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

Great!

[FooBarWidget]

Cheers to all the Slackware developers for delivering this excellent distribution!

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Troll leader Anonymis Coward states that there are 7000 goatse.cx trolls. How many ascii art trolls are there? Let's see. The number of goatse.cx versus ascii art posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 ascii art trolls. Pimply-faced GNU hippies posts on $lashdot are about half of the volume of ascii art posts. Therefore there are about 700 Cock-Gobbling GNU Hippies. A recent article put "first post" at about 80 percent of the troll market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 "first post" trolls. This is consistent with the number of first posts.

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, this should say: "Cheers to the slackware developer."

Nice!

[bjtuna]

I wonder how long till The Slackware Administrators' Security Toolkit will have an 8.1 version.

Anyway, go Patrick!

Re:Nice!

[bjtuna]

erm, that should have been:

www.sastk.org

darn typos.

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

As soon as it gets a proper link?

Re:Nice!

[bjtuna]

That was very clever. Of course, I noticed my mistake right away and immediately corrected it by replying to my own message. But you're a troll, so you don't actually *read* anything on this site.

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for bringing this up; I didn't know about this until now and it looks pretty damn sweet.

Re:Nice!

[BrokenHalo]

Who cares? Slackware (IMHO) is so much easier to administer manually than any other distro I've tried (which is, unfortunately, more a reflection on the dependency hell I've run into with RPM-based systems in the past, but that has been a subject for other postings). My (updated) Slack 8.0 system is running so smoothly, I think I'll wait for a couple of weeks before I upgrade, though...

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty clever yourself. You posted a broken link (on purpose; admit it) of a useful tool, which garnered you a couple of "informative" points. Then, you posted a so-called "correction" with a working link, and garnered even MORE karma points. Ironically, the moderators were stupid enough to fall for it. You played them well.

Personally, I think your first post should be moderated down (after all, the link is broken, and there it is off-topic, overrated, or redundant), and your corrected post should be moderated down because a) you are an obvious karma whore, or b) you should be punished for not using the preview button before posting.

Fucking whore.

Re:Nice!

[bjtuna]

I'm pretty sure I reached the karma cap a long time ago (of course I may not have, in which case it further demonstrates that I could not care less about my karma). Anyway, sorry I offended you by correcting my original broken link. If I was a moderator, I wouldn't have modded me up for EITHER post, but they did, and I have no control over that.

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

> Slackware (IMHO) is so much easier to
> administer manually than any other distro
>
Amen to that! Slackware is the only distribution I've used (and I tried all the main one's), that actually had sensible defaults for everything during installation. Whereas with RedHat I'd use the "server" install and then still have to un/check various things, Slackware stood out extremely pleasant in that everything I'd have checked already was (and nothing else!). In terms of bloat...well, there is little to none and I personally like it that way. The important stuff is there, the umpteenth e-mailer v0.2 is left out (unless requested by users) and all in all a great distribution comes together. Best of all, it all works really nicely. The one guy does better QA than most departments I know!
Plus, the Slackware package system is the best of them all, no matter what anyone tells me. It has never been as easy for me to maintain the distro! "installpkg foobar.tgz" -> BAM! "upgradepkg foobarnew.tgz" -> BAM! It just works. No nonsense.
Thanks Slack!
Oh yeah...Slackware arguably also has the coolest plush-Tux ever! ;-)

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, you sure know how to play the karma game, you cocksucking fucking whore.

By the way, please stop posting with a +2 bonus unless you have something insightful to say, you fucking whore.

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

Every distro has dependency problems, but when you're compiling by source, you're rarely warned about it. Eg:

./configure
...libBlah.so: version 4.5 needed. 4.2 detected.

Ok, so you compile/install libBlah 4.5 but both the program you're trying to install AND the previous program that used libBlah both link to libBlah.so.4 which used to symlink to 4.2 but now symlinks to 4.5. Surprise! Although it's a minor version # change, said library has differences which now cause the program that used 4.2 to barf all over.

Welcome to dependency problems.

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

It must be nice to vent your anger at undeserving people anonymously.

Re:Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL you must be on the bottom of the karma latter, the envy just seeps thru :)

Why does how he post bother you at all you anal bag of degenerative monkey shit. If you still had the balls you were born with you'd realize that, but instead we'll get entertained by a dancing colon.

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

[Hadlock]

264. and they're not in sequential order, unless you opt to do ALL the packages. (...please insert disk 9....please insert disk 83....please insert disk 63...)i really wish my last CD-ROM drive hadn't died on me :(

Re:how many floppies

[larien]

IIRC, it was about a dozen when I first tried it, but that was 6-7 years ago. Dunno what it's like now, I'm afraid as after that, I didn't use Linux for a few years and tried Redhat for a bit before sticking to Debian, mainly because of apt-get :)

Please don't take this as an excuse for a distro flamewar; some people prefer Redhat/Suse/Mandrake/whatever, I'm happy with Debian.

Re:how many floppies

[JohnFred]

They have given up on floppies. Given that the Slackware 8.0 I have at home is on 2CDs and takes around 800Mb (probably a bit more) a quick calculation suggests 556 floppies for all that concentrated slackware goodness.

Not surprising they gave up really, 556 floppies would be a distribution nightmare. Imagine 555 un-numbered floppies arriving in the post. Which one is the 556th missing one?

Re:how many floppies

[Surak]

Which one is the 556th missing one?

Whichever one you don't have. :)

Re:how many floppies

[TrollBurger]

Dear god man, you can pick up second hand cd rom drives for under $5 (australian - thats about $2 US). Please, do yourself a favour and get one. The amount of money you would have spent on buying floppy disks far outweights how much any sort of 2nd hand drive would cost...

...unless you were trolling just then... if you were, then here's a goatse.cx link just in case, just so i dont feel left out.

cheers

Re:how many floppies

[rmgrotkierii]

Uhhh, seeing how I have the Slackware 8.0 cd next to me, I only count one cd [install cd] and that is all that is needed to install slackware, what do you need that you need to have it on 2 CDs?

Re:how many floppies

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do weirdos keep plugging apt-get and debian. Nobody cares what you think, furthermore it might suprise you to know that we already know all about debian. Please take apt-get and stuff it up your bum. Then please come back and tell us how it felt. In the future, please consider that we already know all this shit and your pathetic whining about debian just makes us all sick.

Re:how many floppies

[JimmyGulp]

There is a CD with extras on it, I never bothered to download it last time.

Re:how many floppies

[rmgrotkierii]

I've never downloaded that CD myself either, I just download the install cd, burn it, and install it, and if I need X, I just go to here and search for the package I want to install. *shrugs* What is on the extra cd by the way? :)

Re:how many floppies

[stikves]

slackware no longer supports "any" floppy installation.

It used to support full floppy installation before (I guess) 7.0. After that you could only install bas and network series with floppies.

Now they have dropped all floppy support and merged a1, a2, a3.. into a. (a1 a2 were base system floppies).

Anyways go try it. I used pre8.1 images from slackware-current. It realy rocks. If you need floppy installation, you have to copy everything to a hard drive and boot setup from floppies (almost every distro does it this way).

Re:how many floppies

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of us support the vendors and actually BOUGHT the two cd set from the slackware store. What a novel idea, huh?

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

[sebol]

Which one is the 556th missing one?

ops.... errr I think i've overwrite it with 559th

Re:how many floppies

[rmgrotkierii]

And, of course, we will be happy to accept your pre-orders for the Slackware 8.1 official 4 CD-ROM set here

It's a 4 CD set, not 2, even Slackware 8.0 is a 4 CD set if you buy it from the store, what a novel idea. :)

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.

Re:how many floppies

[JimmyGulp]

If I told you, I would have to kill you. ;)

Rough Translation: I can't find it to download it. :(

Re:how many floppies

[rmgrotkierii]

Eh, that's alright, I might download the extra cd later this week sometime. It'll give me something to do other than read and waste my summer being unproductive. Hehe. :)

Re:how many floppies

[Gleef]

stikves writes:
slackware no longer supports "any" floppy installation.
It used to support full floppy installation before (I guess) 7.0. After that you could only install bas and network series with floppies.

I haven't tried this, but the Slackware Installation Help seems to disagree with you.

Re:how many floppies

[BrokenHalo]

Mine's a set of 3 CDs; install, source and one marked "contrib" which I've never looked at.

Re:how many floppies

[BrokenHalo]

The docs at Slackware still refer to installing from floppies; I haven't done this, however, since the very early days when it all fitted on something like (I can't remember exactly) a dozen floppies, and my floppy drive was so flaky I had to have three sets to be sure of getting one that was useable... Them were the days... :-)

Re:how many floppies

[(startx)]

that page, and several other pages, are out of date. I've emailed pat a couple of times about it, but I guess he was to busy getting 8.1 out the door.

Re:how many floppies

[joib]

Eh? Your computer was able to run duke nukem and tie fighter while compiling a simple C program took 7 minutes? right...

And yes, it took ages to download on a 2400bps modem (I did it too ;-))

Re:how many floppies

[Anonymous Coward]

When is the last time you did a floppy install?? I'd much rather spend the $30 to buy a CD-ROM drive or even $10 to buy a network card to do a network install before I sat there and swapped 80 floppy disks! Anyone that came to me wanting Linux installed on a machine that didn't have a CD-Rom drive would get an odd look. I'd let them borrow a net card and install it first before I used floppies. Ick.

Re:how many floppies

[Jonavin]

When I saw "Slackware" I immediately thought "Is that still around?".

It was the first distro I intsalled -- on a 486SX 4MB RAM 100MB HD Laptop. I don't remember it being more than 15 floppies... but it has about 8 years. Was the kernel even at verison 1? Was it '93? '94? It's one of the first SLS releases.

Re:how many floppies

[forged]

Remember, this was in 1994-1995 ..... At that time, people would still ran MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.0; CD-Rom drives were not common yet, CD-Writers did not exist for consumers unless you didn't mind spending $1000's and not everybody had a network card either. In fact, being networked was a big deal at the time, and people even managed to work without the Internet :)

Re:how many floppies

[simm_s]

Two, if you have a network card/modem/serial with a connection to the outside. Load the boot and root disks, setup the root partition, and download the rest! I have even gotten parallel port cdrom drives to work in linux!

Re:how many floppies

[boa13]

Err, people ran MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11. Windows 95 was a hot topic, and everybody dreamed of getting a 4x CD-ROM. CD-Writers were science-fiction, in fact nobody talked about them because there was no chance it would arrive in homes before many years. CompuServe and AOL were big things to subscribe to, and some people even talked about the inter network.

Re:how many floppies

[Anonymous Coward]

> What is on the extra cd by the way?
>
Extra packages some people like to have, such as 3dfx support, Blackbox WM, GCC 3.1, java2-runtime-environment, HAM stuff, GNU parted, Sam Latinga's SDL, SGMLTools and other stuff. You may or may not need/want it.

Re:how many floppies

[rmgrotkierii]

Ohhhhh Thanks for the information, I really apperciate it. :)

Re:how many floppies

[qurob]

1024k of RAM

386SX 16MHz

Duke Nukem II ran fine, as did Tie Fighter. But Tie Fighter looked so much better, with the graphics options on, on my friends 386DX 40MHz...bastard could run Quake, too!

Whoa there...

[Tranvisor]

I'm so happy I've soiled myself.

That's what I call "to much information".

Re:Whoa there...

[Anonymous Coward]

All your slack are belong to ASSMAN!!!!!!!!

Re:Whoa there...

[Reikk]

You might also call that "too much information" if you spoke English.

Hmmm

[Zathruss]

Kickass, now I just wish my connection was faster...

Re:Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I have DSL and although my connection can go up to 60kBps I'm only averaging 7kBps or so.

I'll just have to leave it running until tomorrow :)

Slackware is fun

[Anonymous Coward]

I like Slackware. I lke Patrick.

Slackware

[p3ncap]

poop smells good!

Re:Slackware

[TrollBurger]

Not a bad first post (i mean its your very first post).

Perhaps try to put a SUBTLE GOATSEX LINK in to your posts in the future.

Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm so happy. I thought Slack was dead there for awhile. I had been grabbing all the tarballs from slackware-current hoping that would tide me over until I could find another distro...but I shouldn't have lost faith that soon!!!

Woody

[ultrabot]

I'm so excited I'm getting a Woody...

Or not.

Aagh, the temptation. I feel I *must* get a new distro soon (rh7.3 doesn't quite cut it), and Woody will probably never be released. It's Slackware for me, at least when it gets to the mirrors.

Re:Woody

[Per Wigren]

Try Gentoo! It raawks! :))

Re:Woody

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with this post. rh7.3 is pathetic and amatuerish. slackware is among the top 2 distros.

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:Woody

[Anonymous Coward]

slackware and the other being what?

Re:Woody

[alienmole]

Debian.

Re:Woody

[Anonymous Coward]

running debian test (pre-release of 3.0) now. it works fine (except gnome help doesnt work)

Re:Woody

[CentrX]

So why don't you just use woody now?

