binary packages of stuff.