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64-Bit Slackware Is Alive
t0mg writes with this news from the top of Slackware.org "from the Slackware64-current changelog: [tap tap tap]... Is this thing on? ;-) Ready or not, Slackware has now gone 64-bit with an official x86_64 port being maintained in-sync with the regular x86 -current branch. DVDs will be available for purchase from the Slackware store when Slackware 13.0 is released. Many thanks go out to the Slackware team for their help with this branch and a special thank you to Eric Hameleers who did the real heavy lifting re-compiling everything for this architecture, testing, re-testing, and staying in-sync with -current. We've been developing and testing Slackware64 for quite a while. Most of the team is already using Slackware64 on their personal machines, and things are working well enough that it is time to let the community check our work. We'd like to thank the unofficial 64 bit projects for taking up the slack for us for so long so that we could take our time getting everything just right. Without those alternatives, we would have been pressured to get things out before they were really ready."
Although I haven't use slackware in years.
But it is great when you have servers up to your ears.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I guess some folk like to stick with the first version of anything they ever try... kinda like the Amiga crowd?
I wonder if it's too much to ask that the DVD have both i386 and x86_64 on them. I also wonder if they'll support upgrading from i386 to x86_64. I wonder when 13 will be released.
I wonder a lot of things really.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
...that's the OS my grandpa used it use, isn't it?
http://www.slackware.com/announce/1.0.php
http://ebgp.net/ccc/
I havn't used Slackware in years, but I owe my knowledge of the nitty-gritty workings on Linux to it. It's a great environment for learning how to compile your own kernel.
I'm not a Slackware user. It has been many years. I think 2004 was when my server finally stopped running Slack. It was a time thing. I wanted to have the same distro on my desktop and server so I only had to keep track of one way of doin things. That said, I really do like that Slackware is still around. Slackware is basically a story about one guy and his distro. And its nice to know something like that still exists in the Linux world. Its a statement of individualism and simplicity that is sometimes lost in a world of sophisticated integrated products.
And to be honest, the simplicity of Slackware has its definite payouts. It means the system you end up with has a simple and relatively easy to maintain architecture, without much fluff. If you want a machine to do one thing, and do it well... I think Slack is a very excellent choice and still worth considering. Congrats on going 64 bit!
That's just typical. Slackware, being my primary (and most often only) OS since I began using Linux, didn't fully support my new 64 bit machine.
So I switch to Gentoo (those extra cores had to have a reason..), and when I finally get
settled with Gentoo, Slackware goes 64 bit.
Most of the team is already using Slackware64 on their personal machines, and things are working well enough
From personal experience "well enough" for the Slackware folks is far beyond anything others consider "fabulous."
When did they stop using floppies?
*no body*
weinersmith
IIRC it is maintained by Fred Emmott. Why no credit/cooperation??? Lacking expanation, I'm unhappy.
It's getting hard to buy a new machine that ISN'T 64 bit, and Slackware's just now releasing for x86_64? Why does Debian get all the shit for slow release cycles?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I didn't know that slackware is still alive.
I switched to gentoo on the desktop in 2004 for 64 bit support and it did fill the gap for me. The problem with gentoo is that the ebuilds have started to become increasingly dependency heavy. When a dependency is not absolutely required and has not been specified by me it shouldn't be built. That was the point where I decided I may as well go back to a binary based distro.
Recently I switched my servers from Slackware to Arch and my desktops/laptop from gentoo to arch. PKGBUILD's are trivial to write and maintain and the rolling release cycle means the end of the yearly system backup, reinstall, reconfigure procedure. Arch isn't a perfect distro but it is by far the best I've found.
I rememember my first distro, Slackware 3.0. The fustrations, the joys, ah, the memories. When 13 ships with 64-bit support, I'll have to take a look.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Well, he did credit the unofficial ports. If you're unhappy that it wasn't by name, uh, I dunno, deal with it?
As for why no co-operation, you'll have to ask Pat himself for that. He takes fixes all the time by e-mail, and x86-64 support has been in many of the build scripts since even before SLAMD64 started, so everybody who has followed Slackware should have known that this was coming.