Re:Woody

[Anonymous Coward]

been running woody for a year and a half now.

for a desktop you don't have to wait for the release.

Re:Woody

[daecabhir]

How is this off-topic? Everyone else is chatting up their favorite distro, why can't Per?

Re:Woody

[Per Wigren]

Thanks! :)

HUBBA HUBBA!

[Anonymous Coward]

check out this hot little blonde vixen!

A good sign

[analog_line]

The Slackware Store has been slashdotted. Good job everyone who's making that server's life hell for a good cause!

Re:A good sign

[Anonymous Coward]

...And doing it with much pleasure!
Slackware still rocks like no other distro does. The thing I always admired of Slack is the way the system is flexable as a rubber band. IMHO more so than Deb or RH (haven't given Gentoo a try though...).

Gratz to the Slackware team!

- MJ

Re:A good sign

[analog_line]

Offtopic? Wha? I don't get it...

Re:A good sign

[Charm]

Actually it probably went down before slashdot got there.

Whoever modded you Offtopic was stupid.

Re:A good sign

[parnasus]

Slackware was my first distro (1994) and I had used it exclusively up 'til the beginning of this year. I have to say, though, that I've been very impressed with Gentoo and its abilities. If you have a spare machine, and who doesn't these days, you should give it a try.

Re:A good sign

[Anonymous Coward]

> The Slackware Store has been slashdotted.
>
Not that you need it. Make out a check or money order in US dollars to Slackware Linux, Inc and send it to Slackware Linux, Inc., 3623 Sanford street, Concord, CA 94520 USA.
Slack 8.1 is $39.95, Slack "Essentials" book is $19.95 and combo of the two is $49.95. CA residents add 8.25% sales tax. Otherwise no s/h...
Last time I ordered (8.0) I got my stuff in a week.

Re:A good sign

[Anonymous Coward]

He's lying. That's his home address. Please send your slackware orders (with check or money order) to:

1029 Maple St.
Chiloquin, OR 97624

The price is correct though.

Re:A good sign

[Anonymous Coward]

> send your slackware orders...to Chiloquin, OR
>
Running out of booze again and need some quick cash from unsuspecting would-be Slackware users, Mr. ORegonian? :)
No, Slack and Pat are definitely CA based. But then, if any doubt check here:
http://store.slackware.com/ (see the help section and/or the store FAQ)

My first distro

[Anonymous Coward]

Slack was the first version of Linux I installed... version 3, I think. The next one I tried was Red Hat.

But in the end, both disappointed me and I found my way to FreeBSD. Not a troll, just the truth.

Re:My first distro

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry. It actually is an off-topic troll. Just saying it is not a troll doesn't change that.

Re:My first distro

[Anonymous Coward]

Still it is true, linux is a diappointment, unless you are a newbie. After you get a few months experience, you too will realize that linux is just a bunch of over-hyped fluff. Then you can move on and find something better( like VMS ).

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]

Really the best thing about Slackware is that it is like C. Not like assembly so that you have to do everything. But not like higher level languages where everthing is done with magic tricks. When was the last time you changed a setting and your distro changed it back. That sort of behaviour is unlikely on Slackware.

The user has full control. There is no crappy config tools to get in the way. This is why it is so good for learning Unix and Linux because you have access to the raw system.

In slackware if I want to change the bitdepth of X windows I have to edit it with a text file. At first this might seem silly but when a Redhat user is trying to do something complicated his fancy tools hold him back. Slack users do not have that problem, they understand how the system works.

Slackware is also very stable thats why it doesn't use GCC 3.1 out of the box.

Re:Timing is everything

[bgarcia]

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?

The user has full control. There is no crappy config tools to get in the way.

Let me re-phrase: There are no config tools, good or bad. So if you just want to set up, say, a printer, you must learn how to configure lpd.

This is a great way to learn about lpd (and I learned by setting up Slackware and reading HOWTO's). But if you don't care about how lpd works, and just want a working printer, then the little graphical setup tool that Red Hat provides is a nice time saver.

This is why it is so good for learning Unix and Linux because you have access to the raw system.

You have access to the "raw system" in every Linux distro. Slackware is good for learning linux because it *forces* you to learn the system - you don't have the "crutch" of a graphical config tool.

In slackware if I want to change the bitdepth of X windows I have to edit it with a text file. At first this might seem silly but when a Redhat user is trying to do something complicated his fancy tools hold him back.

No, they don't hold me back at all. I'm free to go directly to my XF86Config file and edit it to my heart's content, just like you do in Slackware.

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.

Re:Timing is everything

[Wild Wizard]

> Never saw that behavior with Red Hat.

go read usenet comp.os.linux.* you'll find its called pam

> So if you just want to set up, say, a printer, you must learn how to configure lpd.

don't be a cheap skate and go buy the cd set and read the little book it'll tell you to run this little program that'll set up your printer in less time then redhats bloated gui ever could

> 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.

gcc 3.1 breaks all c++ librarys and for any distro to upgrade to it at this point would be suicide as it has not been tested. if you know anything about programming you will know that gcc 3.x is currently blacklisted by everyone its just too full of bugs for a production enviroment

Re:Timing is everything

[bamm]

Geeze that's funny. I have used RedHat for a number of years (since 4.1) and rarely use the "fancy tools". Maybe you should s/Redhat/new linux users/

BTW, I use RedHat because I prefer a sysV style run control and find package management systems very useful (please, no rpm vs. apt wars). Back when I had a Pentium 75 and a slow dial up connection it was a nightmare downloading and compiling all the apps I wanted to toy with. Of course I've always drawn the line at installing new kernels using RPM, its sacrilegious ;) Yes, I realize slack now supports a number of different package management systems, but back then it didn't (at least not very well).

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

[Charm]

I wasn't aiming specifically at Redhat users. I just used Redhat as an example. The thing is most Redhat users are not quite as good as you. In Slack it is hard to find people who rely on GUI tools.

BTW slack can use sysvinit scripts they just need to be written.

Re:Timing is everything

[Shadowlion]

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.

Let me rephrase for him: Slackware 8.1 does not use GCC 3.1 by default. It does include GCC 3.1, so if you need to do C++ development, all you need to do is fetch it off one of the disks and install it.

Re:Timing is everything

[Cro Magnon]

I agree! The "more advanced" tools found in RH or Debian sometimes work ok but they can break the system. I only broke my Slack system once, and I was able to "unbreak" it without any problems.

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.

Re:Timing is everything

[MSG]

- gcc (where is v3.1)?

It wouldn't have been compatible with the rest of the series, and hasn't been out long enough to be tested well. That's the biggest part of your misperception of "just too early". For major system components, "just to early" is *way* too early.

- mozilla (not v1)

So it doesn't have the 1.0 stamp on it... Can you name any major flaws in the release? Would it have been worth delaying the WHOLE distro to wait for those? Mozilla had a well known release timeline; if Red Hat thought that 1.0 was worth the wait, they knew when it was coming.

- kde 3.0.0 (effectively a late beta)

Way off. KDE 3.0.0 in Red Hat Linux 7.3 is a CVS snapshot from just before 3.0.1. On the other side of release from beta, this release is considerably more stable than the KDE team's 3.0.0 packages.

Re:Timing is everything

[MSG]

go read usenet comp.os.linux.* you'll find its called pam

pam doesn't change settings, that's rediculous. pam is just an authentication library.

gcc 3.x is currently blacklisted by everyone its just too full of bugs for a production enviroment

Sounds to me like you're just repeating what you've heard, with no understanding of the subject. 3.0 wasn't a very good release, it had problems in several specific areas. 3.1 has been spoken on quite favorably, on the other hand. It seems to be an excellent release, and will be the base compiler of United Linux, and quite likely Red Hat's next Linux distro.

Re:Timing is everything

[Anonymous Coward]

from the changelog.....

extra/gcc-3.1/: Added new gcc-3.1 packages:
gcc-3.1-i386-1.tgz, gcc-g++-3.1-i386-1.tgz,
gcc-g77-3.1-i386-1.tgz, gcc-java-3.1-i386-1.tgz,
gcc-objc-3.1-i386-1.tgz
# standard disclaimer follows :-)
If you use these (which I don't personally recommend) be aware that all C++ related shared libraries (including anything having to do with Qt and KDE) must be recompiled before you can link with them.I may stick with gcc-2.95.x until the kernel is officially gcc-3 ready.

research..reasearch..research..what a great thing

Re:Timing is everything

[CTachyon]

I may stick with gcc-2.95.x until the kernel is officially gcc-3 ready.

My kernel (stock 2.4.18) was compiled without a hiccup using GCC 3.1, and it's been running just fine for 3 weeks now. GCC 3.1 is a dream for everything except (a) C++ apps dependent on C++ libraries (a true bitch sometimes), and (b) software that depends too much on GCC 2.9x bugs (thankfully, such software is very rare).

Re:Timing is everything

[Henry Stern]

When I was a freshman, I took great joy in hosing my Slackware 3.something system on a regular basis. It's what made me the man I am today.

Kind of sad, isn't it. ;)

Re:Timing is everything

[MSG]

...all C++ related shared libraries...must be recompiled before you can link with them.

Yeah, no shit. GCC 3.x doesn't produce C++ binaries compatible with those built by previous GCC's. That's not news, that's the way it's always been. One of the benefits of gcc 3.x is that they've promised a stable C++ ABI.

The fact that you have to rebuild the C++ libraries to build C++ applications doesn't mean that GCC isn't production-ready. It means that the base system wasn't build with GCC 3.x and nothing more.

Re:Timing is everything

[Anonymous Coward]

"go read usenet comp.os.linux.* you'll find its called pam"

What on earth are you talking about? Oh well, another poster took care of that line of BS.

"don't be a cheap skate and go buy the cd set"

Oh, that's just beautiful.. "Look, Linux! Use it because it's open and FREE". "What?! You didn't PAY for it? You fucken cheapskate!" Whatever, guy.

"read the little book it'll tell you to run this little program that'll set up your printer"

So now it's recommended that you use a setup tool instead of hand-editing config files. Kinda goes against the elitest attitude most slacker's have, doesn't it?

"in less time then redhats bloated gui ever could"

Now you're just being an ignorant boob. But you didn't disappoint me! I was expecting an uninformed RedHat cheap-shot in there, and you even followed it up with claiming 'bloat'! "Who cares how little disk space it takes up, if it's Windows or RedHat, it's BLOAT! I know that because I HEARD it somewhere, so it MUST be true! I'll be damned if I actually investigate such a claim because it suits my already slanted take on this subject!"

Bah, the GCC argument was already refuted too and it won't be long before 3.x is placed in mainstream for every kernel.

Re:Timing is everything

[eyez]

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?

Suse used to do this, and a lot. You'd edit /etc/resolv.conf, and then the next time yast ran, it would change the file back, then tell you you were a naughty child who needed a spanking for editing things he shouldn't, and that next time you should have Mommy YAST do it.

Re:Timing is everything

[FuegoFuerte]

BTW, I use RedHat because I prefer a sysV style run control and find package management systems very useful

So again... WHY do you use RedHat? Slackware has both sysV inits if you really feel like giving yourself unneeded headaches, and it has and has (as far back as I remember) always had a good package manager. No dependency hell to worry about, it just does what you tell it to. No more, no less. Not only that, it uses nice standard .tgz packages... If you really want to you can just use tar and gzip to unpack them and do whatever you want with them. No steeeenking RPM databloat to get out of sync with your actual system, nothing. If you really want to, you can use RPMs on slack, but they are NOT supported, as stated in the install. My personal belief is that anyone who would use them on slack is rather silly, but to each his own. Ahh well... trying to convert a RedHat user to slack is like trying to convert a MS whore to Linux. A few may see the light, but most will turn and run at the first sign of the true OS.

Re:Timing is everything

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Nono, it's true. I've seen Red Hat do this often. If you admin redhat the normal way (eg. editing text files) it's a hell of an annoying experience. Find file with (say) hostname in. Edit hostname. Next time you reboot, the goddamn system has replaced it with one it had elsewhere. Talk to Red Hat fans about why it does it that way, they say it's for 'Ease of updating' or some such, cos the config files are comfortably distant... What's wrong with a plain text config??? I never had a problem with 'Ooh, I'm updating, let's see: tar cvfz backup.tgz /etc'... but nooooo, Red Hat like to script the scripts on their scripts and that's ALL there is to it.

Finally Red Hat (and lots of other distros) have just added an awful lot of cruft in order to simplify life for the maintainers (I assume). It tends to break some of the 'standard' ways of doing things. Why, I remember back in the days of Red Hat 5.1 there used to be endless warnings all over every config file I tried to edit; "DO not edit this by hand! You'll break (whatever the editor was called that you were supposed to use)", LinuxConf I think it was, which, coincidentally, was my introduction to the security risks inherent in a Red Hat distribution that hasn't been severely edited.

Red Hat is broken, as far as I'm concerned. Unless the new version magically fixes all of these things, which, to be honest, I doubt.

