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Slackware 9.1RC 2 Out, Mandrake 9.2 Soon
Colin writes "The founder of Slackware, Patrick Volkerding, released version 9.1 RC-2 of the upcoming Slackware. Good ol' Slack comes with new versions of packages while the addition of the Swaret tool adds dependency checking on Slackware for the first time! Here is an enthusiastic preview of Slackware 9.1 with plenty of screenshots." And pacc points out that Mandrake 9.2 will soon be ready, but only for Mandrake Club members at first. "But it will soon come to a mirror near you(TM). Though by choosing to distribute it with BitTorrent, do they effectively limit the downloads for a limited release?"
"adds dependency checking on Slackware for the first time!"
Well that's going to take all the fun out of it, I'll have to change distros, it just wouldn't be the same if after 2 hours of compiling it doesn't bork. Hell, I'd even pay extra for that, dependency checking is for pussies, with too little time on their hands.
Um, what is there that this guy *doesn't* like? I guess he didn't mention Commodore Basic...
"Though by choosing to distribute it with BitTorrent, do they effectively limit the downloads for a limited release?"
As opposed to NOT using BitTorrent and having all the bandwidth eaten up so that each person gets 4k/s ?
Oh, I get it . . . you meant "Though by limiting the release, do they effectively make the BitTorrent method of distribution less effective?"
Well, there are over 16,000 Mandrake members. Let's say only 10% decide to download at the same time (an obviously conservative figure), that is still 1,600 simultaneous downloads. Is that suboptimal for BitTorrent?
Personally, I don't think Mandrake cares. The other way couldn't handle the traffic so they are using BitTorrent. If members get 150k/s instead 200k/s because of the limitted release, big deal. That is a small price to pay to get freeloaders involved in the actual realities behind creating a product they obviously value.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
swaret --update
swaret --upgrade
Lots of options, you can even specify default 'yes' for all upgrades. Resolves dependencies too.
A few months ago I tried setting up Linux From Scratch. I discovered that to make it not completely suck, I had to patch various things. It occurred to me that Slackware has already done exactly these things (plus more I wouldn't think of) for me.
/var/run, but I want to run named as a non-root user, meaning /var/run wouldn't be writable. The only configure option is --localstatedir which defaults to /var, meaning it would create a subdir called "run" under wherever I chose to put it, which is pretty stupid IMHO. Slackware uses /var/run/named/named.pid so you can change the ownership of /var/run/named to match the user you run named as.
./bin/named/include/named/globals.h.
The other day I upgraded BIND to the new version which I downloaded from ISC, so I could work around Verisign's DNS hijacking. I ran into a snag: it wanted to save a PID file in
So I popped in the source CD to see how they do it, since I couldn't find a config option for that. Guess what? There's a diff file, and a shell script that patches the source (along with other build options). The changes are toward the end of
Yes, that's right, when I got the source off the CD, I got the original unmodified source tarball, a diff file, and a shell script with build options - not some mysteriously customized source tarball that the distro thinks is somehow better than the original, but the original tarball plus Slackware's modifications - meaning, I can easily make the same modifications to a new version of the source.
Is Slackware perfect? Well, no, maybe not - but that's OK, because if something's not to my liking, Slackware doesn't get in my way if I want to do it myself. I can just build a new version of BIND from source, uninstall the old one, install the new one, and not worry about other packages maybe depending on BIND somehow, or anything else weird.
So, let me join the other Slackware fans here with a hearty "THANKS, PATRICK!"
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
In college, I was the ideal Slackware user. I wanted to learn programming, loved to compile my own stuff and felt that Redhat was only useful in removing the user from my goal of learning *nix. I extolled its virtues at every opportunity. I didn't have to hunt down an RPM just to install a new kernel, and I certainly knew how to compile my own kernel. I didn't know of any other serious distributions in 1996.
When I entered the real world and had a job and non-computer hobbies, I still had the need (perceived need as opposed to life or death need) for a *nix machine for my home mail, DNS and web serving. I no longer had the time, however, for fixing dependencies, applying source code patches and hunting down the minor details that I had arduously learned how to hunt down in the previous years. Debian came to my rescue. Dselect may be rough around the intuitive UI edges, and it's not quick on my 486, but it's consistent and only requires occasional answers to keep my machine well patched. It's been years since I've had to compile my own kernel, let alone wanted to.
I fondly remember Slackware as I remember my first girlfriend. It was a good idea at the time, but that time has since past and I have moved on. I am much happier now, but the lessons and memories will stay with me for a long time.
Hello fellow Slackware users and newcomers, just a few comments to help clarify a few things.
Slackware 9.1 comes in two CDs and it's Installation is text-based.
I would personally describe this as a menu based installation. ie: use arrow keys to select packages/options.
The only snag might be that the user will need to use the command line and not extremely user-friendly fdisk application to create partitions for Slackware.
cfdisk is also available which is menu based.
Hmmm. This whole OSS business is supposed to engender, among other things, choice.
Now, for various reasons, some geek, some pragmatic, some even business-like, I - a die-hard Windows user/programmer of over 10 years - am interested in Linux. Not to the exclusion of Windows, hoever.
It's not necessary to call us whores. Not all of us. At worst, there are the vast majority who think there is no choice, and they certainly need to be educated. But, having educated myself on the alternatives, I still choose to use Windows, and damned if I will apologize for it. If you want to convert the intelligent Windows geeks, (we're out there, lost in a sea of clue-bies) you might want to consider that we're worth a little respect.
By the way, I'm loading Mandrake on a virtual as I type this.
meh.