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Slackware 11.0 Almost Done

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the is-it-worth-the-wait dept.

linuxbeta writes "DistroWatch reports that the development process for Slackware Linux 11.0 is almost over. OSDir has some sweet shots of Slackware 11.0 RC1 in the Slackware 11.0 RC1 Screenshot Tour." From the article: "'There are still a few changes yet to happen, but let's call this Slackware 11.0 release candidate 1.' Other recent changes include upgrade to stable kernel 2.4.33; upgrade to udev 097, and rebuild of glibc 2.3.6 for both 2.4.33 and 2.6.16.27 kernels. The new release will ship with X.Org 6.9.0 and KDE 3.5.4, and will provide SeaMonkey instead of Mozilla."

3 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Patrick, maybe the time's come by buffoverflow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Being a dedicated Slack user for the better part of a decade, I've rarely questioned any of Patrick's decisions in the maintenance of HIS distro. (Most people who piss & moan about Slackware being dated don't realize that it's one of the few distros that is still maintained, for the most part, by a single individual).
    However, with great trepidation, I must say that perhaps some changes are in order.
    Slackware has had a dedicated following for a long time because the distribution filled an industry need. The need for a truly rock solid stable distro that was a fairly easy transition for those coming from a pure Unix world. It seems now that those days are, for the most part, gone. The majority of the engineers out there now days have been brought up on other Linux distros, and many have never touched an actual Unix system. (No need to start any "What is Unix really?" flame wars).
    While I do still prefer the structure and stability of Slackware, I do think it's time to make certain changes. I'm not saying it's time to jump on the "Latest and Greatest Everything" bandwagon. I think it's time for the distro to be re-focused. Possibly into a pure Server OS, with a strong focus on commercial grade clustering & virtualization. All of the other distros that have done this (i.e. RedHat, SUSE, etc.), did not have the right base for it. They were based on bleeding edge, sometimes alpha code, and everything had to be stabilized (which hasn't seemed to work out very well). Slackware does have the right, truly stable base for a dedicated server OS. If Patrick were to shift things to this direction, build in the right set of truly enterprise-class server features, I think he may very well see a new found following.
    The other area that I believe a re-focused version of slack could be very successful is the embedded systems market. Slack is known for is lean, fast, optimized code. I think it would fit well into this segment.

    I think either of these markets are perfect for Slack. Neither is looking for the latest, most newfangled, gui-based, anything. They want lean, fast, stable code, & steady release cycles. Just my $.02.

    1. Re:Patrick, maybe the time's come by KillerBob · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I disagree. Slackware is what it is: stable. It's also one of the fastest distros I've ever used. There's a reason it's running on all of my servers. There's *tons* of other distros out there that specialise in bleeding edge. Let them do it.

      If you want bleeding edge out of a Slack-based distro, btw, you should check out Zenwalk (http://www.zenwalk.org/). Slack packages are compatible, though they have their own package manager and custom-compiled packages that support dependency checking )while still maintaining compatibility with pkgtool and install/removepkg). The real advantage is when Zen doesn't have a package for what you're looking for... then you can just pop over to slackware.com and grab Pat's version, or over to linuxpackages.net and grab one of theirs.

      --
      If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
  2. Re:Many Kudos! by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hear! Hear!

    Slackware is still my distro of choice. It's utterly stable, and it just works. I actually like the text-based install: it's the right technology for what it does. What more do you need? Besides, it really will run on anything.

    Slackware is one of the few distros that realizes that it's OK for a Linux box to look and feel like Unix. And, yes, I have used real Unix, back in my VAX days. I still have a Solaris box in my cubicle, and I do real work with it.

    Keep up the good work, Patrick. Thank you.

    ...laura, typing this on a Slackware 10.2 box