Re:Timing is everything

[bgarcia]

Find file with (say) hostname in. Edit hostname. Next time you reboot, the goddamn system has replaced it with one it had elsewhere.

Ok, the only file I found with the hostname in it is /etc/sysconfig/network.

If I change the name in that text file and reboot, the machine gets the new name!

So... you're mistaken.

Why, I remember back in the days of Red Hat 5.1 there used to be endless warnings all over every config file I tried to edit; "DO not edit this by hand! You'll break (whatever the editor was called that you were supposed to use)", LinuxConf I think it was...

And you'll be happy to know that there are no traces of linuxconf in the 7.x releases of Red Hat Linux.

I have a RH6.1 box lying around that does have linuxconf, and that message says nothing about breaking things. Here's the message for sendmail.cf:

# This file is built out of files in /usr/lib/linuxconf/mailconf
# If you want to do manual modifications to one file
# do not modify files in /var/tmp/linuxconf-root/usr/lib/linuxconf/mailc onf, instead
# copy the file in /etc/mail/mailconf/
# and do the modification there.
# Linuxconf will use your file from now on.
# It will even find out that the sendmail.cf
# must be rebuilt.

It's just telling you *where* to make changes, so that they work seamlessly with linuxconf.

If you never plan on using linuxconf to reconfigure sendmail, then you can ignore this advice.

Red Hat is broken, as far as I'm concerned. Unless the new version magically fixes all of these things, which, to be honest, I doubt.

Nice of you to keep a closed mind. Enjoy!

Re:Timing is everything

[bgarcia]

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

It's not a secret. It's just that gcc 2.95's version of the standard C++ library is extremely non-compliant.

The GCC standard C++ library has been completely re-written, and I would venture to say that it is now probably one of the most standards-compliant implementations now available.

You can read more about it here.

Re:Timing is everything

[bgarcia]

go read usenet comp.os.linux.* you'll find its called pam

Huh? PAM is an authentication/authorization mechanism controlled by text config files found in /etc/pam.d.

Text config files... that you need to edit... There is no "automatic configuration" there.

don't be a cheap skate and go buy the cd set and read the little book it'll tell you to run this little program that'll set up your printer in less time then redhats bloated gui ever could

Dude, WTF are you talking about?

That was the most information-free, run-on sentence I've ever seen.

What CD set? Which book? What program?

The printer setup tool in RedHat is quick and easy. Try it sometime, so you won't be talking about things for which you have no clue.

gcc 3.1 breaks all c++ librarys and for any distro to upgrade to it at this point would be suicide as it has not been tested.

C++ libraries built with gcc 2.95 will not play nicely with C++ programs build with gcc 3.x.

That's one of the reasons for the change in major version number.

If you recompile the libraries with the new compiler as well as the programs, then everything works.

Re:Timing is everything

[Wild Wizard]

> What CD set? Which book? What program?

jee what are we talking about in this forum, oh thats right slackware 8.1 so i must of meant buy the cd's from store.slackware.com and guess what inside the cover is a little booklet with instructions in it

grow a brain moron

guess what i tried redhat it sucks
and since you mention you have no idea about the book i'm talking about then you obviusly don't know what your talking about in regards to printer setup in slackware so you cant compare it to redhat

as for gcc 3 where the hell have you been for the past few months that product is cursed

Re:Timing is everything

[bgarcia]

jee what are we talking about in this forum, oh thats right slackware 8.1 so i must of meant buy the cd's from store.slackware.com and guess what inside the cover is a little booklet with instructions in it

So, what's stopping you from mentioning the program, or providing links?

Or are you too lazy to provide information and would rather just troll?

grow a brain moron

Guess that answers my last question.

guess what i tried redhat it sucks

If you think that *any* of the mainstream linux distributions "sucks", then you must have no idea how to administer any linux operating system. They're all built from the same basic components and have the same packages. I can understand preferring one over another, or liking the features of another better. But to say that Red Hat sucks? Please.

as for gcc 3 where the hell have you been for the past few months that product is cursed

Cursed, eh? Nice technical description there. I guess we need to excorcise it to get it working?

It's a new major release. It's buggy. It will get better.

For people who want to do C++ development, Red Hat's gcc 2.96 is a nice choice. It's a well-tested snapshot of the pre-3.0 development tree.

List of unofficial mirrors here

[Anonymous Coward]

rsync://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware-8 . /
rsync://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware -8 . -iso/
ftp://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware-8 .1 /
ftp://slackware.orbital.us/slackware/slackware-8 .1 -iso/

rsync://rsync.devney.net/slackware/slackware-8.1 -i so/
ftp://devney.net/slackware-8.1-iso/

rsync://drazi.ifjf.uib.no/slackware/slackware-8. 1/
rsync://drazi.ifjf.uib.no/slackware/slackware-8. 1- iso

ftp://inferno.bioinformatics.vt.edu/linux-distro s/ slackware/slackware-8.1/
ftp://inferno.bioinformatics.vt.edu/linux-distro s/ slackware/slackware-8.1-iso/

rsync://rsync.rez-gif.supelec.fr/pub/slackware/s la ckware-current/
ftp://ftp.rez-gif.supelec.fr/pub/slackware/slack wa re-current/

rsync://closeedge.net/slackware/slackware-8.1/
ftp://closeedge.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.slackware.co m/ slackware-8.1/

ftp://ftp.linux.ucla.edu/pub/slackware/slackware -8 . /

rsync://mindflux.dns2go.com/slackware/slackware- 8. 1/

rsync://stalecracker.org/slackware/slackware-8.1 /
ftp://stalecracker.org:2121/pub/slackware-8.1/
rsync://diethanks.dyndns.org/slackware/

rsync://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware -8 . /
rsync://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware -8 . -iso/
ftp://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware-8 .1 /
ftp://alphageek.dyndns.org/slackware/slackware-8 .1 -iso/

Re:List of unofficial mirrors here

[mindflux]

ahahah, oh man.. the unofficial slackware mirrors from #slackware on OPN. Mine is on there, mindflux.dns2go.com.. hahaaahaha

Re:List of unofficial mirrors here

[Kiaser Zohsay]

Excellent list! I'm getting 270KB/sec from vt.edu...

Re:List of unofficial mirrors here

[paul_cairney]

Hmm, only 175KBs here through ja.net to vt.edu ... why did KPQQwest (ja.net/UKARENA's transatlantic conectivity provider) have to pick such a bad time to go .bomb .

/me wish's ja.net still had the 2.5GBit Transatlantic pipe from TeleGlobe(UK) dedicated to peering with Abiline and ESnet.

Re:List of unofficial mirrors here

[ananke]

since midnight i've been putting out roughly 2.5MBps [that's bytes btw]. I'm glad you could use it :)

Re:List of unofficial mirrors here

[ananke]

quick info on inferno.bioinformatics.vt.edu:
1) anon client limit is set to 20
2) passive ftp only
3) we're on ds3
4) so far 220+ people downloaded the iso since midnight. btw, #slackware on OPN should be thanked for creating that list, we've been trying to provide mirrors to help the slackware community for awhile.

ps) make sure to use md5sum to check the integrity of your iso [to be positive, use the md5sum from ftp.slackware.com]. some of the unoffficial mirrors got a corrupted iso last night, and although most of them have the good one now, there is a chance you may bump into one of those.

Re:List of unofficial mirrors here

[leiz]

...and at the linux.ucla.edu mirror:

We're running it on a k6-233 with 64 mb of ram =X
but it's handling the load very well. We have at least a T1 and it seems people from our .EDUs on the west coast are getting great speeds.

Special thanks to alphageek and the gang of #slackware on OPN for setting up the mirrors of slackware-current, you guys rock!

Re:List of unofficial mirrors here

[CrazyP]

Just to let everyone know the stalecracker.org only allows 3 rsync and 3 ftp. It is a cable connection in Hawaii...should get okay speeds. Aloha

It is time

[sinistre]

It is time to back up all that useless data. Format the harddrives and REINSTALL Slackware! I haven't been this excited since the 30th of June last year :)

I've had it, good riddance...

[Anonymous Coward]

Slackware makes the frontpage yet FreeBSD goes unheard despite a larger user base. I've had it, good riddance... News for Biased nerds, Stuff that doesn't matter.

Re:I've had it, good riddance...

[friedmud]

Really?? I could have sworn I saw a BSD story hit the frontpage a day or two ago. FreeBSD 4.6, I think, had come out.

Slashdot has always had a more pro linux stance - thus them getting incorporated into the Open Source Development Network (OSDN). That said, I think they report pretty fairly. It is hard for me to believe that BSD has a larger user base than linux, and since linux is "all the rave" right now it should be understandable that there would be more stories on it - just as there were more news stories on BSD before linux came out....

Derek

Re:I've had it, good riddance...

[Anonymous Coward]

BSD has a larger userbase because of all the OSX installs.

Re:I've had it, good riddance...

[Anonymous Coward]

Aw, go cry in your corner.

Sheesh, if the BSD folks aren't spouting bullshit about how "their" OS is soooo much better and everything else is plain garbage, they're whining about how they don't get enough attention.

Just use the OS you like and SHUT UP.

last post

[super-flex-o-matic]

last post d00d!

Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux how Linux was intended. A single CD of beautiful and clean functionality. Minimal, stable and secure - and yet manageable. Slackware should be required for all Linux newbies. AFTER learning to edit rc.files and inetd.conf with vi, AFTER you've mastered ls, AFTER you've learned to download and compile, THEN you may play with KDE. Think how much better the world would be.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[q-soe]

Think how much better the world would be.

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 - if you have only ever used linux then do yourself a favour and start out with something user friendly like mandrake, red hat or lycoris. Slackware and Debian are oses that dont suffer fools lightly..

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

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[ant_slayer]

I'm guessing you were somewhat computer literate when you downloaded those 50 floppies too, eh? For those of us who have computed so long that our brains work like stack-machines, sure, a 'pop-the-hood and tweak' distribution is just fine for learning. But for someone who's just tired of Windows locking up and wants to surf and check their email, should they have to delve into the arcane mysteries of a (admit it) complex operating system? I don't think so.

I am not convinced, unlike many others, that Linux obligates someone to become an incredible super-ultra-uber-geek. I am astounded at the lack of computer literacy some people are willing to live with but -- read that carefully -- they are willing to live with it! For those for whom the computer is a utility and not a lifestyle, let's let them use it it that way. There is no "proper" way to learn Linux.

-Josh O-

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah yes. The typical geek lost in his computer world. I hate to tell you but the rest of the world isn't like you. They are not looking to learn Linux. They want to use it. 28 Million AOL users will testify to the fact that people like things very simple and dumbed down.

And if you really wanted to learn linux then you would use Linux From Scratch like a real uber-geek.

I'm just glad that when the revolution comes, people like you will be at home reading about it on slashdot.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[ishark]

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.

This is actually the *problem* with Slackware/Debian. I want to learn, so I don't mind reading documentation, but most of the people I know don't care at all, they just want "click-n-run" and (evidently) they can handle all the insanities of Win in order to get it. Right now I'm running Mandrake 8.2 ("click-n-run", but careful with upgrades) as dekstop and debian-stable (long install/config, but 0-time updating) as server.
When I propose linux to one of my win-friends I always go for Mandrake, ALWAYS, since I know that they'd run scared at the first debian message of the type "You must now decide which modules to load into your kernel"....
As for Slackware, it was my first distro (3.0 I think? 1.0.2x kernel, anyway) and it may well be possible that I go back to it one day or another.... debian is nice, but I feel it too "rigid", and Mandrake is not always so tolerant of manual-config-file-editing.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[elveu]

well distros like mandrake and redhat do more of the work for you so you don't have to learn as much at the begining and then progressivly learn more. i started with red hat and while i sure as hell was glad to get away from it i do think it was a good way to learn. but i guess i would have learnt faster if i started with slackware. but if you're trying to get more people to use linux then advise them to use red hat or mandrake, since if they don't really want to change then they won't like being thrown straight into deep water

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[elveu]

i agree, far to many people here can't see why people wouldn't have the same computer needs as them. while i do think that linux would be preferable for most people (since they often say they hate windows and don't seem to have any need that linux dosn't offer like games) i don't think they have to become a coder, a geek or any other sterotype attached to linux

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[smittyoneeach]

Slackware should be required for all Linux newbies.

I disagree. Slackware was over my head whenever I tried it--7.x or something. The idea of a fistful of ASCII .conf files in standard locations that control everything was too simple and obvious for me to grasp. Forgive me, Father--I did Windows.
Now that I have spent some time with a RH distro, and grasp *nix-think to a sufficient depth, I'm strongly considering a return to Slack...

A question for the community: the reason to go for Slack over, say, Gentoo, is that Slack arrives as canned object files ready to install, whereas Gentoo assumes we have a pipe, time and skill to pull down all the source over TCP/IP and compile from scratch, no? In other words, Gentoo requires a higher level of skill than Slack to build and tweak?

...dons asbestos underwear...

