Slashdot Mirror
x86-64 Slackware Clone Released
Rob_Ogilvie points out that another distribution for x86-64 (AKA AMD64) has been released: "This time it's Slamd64. Slamd64 10.1 is based off Slackware 10.1. Developer Fred Emmott ported Slackware to AMD64 in his spare time, trying to keep the distribution as close to Slackware proper as possible (even keeping binary compatibility for many existing packages). Finally x86-64 users have some real viable choices out there!"
The past few weeks have been fantastic for PC operating system developments. Between the new Fedora release, this, the release of open source Solaris, the release of FreeBSD 5.4, Mac OS X on Intel machines, and the upcoming release of BeOS, things have really been happening at an amazing pace. We are truly coming up to a time of great innovation and change in the PC desktop/workstation landscape.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I've had AMD64 Gentoo running for over a year.
Debian on AMD64
cant forget about the relese of debian gnu/linux 3.1 finally!
Noone writes jokes in base 13!
Great news indeed.
Well done, even the site looks like slackware.com
I've always liked slackware because it is small and simple.
I've been using slack since 1995, then I tried all the other distros but I always go back to slack when I want something simple to build from: the CD is quick to get you to shell where you can chroot, the installation is quick and takes the minimum amount of space (why would you need >500MB for bash + ls?!! Fedora anyone?), etc
It will definitely have a place on my x86064 systems - if not as the main system, as a backup at least. Good work!
Only regret: where's the torrent? the mirrors aren't up to date yet..
TODO: 753) write sig.
Don't the big ones (SuSE, Fedora, Gentoo, etc) already support AMD64
It's news because slackware *is* one of the big ones that has been around since pretty much the beginning of Linux.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
You are correct, however, this is news for Slackware and 64-bit processor support. Working for a large hosting company, we get many requests for Linux operating systems that are not "the big ones", and not listed on our typical build pages. Users want an OS they are comfortable with, not just what we advertise. Thanks, Fred - a quick test install on my Opteron scratch box works as expected. (And it is Slack - not rpms or debs or ebuilds...)
This is good, but it's not like there was no choice for x86_64 before. Debian, (K)Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, Mandriva all have 64 bit versions out.
In case you hadn't heard, AMD64 distros have been abailable for a while now. Want something Debian-based? Try Ubuntu Hoary, which has been out for several months now.
ISO for AMD64
I did no K8-specific optimisations, just generic x86_64, so it should work fine on EM64T.
All recommendations I've seen are to hold off using WinXP 64 and wait until Longhorn.
On the conpiracy theory side... Microsoft's slow adoption may strictly be at the bequest of Intel (who know they don't really have anything that can compete with AMD right now).
By delaying "good" support for 64bit, Microsoft is actually helping Intel in making sure the 64bit revolution doesn't take off in a massive way... gives Intel more time to catch up. Most Intel shops are pure Microsoft shops (e.g. Dell.. well.. Dell does give Linux some lip service, but it's just a marketing thing).
We've been having problems with rsync timeouts and I've not been able to get hold of the admin of the primary mirror. ftp.heanet.ie/pub/slamd64/ contains the .xdelta files for final compared to RC4 - full isos should have finished in a few hours. Sorry for the delay.
Why is this news?
Well, it's slackware working in another architecture
Why not Debian/*buntu/Fedora/yadda?
I don't like [package] management getting in my way, that's why.
It's outdated!
Get some fresh source or search slackware-current or linuxpackages
If I wanted to compile I'd get gentoo!
Your choice.
I see 57005 people
That's not a clone of Slack 10.1, it's an officially sanctionned port.
Furthermore, Slack 10.1 will run just fine on AMD64, because AMD64, and ia64 as well, are backwards compatible and will run code intended for 32-bit processors. The difference is that the code in slamd64 is optimized for Athlon64/Opteron, a feat which is entirely doable by anybody who knows how to compile a kernel and their own software.
Don't get me wrong. It's a great boon to people who prefer Slack and run AMD64, but that only comes in saving them the time to compile their own, but it's by no means the great saviour: I've been running Slack 10.1 on my Athlon64-based server for a while, and all I had to do was compile a kernel and recompile Apache/PHP/MySQL/Sendmail/UW-IMAP. Technically, I didn't even have to recompile those, either....
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
the two real issues are drivers and 16 bit userland code
It is not the drivers, it is the bloody applications hard coded to the OS versions. I've got a AMD64 system with a handful of HDD's for testing software. Just got done giving the first rounds of testing with Win2003-64 (still beta I think) and the GA version of WinXp-64. Since I am using an Nforce4 mainboard and Nvidia video card, I've got drivers for all of the on-board kit of a fully loaded box. The Adaptec controllers got picked up by the OS as well.
The real fun started when I started trying to run applications. Being clever, Microsoft thought to default the 'program files' to something like 'program files (64-bit)'. The parenthesis caused several installers (take steam for instance) to give grief. Rational Application Developer had all sorts of trouble trying to spin up, and the DVD burning software was a total loss. I've got a free copy, and I won't mess with it again for a few months.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Indeed -- only Windows is nowhere to be seen. ;-)
I for one trust it (and use it). Pat serves as the same sort of benevolent dictator as Linus does on the distribution level. He has constructed a rock solid concept that could survive him, as Linux would survive the loss of Linus.
The point is that Pat has put together a system with a strong guiding philosophy holding it together, and as a result it has a lot of devotees who wouldn't let it go under.
IT pros who use it utilise it do so because it's not tied to any sort of BS abstraction layer (ie dependency checking systems), and as a result it gives administrators more flexibility for configuration.
As for viability, lets go down the list:
Red Hat-- Pay a lot for Enterprise, or use the (newly created) user community.
Suse-- Same RPM hell, albeit now with different corporate flagging (Not that Novell is bad, but there is an added complexity layer.)
Mandriva-- Strength through consolidation?
Debian/Ubuntu/Xandros-- Which community or corporation do you want making your decisions for you?
The point is, Slackware is as stable a choice (check longevity and changes to structure) as any Distro, if not the MOST stable.
Yeah, it's interesting and fun too, because it makes "viability" a whole hell of a lot easier for those with a clue...
Acquiescence leads to obliteration
I bought my beast from Micronux:
http://www.micronux.com/
This model:
here
It's a good system and it came with CentOS4 for x86_64 which I gave a few days before wiping and installing x86_64 gentoo.
I've since bought an additional GB of memory to dedicate to various vmware machines for envrionment testing and some work-specific windows stuff.
The only issues I've had with an all x86_64 system has been related to codeweavers and transgaming stuff. Oh and some issues with Flash. I spend most of time browsing with a native compiled firefox version and switching to firefox-bin under multilib when I need the non-64bit plugins.
I even did my first stage one install in a LONG time (I normally do a stage 2 on installs for obvious time reasons) just to see how it would perform and even with just the 1GB of ram at the time, I was done in a couple of hours and running X. The system really does scream. FYI, PCI-Express in SLI mode is non-existant under linux right now but dual-head works fine.
Micronux is a solid company and I plan on buying again from them in the future.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
"But any serious enterprise would be beyond foolish to entrust their IT center to an OS developed, packaged and supported entirely at the whim of just a couple of guys with no real infrastructure behind them"
You just described not only the foundation of Linux, but the current operating state of most OSS projects.
I pay for a subscription from Slackware! Just go to the Slackware store.
Your thin skin doesn't make me a troll