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[13Echo]

It is strange that you say that. A lot of people (including myself) have found Slackware to be easier to install than Red Hat. Even Lycoris isn't foolproof (chokes on startup if it doesn't like your hardware and can't autodetect it). There are ways around anything, but I like things simple and to the point. Slackware offers that to me. Nothing else does. I like the other distributions, but I feel that many of them are only for people that are intimidated by using the console (which is o.k., actually). The other distributions make things all the more difficult at times with proprietary tools that don't always work.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[SealBeater]

I'm guessing you were somewhat computer literate when you downloaded those 50
floppies too, eh?

Actually no, I had been using windows (read: computers) for about a year. I was super in love
with windows 95, thought it was so cool. I saw an enlightenment screenshot and
that was that. Started the download of slackware a week later. Even though I
knew nothing about *nix at the time, I figured that "bare to the metal"
approach was best to learn properly. Kept my windows machine around long
enough to print out every piece of documentation I could find, cause I figured
it might be a while before I got on the net and read, read, read. It's too bad
more people aren't inclined to do the same.


There is no "proper" way to learn Linux

Yes, there is actually. I know plenty of people who are as self-taught as I
was (oh did I mention that no one taught me linux?) who have
used the "softer" distros who still are lost when faced with the console.
Anybody who needs a gui to change an ip address learned linux the "wrong" way,
IMO

SealBeater

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course think how much better the world would be if all of the fragmented GUI's, the multitude of obscure configuration files and the documentation (or lack thereof in some cases) were all standardized. Functionality and common sense, all in the one package. It seems to me that Linux was intended to be difficult; people like yourself have pride in your ability to comb through the mess of an operating system that most don't feel interested in touching.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[(startx)]

Not really more skill per-se, just a fatter pipe, a monster build box, and several days that you can deal w/o your computer. I renamed my -current mirror -8.1, rsync'd, and installed in under an hour after the release. I'm still waiting for my gentoo box to finish download/building 1.2

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[SealBeater]

Ah yes. The typical geek lost in his computer world. I hate to tell you but the
rest of the world isn't like you.

Yes, I am aware. Don't complain then when a) I get paid more than you because
I possess greater knowledge b) you have to come to me all the time to fix your
problems c) you get rooted/owned and I don't. I have the belief that if you
wish to learn a thing, learn it properly. If you don't, that's fine, but don't
be angry at others for doing what you choose not to do.

SealBeater

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[SealBeater]

This is actually the *problem* with Slackware/Debian. I want to learn, so I
don't mind reading documentation, but most of the people I know don't care at
all, they just want "click-n-run"

This is going to be a long thread, I can tell. You shouldn't confuse
"click-n-run" with "wanting to learn". I always recommend slackware if anyone
asks me what is a good first distro, partially because it is less hand holding.
I had a friend who went to a tech school and had a class on linux, they gave
him mandrake. Do you know what the problem with that is? You don't learn
"linux" per say, you learn a distribution. You don't learn fdisk, you learn
disk-druid and drakeconf. You don't learn tar zxvf, you learn rpm -ui. You
never learn how to do things without a gui, because as long as you are using
these things, you are never faced with the need to. Slackware and LFS (as was
mentioned earlier) will teach you "linux". If you want to learn to build a
house, you don't go out and buy a house and walk around the inside examining
it, you read a book and build a house. Granted, not everyone wants to learn
the internals of an OS to a high degree, that's fine. But don't say a person
wants to learn, when all they really want to do is get up and running. FYI,
slackware is very easy to get up and running.

SealBeater

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Bandman]

It just depends man. Many people ask me what version of linux would be right for them, and this is what I them: "Do you want to do, or do you want to know? Because if you just want a workable system, then use RedHat, because it will set everything up for you, and you'll have a good workable system. If you want to know how things work, /why/ they act the way they do, then you need to start on Slackware."

Because in my mind, both are completly ok choices. There are some people who just want to use a computer. This is why Windows has such a huge market share. Most of the people don't care one way or another. And if RedHat can give them that, then there's nothing wrong with them using it. People like us though, we Slackware users, are a different breed :) We can't stand not to know how our OS works. The fact that we have ran slackware for any length of time is a testiment to that. Anyone who can spend more than a month using slackware should probably stay with it, becuase not much else would make them happy, or at least that's the way I feel.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[SealBeater]

I agree absolutely. That's exactly what I am saying, if you want to
learn go for slack. If you just want a pretty *nix
workstation (tho not as pretty as someone who really knows what they are doing
:), go for something else. Not that using slack precludes you from having a
pretty *nix workstation. It's all in what your goals are. Tho, I do have to
wonder why anyone would use any *nix if they don't want to learn about it.

SealBeater

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Bandman]

>Tho, I do have to wonder why anyone would use
> any *nix if they don't want to learn about it.

I know what you mean, but I rationalize it like this...If RedHat can bring more MS drones into the Linux fold, it can't be a bad thing. Once Linux becomes an acceptable business solution, then it's not just RH that gains...it's the whole community. We "zealots" just have to be careful not to ostracize the non-technical linux users. Without being /REALLY/ condescending, think of the gurus as shephards for the sheep.

There may come a time (and it's probably not that far off) where linux will become the defacto MIS/IT OS, kind of like Macs in media shops. You don't see a newspaper or magazine without macintoshes, and you don't (or won't soon) see an IT shop without Linux boxen.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Gentoo requires a higher level of skill than Slack to build and tweak?

If you have to ask, it's no wonder Slack 7 was over your head.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, no.

I started playing with Slackware 1.01 in early 1994 - it was on some Nite Owl CDROM that had been purchased for the leeching pleasures of my BBS users. My only Unix experience before that was a few months of playing around on my ISP's SunOS shell and the BSD/386 box at my school. I think that counts as a newbie, don't you?

Now I run bunches of these things, develop free software, and have even created a couple of "appliances" (ala TiVo - they never "see" Linux, just the UI I made) based on Slackware.

No distribution is right for everyone, but there is no need to tar Slackware with that brush. This former newbie got along just fine, thanks.

If anything, the Slackware of today is even EASIER than before, since so much stuff has been modernized with these distributions in mind. 8 years ago, most of the software was either brand new and wobbly, or _very old_ Unix software that had been cajoled into running under Linux.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[deepchasm]

My story is similar, except it was at the time when none of the free partition resizers did fat32, and I couldn't afford partition magic.

Having no spare disk drive but an internal zip drive, I download ZipSlack (the filesystem partition is on a zip disk, but you boot from a floppy)

I can agree with the "get all the docs" idea from your post - it took me two evenings reading after I'd downloaded ZipSlack to realise that "root=/dev/sdd4" was for SCSI, I wanted "root=/dev/hdd4"

Then it booted. :)

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[BrokenHalo]

There may come a time (and it's probably not that far off) where linux will become the defacto MIS/IT OS...

I think, in some respects, it already has. Just look at the number of fairly high-profile ISPs who rely on Linux boxen for mail and web servers.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[SN74S181]

You are making the mistaken notion that it's necessarily a good thing to introduce more 'Microsoft drones' into the Linux fold.

Linux is not like OS/2 or BeOS, where unless commercial vendors support it in ways consumers will grasp, it will die. Sure, there are people banking on it succeeding that way. There are refugees from various other OSes (i.e. OS/2, Amiga, Macintosh) hoping to use Linux as a club to beat on Microsoft with... but then there are those of us who admire the core strength of Unix, who want Linux and the other Freenixes to thrive as strong, sharp tools for those with the knack to know how to use the classic Unix approach get powerful tasks done.

Possibly this sounds elitist. So be it.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[el_chicano]

That's exactly what I am saying, if you want to learn go for slack. If you just want a pretty *nix workstation (tho not as pretty as someone who really knows what they are doing :), go for something else. Not that using slack precludes you from having a pretty *nix workstation.

How exactly does running a distribution like Mandrake or Red Hat prevent you from learning linux? I don't really see a logical connection between the two. I started with Slack way back when and I'll admit learned a lot about Linux that way, but I have known others that started with Red Hat or Mandrake who have learned al lot about *nix that way.

While I love the CLI, the pretty GUI is nice too. While it is nice to be able to administer a server solely using through a CLI, I find I can get more work done using VNC. That way it is possible to run multiple CLI sessions at the same time while still having the GUI tools available to you...

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

gentoo is a breeze to install... asumming you know how to fdisk...
ports.. well.. is the only real package management system that i would EVER use.. once you use it.. man.. you would never go back...
but i love slack.. so it'll remain on my desktop
i just am finishing up configuration on modem and pmud with gentooppc on an ibook dual usb.. it really is nice.. and runs so much faster than macosx :)..
anyways. hope this helped

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[axxackall]

Slackware should a part of University course, where students are:

• not lazzy
• eager to learn
• having time to learn

Newbies in Wallmart should take Mandrake or RedHat.

Or better Yellow Dog Linux :))

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[aussersterne]

When I installed slackware for the first time (back at v2, from several boxes of floppies) I had never used Linux before. It was the best computing and networking experience of my life to try to get Slackware and a small handful of 10b2-connected PCs to do what I wanted. When you are looking right into the guts of the system, as you are with Slackware, it is easy rather than difficult to come to some understanding of just how much more powerful Unix/Linux are than Windows.

And today, there's a reason people come to me for Linux advice now, a reason that publishers will print my Linux books... It's because I know what I'm doing. And it's all thanks to Slackware, which wouldn't allow me to get away with anything or ignore any small piece of documentation on my quest for functionality. Thanks to Slackware, I know how to make Linux work for me at what I want it to do -- not simply how to chose a task from the list of what Red Hat thinks Linux can do.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[reflective recursion]

I disagree. My first unix-style OS was FreeBSD, which I used for a week. Then I decided to try Linux (to see what the fuss was about) and installed Slackware (IIRC, 3.2). Both Slack and FBSD worked similar, and both had a "clean" feel about them. I would recommend either to a person new to unix-flavor OSes. Back then I would _not_ have recommended Debian (I had issues w/ dselect back then, IIRC). I also tried Red Hat (IIRC I tried 4.x and then 5.2). Out of all the above, Slackware was the easiest (along w/ FreeBSD, from what I can remember). I'd probably give Debian another shot though. I will definately _not_ use Red Hat again. I'm avoiding it like the plague. There is a certain "fake" quality about Red Hat and the way it hides its unix nature. Seems as if it doesn't want to be a *ix anymore (I think the turning point was seeing fvwm95.. ewwww).

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[thrillbert]

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

Ditto that here! Although my first install was only 36 floppies who someone else pained over the download, it was still the *BEST* way for me to learn *REAL* system administration of a Linux system. None of this crap of packages and utils to disable daemons.. if you don't want something starting, then 'vi' your /etc/rc.d/rc.* files damnit! ;)

On a lighter note, and more as a suggestion.. Ordering the CD from the site.. umm.. maybe they can put all the options together in a single page so that I can just order without having to go through 5 pages before the order is placed.. can't you use the extra bandwidth for something more usefull? Quake? Pr0n? Just a suggestion..

Can't wait to get it though..

---
Maybe now we can have Slackware in the /. polls again...

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

> This is actually the *problem* with Slackware
> /Debian...most people...just want to
> "click-n-run"
>
Well, the funny thing is, that I too thought Slackware was gonna be a pain to get going. It wasn't! In fact, just about everything is intuitive. For example, while in other distros you have to pick something that'll get your PPP going out o a menu of a hundred or more items (Suse anyone?!), on Slackware you do #pppsetup . Now is tha really more difficult just because it's a console app (with dialog graphics...kinda like the old DOS apps). If it works, it works and I rather have a small userfriendly console app, than a huge userfriendly (or not) GUI app.
Slackware isn't any more difficult than any other distro, in fact, due to lack of bloat it might even be easier (too many choices confuse newbies more than it does them good!). I am not bashing any other distro here...I think, each one has something to offer and as long as they all improve Linux it's fine with me. I just think, that Slackware has quite a bit to offer and anyone thinking of it as the "hard to use, dusty old distro from before Mandrake" is plain wrong. Try it out and if you dig it, do what I do: send 'em a check for the CD's! :-)

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

"Anybody who needs a gui to change an ip address learned linux the "wrong" way"

What? And how is typing "ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2" any different from choosing eth0 from a drop-down box and typing 192.168.1.2?

The only problem I have is that the GUI interface is not standard on ALL the Linux systems by default, but ifconfig is. If the GUI was standard, than there is NO problem using it.

There's so many people here that think they're "1337" just because they go a little lower-level than someone else to do the exact same damn thing. For the IP address issue, I could say "you learned the wrong way" if you didn't go over that TCP code with a fine-toothed comb and write your own damned application to change the IP address.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

I started using Linux with Slackware 1.x back in '94 on my kick-ass Cyrix 486 DLC 40 w/ 4MB RAM. I think it was 1.x, it's been so long, and I can't find the historic stuff that I saw this morning while looking for a mirror that wasn't /.'ed.

I just found a working mirror, after more than 12 hours of looking, and I'm getting 167 KBps. ftp://mirror.pudas.net/slackware way over in Sweden(Now my throughput will be dropped to about 1.67 KBps, SIGH)

I'm installing Slackware 8.1 for my mother who has never used anything but 'doze, she's more than willing to learn new things, AND knows that she calls me for her computer support, irregardless of what OS she's running -- why not let me chose the least painful OS to install?

I've tried various other distros since '94, but I always come back to Slackware. The last attempt to try some other distro was with RedHat 6.x or 7.x (can't remember, don't care enough to look for the box). The boot floppies that came in the box had been misconfigured and I had to use a Slackware boot disk to boot up, mount the RH floppy, fix the problem, and restart the installation (it's a lot like problems I've had with that other "OS"). It was then that I realized I shouldn't be bothering with RH, and I installed Slackware instead, not caring that the rest of the department was using RH.

slackware 8.1, here I come!

Thanks Mr. Volkerding et al., you've been doing a wonderful job. I'll be buying the CDs just as soon as store.slackware.com is available again.

Cheers!

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Futs]

Anybody who needs a gui to change an ip address ...

I didn't even know gui were built for that already :-)

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[q-soe]

Seeing as i have now been branded a troll (open comment and opinion is alive and well on here) i feel i should explain why i said what i did. I have used slackware personally for about 5 years and i run it and debian here.

I made the observation i did based on giving people slackware as their first linux and then having to help them - these were average people who had never ever used anything but Windows 95. Technically savvy windows users will find slackware a good starting point but then again they are less likely to become frustrated with it.

The average person like that gui fied front end as it is familiar and helps them ease into linux - you need to remember that there are people out there who have never worked with a command line and for them when confronted with nothing but it gets scary as hell.

Not everyone has a linux guru to call on - thats why i recommended the other Distros ahead of slackware - purely easing them into it. I have had great success with Lycoris (at home and in corporates) because it looks familiar to them and they can use it without the massive learning curve in front of them that a command line only OS presents.

I can understands many of the points put forward but take a step back and remember that most if not all of you were hardly beginners at computers and you wanted and had time to learn - this goes to the root of an argument about Linux on the desktop and i respect the opinions that some of you have put forward - but surely the key to linux is choices - if a distro like mandrake or lycoris changes one more user from windows and onto open source then thats one less slave to the corporate path and surely that cannot be all bad?

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[q-soe]

"I started playing with Slackware 1.01 in early 1994 "

But think for a second - in 1994 you would need to be more technically knowledgeable that you needed to be in 2002 - 1994 was pre windows 95 and the PC world was still DOS based - you needed to know what you were doing - and running a BBS was hardly a point and shoot thing...

In other words dont you think that you may have had more knowledge of how a computer ticked than the average mum and dad these days ? Slackware is not forgiving if you have never used a command line - i put it to you that none of us had a problem but then i suggest you find your mum or your boss and give it to them and get them to run it - you may find what im getting at...

I have been branded as a troll on here for expressing my opionion more times in the last week than in 5 years previously - so at risk of it again please understand that when i say Slackware is not a beginners OS i mean not someone who has only ever used windows and has NO understanding of how and OS actually works - Joe Average. Sometimes we all forget that we are a lot more techincally skilled than we realise.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

In the real world, you come to them, and they probably get paid more than you, and if they get rooted, it's your fault.

Just warning you that SysAdmin as an occupuation is nothing more than being an overpaid computer janitor.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Herr_Nightingale]

you mistake the gains that would result from stealing M$' market-share.. rather than attracting a good number of useful assets, the benefit is clearly in denying M$ the ability to dictate de facto standards. Obviously, if only 50% of the online community ran IE then IE extensions wouldn't be so prevalent in popular web pages. Maybe they'd be restricted to Hotmail or some other Microsoft properties instead of every fifth site I visit.

Re:Slackware is dead, my ass

[Anonymous Coward]

In short, no thank you slackware. I tried slackware for the first time with version 7.1. It took me nearly 3 days to get it to properly boot and get all of the appropriate services to start.

Why do some of you get so much delight out of doing things ass backwards? I don't get any satisfaction from intentionally doing easy things in a difficult manner.

Mandrake is my distro of choice. I want to install a system, and have it work. Period. While you're gratifying yourself with setting up your system over the course of the next week, I'll be using my system.

Just in Time

[Tux2000]

They released it just in time. I have ordered a new server, it will be delivered not befre I've downloaded the new slackware. Now guess which OS will run on that machine.

Tux2000

Re:Just in Time

[Anonymous Coward]

Tru64! Wait...no...SunOS? AIX! It's AIX, right?!

Re:Just in Time

[legojenn]

I just bought a CDwriter today. I love serendipitous happenings. I'm sure it will take me a hella-long back up my old systems, and hella-longer to download 8.1, and even more hella-longer to see it in stores, but it will be worth it. Slack is the only OS that I have ever had run from the first day it was released, (June 30, 2001) to the time it was superseded without a reinstall. Good work.

Why new Versions?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you guys keep installing new distros each and every day?
I do a base system, then install most from source and update this once in a while, when I'm sure, I NEED the new version.
My system is stable and fast and unbloated. I don't have nice gadgets blowing my configuration.
I'm happy. You guys must have "versionitis" like most Windows-Users have. ("NEW VERSION! DOWNLOAD!")

Re:Why new Versions?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you have to ask, you really have no business being on this site. Go back to zdnet.com where you belong, loser.

Re:Why new Versions?

[elveu]

yes well quite possibly it's just an excuse to get excited. but as we all know keep getting the new ones untill you get one that's bloated, unstable or crap in any other way. but yes i agree, for most people there is no compelling need to get the new version but i'll get it on the off chance it's better then if it's not i'll just re install slackware 8.0

Re:Why new Versions?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think I belong to zdnet :) (sorry for anonymous, but I don't have an account here) - all my boxes at home run Linux since a long tim (1.2.X Kernel) and here at work I have ~100 of them.
I used to have RH 6.2, but since 7.0 they got REALLY bloated and admin-unfriendly; company-decision to go with RH, so I'm fucked up.
At home I ran first Suse (at that time, slackware-based), then put up something for myself.
The crashed and reinstalled from RH 6.2 with now most programs being self-compiled.

I still search for a distro that doesn't have 100 deps on a single packet, where installing a packet won't change my whole system and the packet is compiled with pentium-opt. At least those that HAVE to be fast; others I prefer with -Os.
You see ... LFS is my choice.
And that goals DEFINATELY let me stay away from any RedHat, SuSE and Mandrake.
Think, i keep cooking them myself.

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:reinstall?

[zloppy303]

this time i recommend you DO reformat your drives, with a journalling filesystem :) slack 8.1 supports 'em all (jfs,xfs,reiserfs,ext3fs)

i'm going for the jfs...

Re:reinstall?

[SealBeater]

FYI, you can upgrade to ext3 without reformatting.

SealBeater

Re:reinstall?

[sinistre]

Ofcourse I'll reinstall - nothing is like a fresh new clean system. No old files lying around... after having installed tons of sources I loose track of where it all is... hence, format :) I'm lookin forward to it.

Re:reinstall?

[SaDan]

ext3 has failed me more than once on my Red Hat systems, and the performance plain sucks (from what I've seen).

It's ReiserFS or XFS for me.

Re:reinstall?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're worried about the FS failing and are scared of ext3, by all means, RUN SCREAMING INTO THE NIGHT AWAY FROM REISERFS!! Ext3 has been proven to be orders more reliable than Reiser.

If you want to stay away from ext3, then go for XFS. I ran it for a while and was quite happy with it. No problems here. I went back to ext3 though because it was a nuisance waiting for SGI to release their kernels and install disks. Once it becomes part of the mainstream kernel, I'll probably go back to it.

Re:reinstall?

[Anonymous Coward]

What?! A PACKAGE tool!? *sigh* and after all these people telling me that using a package tool is the loser's way out and that compiling by source is the only way...

Re:reinstall?

[tzanger]

ext3 has failed me more than once on my Red Hat systems, and the performance plain sucks (from what I've seen).

What were you doing to break it? It's true that performance isn't quite what ext2 is but for this notebook and my playing with ACPI, having a jfs that stores not only metadata but also the actual data in its transaction log is very nice. (at least I belive it does store everything, not just metadata...)

Re:reinstall?

[JamesKPolk]

8.0 already supported reiserfs installs.

Re:reinstall?

[SaDan]

What were you doing to break it?

Running it on a 120gig partition that gets the snot kicked out of it daily (massive read/write over hundreds of thousands of small files).

It's really starting to tick me off. Every once in a while, all of my filesystems will end up with some form of corruption, and massive fragmentation.

having a jfs that stores not only metadata but also the actual data in its transaction log is very nice. (at least I belive it does store everything, not just metadata...)

Do you have the write cache on the drive enabled? If you do, EXT3 gives you very little protection against sudden machine failure (power loss, lock up, etc), since any data in the cache is lost.

EXT3 is just a big bandaid for EXT2. XFS and JFS are proven journaling filesystems, and ReiserFS will definately be a contender in a short time.

excuse me but

[Anonymous Coward]

how much of a speed difference is there between Slackware and Gentoo ? I'd like to know.

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:excuse me but

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd think that, wouldn't you? I replaced Slackware 8.0 with Gentoo 1.0, and the system became noticeably slower. Bizarre.

I expect I screwed something up, but it wasn't all that hard to break things hard with gentoo 1.0. It felt claustrophobic, too, now that I think back.

I ordered my Slack 8.1 CD and book this morning (GMT). First time I've bought a distro's CDs.

Re:excuse me but

[Anonymous Coward]

Slackware is compiled with optimizations. There's mcpu and march. I don't remember which, but one is restrictive (ie; binaries compiled on one won't work on older processors). Why use the restrictive one for the added half percent (if that) of speed you get?

It destroys old compatability. Slackware 8.1 could be installed on a 386. Tell me if you can install Manflake on a 386. :-)

Look in the SlackBuild scripts to see what all is used in reality.

Re:excuse me but

[Anonymous Coward]

You want to talk about speed?

Then I have LFS for you, BABY!

Don't bitch on slackware, it's the best dist out there!

Re:excuse me but

[1%warren]

Yeah, I tried compiling everything with optimizations (LFS, twice). Made no difference to speed at all AFAICT without bencmarking it.

somewhere to buy in NL?

[MonoSynth]

Hey does someone know where I can buy Slack in the Netherlands? After using it for over two years, I'd like to pay for it to help the Slack-guys :)

But. hey. Why didn't they wait for Gnome 2.0? Or do we have to wait a year for a Slack-release with Gnome2?

Re:somewhere to buy in NL?

[Anonymous Coward]

slackware.com store

Re:somewhere to buy in NL?

[MonoSynth]

tnx. but I already found it @ this shop

Re:somewhere to buy in NL?

[Anonymous Coward]

Neat. Another guy that likes Slackware and Joy Electric. New JE CD just came out yesterday and it is excellent.

Re:somewhere to buy in NL?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://linux.mensys.nl/

Re:somewhere to buy in NL?

[manon]

Slackware Store

Great

[tsa]

I just downloaded 8.0 for a colleague. Now we can start all over again... :-)

Re:Great

[baldass_newbie]

Same here. I was trying to hold out and finally downloaded/installed last night.
Oh well, gives me week to play before the mirrors aren't gagging. (Have to check that unofficial list, though.)
Have to say, Slack looks nice and clean compared to some of the other distros I've played with (like Mandrake) and didn't take 3 hours to install a base system (a la Gentoo) and gives you configurability (unlike Peanut.)
Plus, I'd still have a reason to keep using my 'Running Linux' book since the other distros have so many tools to edit simple text files.

Re:Great

[Anonymous Coward]

I just downloaded 8.0 for a colleague. Now we can start all over again... :-)

No need to redownload all of it. Just download packages from the ftp server if they've got a newer date / different filesize from the packages you've already downloaded.

Re:Great

[Antipop]

Same thing just happened to me. My 8.0 ISO finished and I hit slackware.com to look something up and I see the announcement for 8.1.

Oh the joys of downloading large files many times..

Re:Great

[erikdalen]

hehe, I've upgraded from slack 8.0 to slack 8.1 on two boxes and I can tell you that every single package has changed...

/Erik

HAHAHAHA ! Slackware is dead !

[Anonymous Coward]

As I am a Frenchie and proud to be, use Mandrake instead !

Fucking Slackware, Fucking SuSE (Nazis Distros) Fucking Stupid American Distros (Redhat) !

France go on !

Re:HAHAHAHA ! Slackware is dead !

[DataCannibal]

Are you enjoying the world cup ?

Re:HAHAHAHA ! Slackware is dead !

[ajmarks]

Why the hell would you brag about being French? That's like saying, "I am a snooty man who does not bathe and who would prefer surrendering without a fight." The Warsaw ghetto withstood the Nazis longer than your entire nation.

Q: What's the French battle cry?
A: "We surrender!"

Re:HAHAHAHA ! Slackware is dead !

[Anonymous Coward]

Not at all, but I think that the Nazis team (Germany) will beat you.

I just want to remember you thaht the French team have already won the World Cup, not the USA Team !

VIVE LA FRANCE !

Re:HAHAHAHA ! Slackware is dead !

[Anonymous Coward]

wow. a cup.

must be proud huh?

everyone else here is improving the world as a whole working on better technology, and your claim...er, no, your COUNTRY'S claim to fame is.... a cup?
...

Re:HAHAHAHA ! Slackware is dead !

[Anonymous Coward]

well poor dude, i'm a french guy too and very sad that such a fool like you still exist.
Shut your mouth, and learn before saying such crap.
Slackware is an excellent way of learning how a GNU/Linux OS work. but hey, you must be an end user aren't you ?
Moreover, seems that your brain is dead, not Slackware.
Finally, read some history books, you'll see, you might learn very instructive things about politics & our world nowadays...

Nazis Distro?

[MonoSynth]

...talking about nationalism...

Re:Nazis Distro?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he's refering to YaST's licence agreement.

Only one CD?

[wackysootroom]

I cant believe that they can still fit this on one CD! Keep up the good work Patrick!

Re:Only one CD?

[zloppy303]

well uhm... i read over the readme in the isolinux dir, and it appears that if you want to create your own bootable cd, you have to leave out either kde or gnome...
i'm wondering what the iso looks like, is it kde or gnome??

"so happy I've soiled myself"

[wiredog]

Ummm. Thanks for sharing that tidbit from your personal life. So Slack makes you lose control of your bodily functions? "This is not a distro for using, it is a distro for laying aside and avoiding."

Gentoo

[daserver]

I really like the minimal install that slackware comes with, but I also love the debian package system or the bsd package system. If you want both try gentoo.

Re:Gentoo

[Anonymous Coward]

minimal install? you must have never even used it, it have everything and more :)

Mozilla

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm starting to get involved with the Mozilla project doing volunteer QA stuff for them. They seem like a nice crowd. Does Slackware have any such need?

At Last I can make a decision...

[idfrsr]

Mandrake, RedHat, Slackware, SuSE, FreeBSD.... Ahhhh

the linux hacker's wet dream....

Jenna Jameson, Raylene, Pamela Anderson, Taylor Hanes....

sorry ladies, kernels await!

A few pointers...

[NoMercy]

Please do not download the ISO's from the primary slackware site, it only has a 6Mb/s bandwidth and all it takes is a few people with cable modems or DSL to totally flood it, then there is no bandwidth left for the mirrors to use and thus the rest of us have to wait longer, only check the primary site for checksums and file sizes so you can later check if your local mirror has got the full ISO transfered.

Re:A few pointers...

[JimDabell]

What's the point in mirrors if none of them are up to date for the peak demand period?

Re:A few pointers...

[Anonymous Coward]

They arent up to date because the primaries have been hammered and can't update them. As pointed out in the previous post.

Re:A few pointers...

[JimDabell]

I asked what the point was, not why they weren't up to date. Why not give download permission to mirrors before announcing it and making it available to the rest of us? It's hardly productive to have *zero* available download sites - I must have gone through about half the mirror sites before giving up.

Re:A few pointers...

[jred]

You could do what I do, get excited about the announcement, wait a week, download w/ ease...

Re:A few pointers...

[ananke]

the biggest problem was the iso. slack-current up until the release didn't have the official iso, so the mirrors made their own. updating the packages from last -current to -release was not a big problem, but the iso was. that's why some mirrors were behind, and we got hammered today [heck, even last night when we knew that it came out, we had a tough time trying to update the mirrors, and slashdot didn't announce it yet]

Re:A few pointers...

[Anonymous Coward]

You could do what I do, get excited about the announcement, write a check, wait a week, install official CD-ROM's w/ease...

Re:A few pointers...

[jolan]

Or just buy the fucking CD's instead and support the one man Linux distribution.

Re:A few pointers...

[GC]

Tough... I'm doing it right now, simply because it's the only place that let me log in and do the download as well as probably being the only place that actually has the ISO image in full (from what I've heard).

If we had a good P2P protocol we might be able to more efficiently handle the Slackware new release distribution problems that seem to occur all the time.

The fact that I am only getting 5kBytes a second tells me that am not alone...

wget -b -o ~/logfile -t 0 -c --passive-ftp -r ftp://your.local.mirror/slackware-8.1-iso

Once store.slackware.com recovers I'll buy the CDs as well.

Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you cheer about this! Do you ENJOY pain? I installed $lackware on my machine and it was torture! My computer was weezing and crying that i installed a Operating System worse than windows! It has no proper packge management, you just unzip tgzes and hope for the best. It has a half assed text based setup tool and and only supports the obsolete and unreliable ext/2 file systems. You have to edit at least 2000 text files to get the damn thing working and it only supports systems made before 1993!

HINT : Go and buy yourself a real distrobution or download a real one

Re:Why?

[zloppy303]

guess why this is an anonymous coward...

this version come's with ALL journalling filesystems, I think deadrat only supports reiser and their "own" ext3...

unzip tgzes??? clearly you don't know what yer talking about! i suggest you move to redmond or something...

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for your opinion. Now go back to your Windows 95 machine and play Myst like a good little troll.

Re:Why?

[MonoSynth]

Hey, we're all masochists! If we weren't we didn't even invent computers. Slack is the ultimate computer OS because it's character fits nicely to that of a computer. If you don't like Slack, you don't like computers.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

you are pretty much a complete idiot and moron.. please quit using linux all-together and gio back to windows... in fact , give me your address and I'll buy you Windows XP... it's a really good OS for idiots like you.

linux is better off without people like you, stupider than a sack of rocks.

please go back to windows. they need you there.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

All journalling filesystems??

How many of them are out there and are you really sure they are all out there?

Sure Mandrake has had some choices here for the last couple releases too (JFS, Ext3, Reiser, XFS) but does that mean anything? How many of these do you want to really run in a production environment?

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey now! I'm in Redmond right now downloading the .iso (off a dog slow mirror)

Why does everybody always have to knock Redmond just because of 1 evil company? :)

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.

Soiling

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm so happy I've soiled myself.

Me too, but I did it on purpose!

Not only that, but...

[13Echo]

It has more built-in support for ATA RAID controllers.

Do you know what this means? Bye bye NT!

Seems so long ago

[Graspee_Leemoor]

A week today it will be exactly 6 years since I first installed Linux. The distribution that I used was Slackware 3.

After using it for a bit and becoming more acquainted with linux however, I could see that even the latest downloadable version of Slackware (I got 3.0.0 from the book "Linux Unleashed") had really old versions of things, so I "upgraded" to Redhat, which in those days, at least on #linux was the leetest of the leet.

At this point I could ask if slackware is more up-to-date these days, but then that would be a very "Ask Slashdot" thing to do, since I could just go and check for myself.

graspee

Re:Seems so long ago

[bsd-mon]

Yes, I remember the day that I installed Slack 3.0.0 (also from the Linux Unleashed Book) like it was yesterday. Oh, wait... it was yesterday -- on a ps/note laptop I found. Now I'm screaming at 12.33 BogoMips :)

Re:Seems so long ago

[Graspee_Leemoor]

You really installed Slackware 3.0.0 yesterday ? Didn't you have any newer distros lying around ? If you are in the UK I can post you a newer distro; I just can't stand the thought of an innocent civilian running Slack 3 in this day and age!

graspee

Re:Seems so long ago

[Cro Magnon]

Is there any reason you're using such an old version? Slack 8.0 should install on old, crappy machines if you're careful what you install.

Re:Seems so long ago

[bsd-mon]

the machine was an IBM ps/note laptop with a 486, no cdrom, and 4 megs of ram. I had the Slack 3.0.0 available, and thought I'd worry about upgrading after I got something installed in the first place.

And... (Linux Counter)

[cefek]

...does Slackware still want you to register at linux counter with that little "magic" e-mail message you receive as root?

Re:And... (Linux Counter)

[slacktheplanet]

I believe it is only a suggestion. definatly not required.. but then again why wouldn't you want the world to know you use slackware?

ISO is missing some packages.

[wackysootroom]

From the readme in the 8.1-iso directory.

Note that for space reasons, the KDEI (KDE i18n) series could not be
included on this ISO, and I apologize for the inconvenience. If you need
KDE translations, you can pick them up here:

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8. 1/slackware/kdei/

Other things that aren't on this disc that you might need to pick up
"a la carte" include the boot floppy images and rootdisks (if you can boot
this CD-ROM, you won't need these), ZipSlack, and the source code. All
of these extras are available from our FTP site:

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-8. 1/

Or, pick up the official 4 CD-ROM Slackware disc set here:

http://store.slackware.com

Enjoy!

Patrick Volkerding
volkerdi@slackware.com

What I don't like about Slackware ...

[Skapare]

... I fix for myself. Slackware is so much easier to do things like rewriting all the init scripts. I don't have the time to create my own distribution, so I very much appreciate all the valuable work Pat V and others put into making this. Now to wait for the store to be un-slashdotted so I can put in my order for a couple of box sets.

old news

[Anonymous Coward]

support for many new filesystems like ext3, ReiserFS, JFS, and XFS

Slackware 8.0 Supported these

Oh thats just IT!

[Zaffle]

When Slackware has KDE3 before Debian (unstable) has, then I know Debian is slipping.
(Okay, yes, KDE3 debs do exist, I'm using them, but they aren't done well and pretty much fuck up any chance of running kde2 related debs on kde3.)

(No, this isn't a troll, it isn't overrated, nor flaming, nor anything else, just leave me be at +1. I won't hurt anyone).

Re:Timing is everything... NO stability IS.

[Erik_]

You can expect a major release of RedHat when they move to gcc 3.x, but why would you need/want to delay a full distribution just for a Browser (Mozilla V1) or a Graphical Interface (KDE 3.x). If you followed this strategy, you would never have a release, waiting for gnome 1.5, then it's going to be Mozilla 1.0.1 with the patches, KDE 3.0.1 etc... Why not use the good (or easy to use) Red Hat update feature ?

Yay Slackware!

[Gleef]

Go Slackware! My favorite of the distributions I seldom use. Incredibly flexible, and with some of the best support for old and odd hardware out there.

Quick questions about the new version:

• Does it still support floppy installation? (Someone said no, but the website says yes, which one is right?)
• Does it still support UMSDOS installations? Yes, UMSDOS is an abomination, but sometimes such abominations are necessary to get the job done.
• I heard that a few versions ago, they added some support for System V style init.d scripts. Is that true?

Re:Yay Slackware!

[Wild Wizard]

> Does it still support floppy installation?

yes via zipslack which pat chopped up into little floppy sized pieces

> Does it still support UMSDOS installations?

yes once again its in the zipslack part of the distro

> I heard that a few versions ago, they added some support for System V style init.d scripts. Is that true?

yea pat added a little script that searches for any sysv scripts on the system and runs them in the right places

Re:Yay Slackware!

[rmgrotkierii]

* Does it still support floppy installation? (Someone said no, but the website [slackware.com] says yes, which one is right?)
it still can be installed via floppy

# Does it still support UMSDOS installations? Yes, UMSDOS is an abomination, but sometimes such abominations are necessary to get the job done.
yes

# I heard that a few versions ago, they added some support for System V style init.d scripts. Is that true?
no idea :/

Re:Yay Slackware!

[RDW]

Note, however, that the documentation on the website is out of date - the 'a' and 'n' package series are no longer split up into floppy-sized chunks (since 8.0). You can still do an ext2 (etc.) installation from floppies by initially installing the split version of Zipslack on to a FAT/FAT32 partition, and moving the complete system over to a Linux-native partition (moving instructions are in the Zipslack docs).

Note also that there's no longer a UMSDOS installation rootdisk, as there was in 8.0 and earlier versions - you have to start with Zipslack as a base system, and build up from there.

The System V init stuff is in the 'sysvinit' package, and is really just to support third party software that expects it to be there - Slackware is still primarily a BSD-style init system.

Re:Yay Slackware!

[adolf]

Yes, you can still do a floppy install, but not of the -whole-thing-. The idea is that you're able to load enough of the system from floppies to get the machine usable and onto the network, at which point you're free to install the rest with ftp downloads, NFS-shared CD-ROM drives, or whatever means suits you.

Sure, it does UMSDOS. No reason not to - the code's been there for ages and works well, why throw it out? My first Slackware install was UMSDOS.

It might support some aspect of SysV init by now, but I wouldn't know. I'm a BSD fan. ;)

Please, enlighten me...

[labratuk]

I'm so happy I've soiled myself

Is that supposed to mean:

- The fact that I've soiled myself brings me great pleasure.

- My immense happiness has caused me to soil myself.

...?

Re:Please, enlighten me...

[MrSnivvel]

The answer would be: B "My immense happiness has caused me to soil myself."

Re:Please, enlighten me...

[Kyeo]

You never know...

Holy Shit

[Anonymous Coward]

An on topic first post?? What the hell were you thinking?

Re:Help with Slack

[seosamh]

Well, you could write to the info mail account at
slackware.com and ask. The change log for the
current (which became 8.1) often cited individuals
who reported specific issues during beta test and
release candidate testing.

Besides that, according to the FAQ:

The most obvious way you can help with Slackware is to use it! The
more people that use it, the more people that can find and report
bugs. This will make Slackware even more stable than it is
now. Another obvious way is to purchase a CD set. This helps to
support everyone working on Slackware, and allows us to work on new
versions. You can also email us and tell us what programs need to be
added.

You can also jump on the forum and answer other users'
questions. Finally, you can help get the word out on Slackware. Help
advocate the distribution - especially to the potential users who are
still looking for their distribution.

Slackware for Noobies?

[WellHungYungWun]

I'd say to better familiarize the world with linux, do something like Mandrake. Lin4Win. It basically makes it easy to "dual os" your system without making partitions. One could learn linux a bit when they had time, and still have the functionality of windows when they needed it. Slackware just doesn't appeal to me, but one mans trash is another's treasure. Mandrake is easy to use, and install. If you want the Linux OS to expand, would you want someone getting frustrated trying to learn vi, or have them spending time enjoying the functionality of their OS. Isn't that what computers are for? Just my .02

Re:Slackware for Noobies?

[Anonymous Coward]

> If you want the Linux OS to expand, would you
> want someone getting frustrated trying to learn
> vi
>
Good point. But certainly wrong distro. Slackware isn't some arcane thing, that only masochists would use. Everything is up to date as can be and if something you're used to is not there, just install it. Voila! What exactly is the difference between a Mandrake KDE and a Slackware KDE? It's the same stuff...I'd wager though, the Slack version is more stable the way it's put together as a whole.

SLS lives !

[forged]

More research on the topis and I found .... (drums) .....

Slashdot announcement of Linux turning 8 years old.

Some pretty insightful comments are attached the the story suggesting that SLS may still have been used by some users at that time, such as #1676775 or #1676797 (there are probably more).

The whole thing has a weird sensation of deja-vu and old memories revisited !

tweaks

[Anonymous Coward]

Please post your linux tweaks here for speed and stability. I have an Athlon 1.2 ghz and gf3 ti200 BTW.

About that 'mozilla' browser

[PissingInTheWind]

I think I've seen something about it elsewhere.

Is it Slackware's browser, like Konqueror for KDE? And is there any other way I could use it, even if I use only RedHat (it's Linux too)?

Re:About that 'mozilla' browser

[Anonymous Coward]

mozilla has nothing to do with slackware, its a seperate browser that works on any linux distro, windows os, mac os, and a dozen other flavors of unix.
www.mozilla.org

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.

I know this is redundant, I'm sorry...

[swagr]

Mad Woooooots!!!
Slackware rocks.

There is a reason why US hasn't won a WC

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because Americans are interested in real sports, not a pussy game like soccer.

Here is a funny scenario: imagine a Frog coming down a soccer field trying to score a goal and is greeted by Ray Lewis.

You'd have to scrape the squshed Frog off the field with a shovel.

Re:There is a reason why US hasn't won a WC

[Anonymous Coward]

Hum ,

Frenchies helped you during your fucking war between you and English

We should have let Englisk kicking your ass in 1776 !

Re:There is a reason why US hasn't won a WC

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I accept your surrender. I'll add it to the pile of white flags we've already received from you.

MOD PARENT UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny.
Funny because it's true.

Is it really ready?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought that /. posts the "it's been released" stories a week befoere the actual release...

Re:somewhere to buy Slack?

[zaren]

Hey does someone know where I can buy Slack in the Netherlands?

Oh, you cannot buy true Slack, my friend... Slackware? Sure, no problem. But *Slack*? That's a whole other kettle of aquatic sea creatures...

-----
Let "them" know you're not a terrorist!

I'm sorry, if you're trying to be funny

[Anonymous Coward]

> Jenna Jameson, Raylene, Pamela Anderson, Taylor Hanes.... You just gotta realise that most of the geeks around here wouldn't have a single clue who these ladies are.

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

[javacowboy]

Man, the first thing I'm going to do when I get home tonight is download the ISO, then burn a CD. Then I'm going to install it.

This is like a dream distro. KDE 3.0, Mozilla 1.0, Evolution, etc...

I still find it hard to believe that one guy essentially did this on his own.

Re:WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

then burn a CD.

Only pirates burn CDs. You must be a pirate.

Re:WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

[stevenbdjr]

Man, the first thing I'm going to do when I get home tonight is download the ISO

Okay, do that tonight...

then burn a CD. Then I'm going to install it.

... then do this two nights from now. Have you seen what happens to mirror servers when a new distro comes out? I'm lucky to be getting 20k from a mirror off my T1 line. The download I started this AM won't finish until around 11pm tonight. I can't imagine what it's going to be like trying to get onto a server tonight. Good luck!

Re:WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

[FuegoFuerte]

I'm lucky to be getting 20k from a mirror off my T1 line. The download I started this AM won't finish until around 11pm tonight.

Sorry, but I gotta say... HA HA. I started the download last night around midnight. This morning I discovered that it had died around 200MB. So, I went to the mirror page, found a mirror, and started it again. About 2 hours later, I had the entire ISO. Here's a hint.... look for servers with high bandwidth and low limits (like 155Mb server w/ 100 user FTP limit) and then rsync to it. I found mine in Sweden, though I don't want to name it here for fear of slashdotting the poor people. It's on the mirror page. Just start a script to try logging on every 10 seconds or whatever. Good luck.

Why Slack is Gnome 2.0-less

[layyze]

From my understanding based on what I was reading on the linuxpackages.net forums and a few other slack boards, Gnome 2.0 just won't be stable soon enough. True, the big gnome 2 release is due later this month, but it seems like Pat really likes his packages to be tested, settled, and mostly stable and it may be a while before G2 gets to any of these points.
Why wait for another Slack release, though? I'm sure it will hit the current tree soon enough, or maybe linuxpackages.net. Better, yet why not compile it yourself? That's more of the Slackware thing to do, anyway.

moron

[Anonymous Coward]

why would you brag about being american?

It's usually a whole lot easier to bash someone else when you haven't stood in their shoes. When you see the tanks entering your nation then maybe you can brag / bash from a position that's worth listening to.

The french undergound / resistance was comparable to similar efforts in Poland. France was looking at a 2-front war, Germany across their northern borders and Italy in the south. Furthermore, at the time the 'America-First' crowd was quite vocal in the US and there was little reason to expect support from our side of the pond.

Arrogant opinions of the insular residents of the US about France are hardly news. Sitting from your /. position / posting without the +1 default that 99% of non-troll accounts enjoy I assume your karma's (appropriately) in negative territory.

kindly consider obtaining a clue, they're not expensive.

And no I'm not gonna waste my own points arguing with an idiot, people won't be able to tell the difference.

Re:moron

[ajmarks]

[Begin Translation]
I'm French! Why do think I have this outrageous accent, you silly king-a?!

I am a snooty parisian. Je parle français. I eat snails, but they are not just snails; they are escargot. It is not our fault the germans raped us. We built the Maginot line. It is not our fault the Nazi's drove around it. Go back to America and drink your second rate wines! And my beret does not look homosexual.

We are more cultured than you American slobs. Ignore the luddites that fill our country and the rude Parisians who have made voyeurism a profession since the flaneurs over 100 years ago. Also, we have le Tower de Eiffel, which is not a big shiny lightning rod/phallic symbol.

It is time for me to go back my job at the cafe, spitting at stupid english speaking tourists. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.
[End Translation]

Q: Why don't they have fireworks at Euro Disney?
A: Because every time they shoot them off, the French try to surrender.

If you have to ask

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd be better off sticking with Windoze. Really. I'd 'splain it to you, Lucy, but you wouldn't understand in a million years. Just keep running Windoze, you'll be fine.

All Linux distributions need Kazaa-like installers

[emil]

Download a bootnet floppy or static Linux executible which checks a list of mirrors, tests bandwidth to find the fastest, and downloads the ISOs and/or does your install.

RedHat up2date seems to use such a mechanism; download times off this network are much faster than updates.redhat.com.

I screwed up my main Linux system this weekend, and hunting for a fast mirror on win98 is annoying.

UK mirror?

[paul_cairney]

mirror.ac.uk has yet to be updated and im looking for a UK/EU mirror with 100Mbit bandwidth to d/l it and mirror it on my 100Mbit connection. ANybody know of somewhere where i can get it from at a decnt speed in the UK?

WAKE UP MODERATORS!

[swagr]

The parent post is currently rated "-1 Overated".

Let me explain why the parent post is both humorous and insightfull.
This post is a reply to the statement Cheers to the slackware developers. (note the s )
Most Slackware users know that the Slackware distro is very much a one man show: "Patrick Volkerding".
see this and you'll note that the rest of the team works on ports, the website, etc. but not the distro.

The above poster saw an opportuinity to correct the first poster, AND do it in a humorous way. It's funny because it catches us off guard (we know there is only one developer but out of habit we just say "developers" because most distro's aren't a one man show). Furthermore, the author of this post was in no way rude or disrespectful to any poster, Patrick Volkerding or Slashdot.

Anyway, I'm expecting my "offtopic" moderation any moment now.
Standing up for poster's rights and active opponent of bad moderation since 2002.

Yeah, but what about

[rutledjw]

the dreaded RPM? After trying Slack, getting used to it and finally liking it (my biggest mistake was appreciating simplicity) I had to give it up. Even before I tried Slack, I was not a fan of RPM. IMHO, it's "installation through obsfucation" (which I have mightily mis-speeled).

The issue is that as a Java dork, I tend to use some IBM tools, actually I have to for this new job. I have to issue with the tools themselves, they perform a function. But they INSTALL via RPM. Despite the fact that my Slack install had all the packages mighty IBM wanted, they were not registered via RPM, and thus were non-existant to IBM tool X,Y&Z...

So I had to re-install using Mandrake and cussing (like a sailor in a storm) removed every bloody package I could find that I didn't need/want. I like Slack best of the distros, but I really do wish there was a way to make RPM type installs be able to "see" packages (libraries, whatever) NOT installed via RPM.

If anyone knows how to do this, I'd appreciate enlightenment, until then, I'll sit here - grumpy. But I really AM a nice person after this first cup o' coffee

Re:Yeah, but what about

[(startx)]

rpm2tgz, then you can cd / ; tar -zxvf packagename.tgz. or if you want to install it rpm wise, use the force and nodeps options of rpm.

Re:Yeah, but what about

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, I think there is a nodeps switch on RPM and slack does include RPM so... Personaly I try to avoid it when possible but RPM2TGZ works too.

Re:Yeah, but what about

[Anonymous Coward]

I have used slackware for years...

and as long as you can meet all the dependancies(like you have the proper versions of the libraries..) you can force rpm to install the package without checking the dependancies...

or you could simply use rpm2tgz that came with slackware to make it into a slackware package...

then if your program still doesn't run, simply run ldd /path/to/program and see what libraries you need... Its not exactly clean... but (IMHO) rpm's aren't either :)

- r0gu3

Re:Timing is everything... NO stability IS.

[brsmith4]

Its much better, in my opinion, to release a distro that is up to date with the best possible releases of software. RedHat has been shipping with the .98 version of Mozilla, an old version of kde, and other stuff. I think it was great for Slack to wait until Moz 1.0, Kde 3, and MANY other full release packages come out. It makes it seem less like a beta distro and more like a streamlined, clean-cut, well thought-out operating system. If you think about it, most other distos include so much beta, alpha and misc. software that it makes them 'seem' kind of flakey. By waiting for the TESTED, STABLE, FULL RELEASE versions, slackware seems a whole hell of a lot more credible than RedHat, Mandrake, or anything else. If i bought RedHat right now, I would have to run a shit load of updates. If i bought mandrake, the same. IF i got Slackware, I don't think I would have to do anything.

I tend to agree

[rutledjw]

with this fellow. I think the biggest issues with wizards, gui-helpers and other demons from h3ll is that they tend to shield the user from the OS. Therefore people never really understand what is happening

In the windows world, this is most likely a positive thing (token Windows cheap shot, acutally I feel that MS doesn't want people to know so they can control compatibility, but that's another topic). But with Linux I feel it's important to have a better understanding of what goes on at the OS-level so you can

• Better deal with problems
• Understand WHY security updates are important
• Help beta test, etc. (if that's your thing)

MHO, of course

EOL

Hooray!

[Mister Snee]

And to think I just went and downloaded the entire slackware-current source tree to try out RC1 only three days ago. -_-

Seriously though, Slack 8.1 looks great. There are a few little tweaks that really make a difference (for instance, I thought I saw ESD behaving at one point) and some of the stuff packaged with it is just cool (am I the only one who noticed the full-colour Lynx? :D).

My only complaint is one I can't verify with the actual CD release of Slack 8.1, but at least with RC1 it was very very hard to do a clean "upgrade" of my current system. In fact I eventually had to back up all my important configuration files and delete the entire filesystem except for the directory where I'd made a copy of the -current tree and the utilities I needed to "installpkg". Nothing short of that would make it work cleanly. This isn't really a big deal for desktop systems but it makes me very nervous about upgrading my servers, most of which are running Slack 8.0 or 7.1.

Still, a great release that was well worth the wait.

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.

Slack is an excellent newbie distro

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless, of course, you don't want to learn anything about linux. The Slack install is refreshing in this era of lazy punks who demand instant-gratification. Slack makes you earn your install, and makes you actually think and learn stuff along the way, and that's a good thing. If you're afraid of your computer, or if you're too lazy or unmotivated to get your hands dirty, maybe you'd be happier with a distro for the brain-dead, or, just stick with Windoze. If you really want to learn something, Slack is the only hands-on teaching distro out there.

My first distro was Slackware 96 (3.1). I've tried others through the years, Debian, SCO, Red Hat, Caldera, FreeBSD, Mandrake, Solaris, on test boxes, but I only put Slack on production boxes because it's the only *nix out there that lets you do stuff the way *you* think it should be done. (OK, FreeBSD is ok for that, but I couldn't deal with the "It was hard for us to write it, it should be hard for you to use it" BSD attitude. Not a friendly bunch of folks there...) And, once you get everything tweaked and tuned (and that's not a major chore), Slack just runs forever.

Ah, the French

[Anonymous Coward]

They've *never* won a war on their own, they fight with their feet and fuck with their faces. They don't bathe, their food is over-priced and the portions are pitifully small, and it really isn't all that good. Why the French act so snobby is a mystery, they're a bunch of low-lifes who eat snails and fungus they steal from pigs. The world would be a much better place if the snails ate the French.

LPRng

[MSG]

Well, it looks like this version finally includes LPRng.

I've been convinced that no one in slackware gives a damn about security since 8.0 included lpr-0.48, a remotely root exploitable BSD based lpr that was fixed YEARS before 8.0 was released. Hello? Someone is asleep at the wheel.

At the same time, I thought it was quite funny. The slackware users that I work with were complaining about Red Hat when I was hired because "it ships with a remotely exploitable lpr running by default". At that time, that hadn't been true for over two years.

Re:All Linux distributions need Kazaa-like install

[Hard_Code]

BitTorrent

PraBob for SLACK...

[MsGeek]

Slackware was my first distro too. It loaded beautifully on a freaky system...would you believe a 486 with PCI slots? I'm actually going to buy Slack 8.1...I have a couple of elderly machines for which Slack would be ideal. 486SLC IBM EduQuest 35 all in one with 16MB and an ancient NEC proprietary HD? Slack will probably work, even if I have to use ZipSlack to make it work.

I was a 100% green newbie when I used Slack the first time. I'm now a veteran of Mandrake/Red Hat/insert name of hand-holding distro here/ but I am actually very excited that a new Slackware is out.

The Subgenius must have SLACK! PraBob!

Hey!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why'd this get modded down twice as 'offtopic' ? I thought it was a funny joke!

heh

[IanA]

"Slackware is the best distro! I love it because it doesn't do anything for me,
and it doesn't have any tools for the user!
IT'S NUMBER ONE WOOHOO!!!"

Linux shouldn't be masochistic :P

Thank you Pat and gang

[fire-eyes]

I started using linux at slackware 3.6. I never found a reason to even try another distro. Slackware has always done and let me do anything i want, without any imposing bullshit.

Thanks Pat and team, truly a spectacular product all the time.

Masochistic?

[Anonymous Coward]

Masochistic is trying to set up /etc/securetty (and a myriad of other config files) under Mandrake 8.2. It's like ping pong!
You change it, the msec script changes it back! You change it, the msec script changes it back! You change it, the msec script changes it back! You wish msec had nuts so you could kick em!

I just quit using msec. Good idea for home users tho, if the system is set up properly in the first place.

Back to my Linux roots

[Azar]

Wow,

It amazes me that in this world of "let's make a new distro every minute", that one old timer like Slackware can stay alive. It's refreshing to know that a distribution can have such lasting power. It just goes to show the dedication of it's userbase. Patrick must be doing something right.

Slackware was the first Linux distro that I "broke my teeth on", which at the time, is exactly what it felt like. I had used Unix but never had to set it up and my hardware was not well supported. After trying different versions of Slack over the ensuing months, I gave it up. I tried Linux again a while later with Redhat 4.2 and have since used Redhat for many years (along with a *bunch* of others).

I've been watching Slack's progress over the past 1 or 2 years and have really been wanting to try it again. Now that 8.1 is out I think I'm going to have to head back to my Linux roots and give it a try.

Long live Slackware.

don't forget about Opera

[Anonymous Coward]

and the Netscape version is 6.22 now i think.

MOD PARENT DOWN; -1, REDUNDANT

[Anonymous Coward]

"fucking whore"

Redundant.

RedHat as a Primer

[PeekabooCaribou]

I ended up doing the same thing when I learned how to use Linux. I started out with RedHat, and that was newbie-tolerant enough to get my Mac-trained head around all the concepts. I'm a full-time Slack guy now, and I credit RedHat for getting me started on it all.

Re:Timing is everything... NO stability IS.

[Anonymous Coward]

> It was great for Slack to wait until
>
Apache 1.3.26! Now that's a current distro!

The cost of slackware.... $39.95

[cmark]

Got Slack? T-Shirt $16.00
Supporting a great disto... Priceless!

I have been running Slackware happily for years now and have always downloaded the free iso from linuxiso.org this has been a great resourse but my consience has caught up with me, like listening to public radio/tv and not ever donating when they do pledge drives. This is a great product and you have the choice of supporting it financially or getting it for free.
I saw that the store site was slashdotted but I do not know if that will result in a ton of sales. Hopefully I am not alone in thinking that this is something that, we who use the great slackware distro need to support financially and that more people will buy a copy.
The shirt kicks ass too!

my 2 cents

Slackware 8.1.01 ...

[leiz]

There's been some last minute updates to slackware. From the changelog:

Wed Jun 19 07:02:39 PDT 2002
Slackware 8.1.01-stable is released.
a/sysvinit-2.84-i386-19.tgz: Added -M to fix quotacheck for reiserfs.
d/cvs-1.11.2-i386-2.tgz: Added docs in text format.
n/apache-1.3.26-i386-1.tgz: Upgraded to apache-1.3.26.
This fixes the issue described in:
"CERT Advisory CA-2002-17 Apache Web Server Chunk Handling Vulnerability"
While the impact of this issue is minimal on 32 bit Linux systems, we felt it
was important enough to stop the presses and get these fixes in before sending
the Slackware 8.1 discs in for replication.
(* Security fix *)
n/mod_ssl-2.8.9_1.3.26-i386-1.tgz: Upgraded to mod_ssl-2.8.9_1.3.26.
rootdisks/rescue.dsk: Added network/pcmcia scripts.

Tue Jun 18 10:47:47 PDT 2002
Slackware 8.1-stable is released! :-)

Re:Slackware 8.1.01 ...

[indigo78]

Obviously bleeding edge :)
Just hope we won't have to wait some months to get the new current (like we did with 8.0).

Re:Slackware 8.1.01 ...

[Anonymous Coward]

At least he didn't release it twice with the same version number. That happened with 7.1 - two different ISOs with different versions of wuftpd, released about a week apart. Guess which one I got.

Re:Slackware 8.1.01 ...

[leiz]

Oh, btw, the md5sum for slackware 8.1 (.01) ISO is

0a39f9ea50d63a668e58703479f02da3 ./slackware-8.1- install.iso

Re:Slackware 8.1.01 ...

[pirkster]

So, if one does not want to get back in line to re-download the .01 iso, one should be able to just get those specific packages from slackware-current... correct?

Re:Slackware 8.1.01 ...

[Anonymous Coward]

[i]Guess which one I got.[/i]

Rooted?

What Luck!

[Anonymous Coward]

just this morning I was saying to myself, "Self, you have recently been hacked, and while you have removed the rootkit, checked logs and timestamps, and blocked several ipranges and email aliases, performed a few rpm -e's, and thought seriously about backing up your information, it is probably a good idea to use that spare hard drive you bought for just such a purpose and install a fresh server os." Self replied, "Where would you get the time? It takes forever to even get a passable Redhat installation running, and maybe longer to secure. Not that we (self being mangamanious this morn) would do a decent job of securing the system, especially since hacker knows your IP and limited abilities." Self had a point, and I tossed around in my head what I could do. Knowing my self wouldn't buy it any more than I, I suggested, "What about throwing a little obscurity into the mix." Self looked doubtful. "By that, I mean," I said to self, "a little bit of obscurity with a good dose of minimality. You (I being not so magnamanious this day) already plan to install apache and sendmail and whatever tickles your fance from source. Probly after a deleting all the stuff you didn't click on but Mr. Young and Cox installed your anyway, knowing your wishes better than yourself." "Not Gentoo or Debian!" self cried. "Of course not, Gentoo always fails to build (two days into it), and Debian is for dorks, and besides, I can't get it to install and apt get is too hard." "If only slackware were more current..." lamented self. I've got to show him the announcement on slashdot when I get home tonight. Maybe by then there will be a mirror up.

486 w/PCI (Offtopic)

[DudemanX]

Hell yes I believe you. The first PC that I built myself was a 486 w/PCI slots. The Pentium was new but REALLY expensive(and had a little division problem). I knew VLB video was going to be a thing of the past and wanted a nice upgrade path. It worked extremely well. With the AMD 486 80Mhz I slapped in there it was even able to run Quake playably. Unfortunatly I can't say I had the common sence to run Linux on it(I ran DOS/Win3.1).

BULLSHIT!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not a goddamned Single One of those FTP URLs work as of this writing. Not a one. >:(

Re:BULLSHIT!!!

[PeekabooCaribou]

Well they're probably just Slashdotted, you troll.

Yet another mirror

[MentlFlos]

For any of you slack junkies who just can't find it or find it fast enough.... ftp over to mirror.ce.rit.edu It's not a blazing fast machine, but it is far from slow. Happy downloading.

Re:WAKE UP MODERATORS! ( RU STUPID?)

[GC]

The parent post is currently rated "-1 Overated".

Let me explain why the parent post is both humorous and insightfull.
This post is a reply to the statement Cheers to the slackware developers. (note the s )
Most Slackware users know that the Slackware distro is very much a one man show: "Patrick Volkerding".
see this [slackware.com] and you'll note that the rest of the team works on ports, the website, etc. but not the distro.

The above poster saw an opportuinity to correct the first poster, AND do it in a humorous way. It's funny because it catches us off guard (we know there is only one developer but out of habit we just say "developers" because most distro's aren't a one man show). Furthermore, the author of this post was in no way rude or disrespectful to any poster, Patrick Volkerding or Slashdot.

Anyway, I'm expecting my "offtopic" moderation any moment now.
Standing up for poster's rights and active opponent of bad moderation since 2002.

kazaa mirroring?

[Anonymous Coward]

would someone please mirror an iso on kazaa? it would be nice to see kazaa used for something other than mp3 divx and pr0n...

Times are changing...

[A_Non_Moose]

I used to say "Windows: the best hardware detection a Slackware user needs".

Now it is "RedHat: The best hardware detection a Slackware user needs".

But considering I just did an install of RedHat 7.3 on a p-pro 200 that took almost 4 hours (nfs, samba, apache and X) and a full Slackware 7 install (full) took 30 some-odd minutes.
(we'll see about 8.1 tomorrow...heh this makes me glad I did not d/l the alpha/beta 2 days ago).

.

Upgrading...

[chimera1978]

Does anybody know of a better way to upgrade other than a) reinstalling or b) following UPGRADE.TXT? UPGRADE.TXT basically says to install glibc and pkgtool, then to install absolutely everything, uninstall all of the old packages, then reinstall everything again. Maybe I'm the only one that doesn't want every package installed. I also don't want to go through and do an upgradepkg on every single package (which won't work any way because of the new naming convention). Any thoughts?

Re:Upgrading...

[hammock]

Back up your home directories, and any other custom file collections (such as nfs or samba shares), keep special configuration files that will still work on the stuff included in 8.1.x, such as smb.conf.

Install 8.1.x and restore said backed up files. Bonus points if /home is a separate partition because you didn't have to "back up" anything.

I gave up...

[rundgren]

I downloaded slackware on a 28.8 and eventually got it installed on my p75. Getting it to dualboot with win95 using LILO was hell for an inexperienced 17year old like my self. Not to mention getting X to work with a decent resolution. I had never edited a txt config file in my life and It was a nightmare. It all of course ended with my boot process stopping after the first two LILO letters, and I had to reformat and went back to win95. I'm still a little afraid of Linux..

Your mirror is appreciated

[Anonymous Coward]

As it says in the subject, your mirror is much appreciated. It is saturating my DSL line much to my suprise.... I am getting 157k/s off of it.

WOOHOO!