AMD-only. No (ok, very little) Intel. Kthxbye
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
Have you been keeping up with the change log? He is credited 5 times. ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/ChangeLog.txt
Last time I used (five years ago) Slackware it had no dependencies tracking, no automatic updates or update manager, it lacked any utilities to automatically set up network interfaces and used LILO. Is it better now? ;)
The real question is, what's the target audience of Slackware? People who have no active social life and prefer computers to chicks?
He doesn't get credited at www.slackware.com.
Slamd64 provided us with a good Slackware port to AMD64 while Pat was busy with IBM/390 ports.
Stick Men
I'm in the ChangeLog/copyright notices where appropriate. All my published work on Slamd64 is free software; I don't care what's done as long as the licenses are followed.
This is probably a good time to say why I made slamd64 again:
I wanted a 64-bit Slackware. I didn't want to be a distro lead, or anything like that. I like Slackware, and I needed a 64-bit distro. I made it for my own use, and uploaded it in case anyone else wanted to use it. Now there's a 64-bit Slackware, that reason's gone.
Slamd64 will be continued in some form for the foreseeable future, but possibly as something slightly different.
A true Slackware64 is better for you too:
Best news! This made my day! I cannot wait to upgrade my machines to this! posting on slack 12.2~!
in the bag of tools. why pick ubuntu over slack or openbsd when you can simply use the right one?
my main desktop is slack.
also when a particular program is not in a repository, or it's the wrong version, or the wrong options are set...I find it easiest to build my custom packages on slack. so a specific use box that will require a custom package or two, slack is easy for me.
when i need quick functional desktop it's ubuntu, like the other day my buddy has a guest room computer that he's tired of getting infected, so I put ubuntu with firefox very prominantly displayed. the guests can surf on that system.
when i need a linux router or especially hardened system i use openbsd.
if i need to use (my admittedly old version of) autocad & photoshop i boot to a windows 2000 partition.
i find most of the comments in this thread bizarre.
if anything, i find the gentooistas the most quixotic. i've used gentoo, it's pretty straight forward, while the users are not. i don't have a niche for it. if i want to compile mostly everything, i'll use freebsd. if i need serious video editing, i'll probably use my roommates macpro.
suse/redhat/mandrake those are all good standard linuxes with package management.
debian would be the king where package management is the hostess with the mostess
Package system? Which package system? .tar.bz2?
*yawn* glad to know slackware supports a processor that's been in production for over 6 years now.
Thank Kali for Slackware. It was the first Linux distribution I ever used, and also has the distinction of being the Linux distro that bears the most resemblance to BSD.
I pray that Slack is able to survive for a long time to come, yet; it is the sole Linux distribution in existence that I consider genuinely well designed. The single main thing which bothers me so much about Debian in particular is not simply the fact that Debian is so horrible, but that its' developers and fanboys are also so adamant in their insistence that it is actually something wonderful.
Although I do not know the man personally, I vicariously consider Mr. Volkerding a second father. In terms of his distribution, at least, he has done more for me than my real father has for many years, now.
What chu talkin' 'bout Willis?
This here post's coming from a laptop running
Slamd64 12.2 on an Intel T8100 chip.
It also runs well on my E6400, E6420, and Q6600
machines too.
Great news for me, I'll be able to continue using my favorite distribution even in the 64 bit environment. After a brief initial experience with SuSe,
I went with Slack and never looked back.
I've been using SlamD64 for about 2 years now, since I got my AMD Turion X2 laptop; I've been using Slackware since the mid-90's. I use Slackware on my older non-64 bit machines and SlamD64 on newer stuff. Other than dealing with non-64 bit software, there's very little difference, and I've always considered SlamD64 to be the de facto Slackware 64--and Fred has said as much (that he tries to follow Pat's releases as much as possible while changing what needs to be changed for the 64 bit environment).
OTOH, while Fred has been mentioned in the changelog for his contributions (as mentioned above), if Pat shafted Fred for not maintaining this 64 bit Slackware--even though it is non-official--I for one will be very pissed about it. Fred has gone far and beyond the call of duty, being in college and maintaining this, mostly on his own.
Mike
The official 64 bit Slackware comes just in time because the 32 bit OS will die in 2008. reference: http://catb.org/esr/writings/world-domination/world-domination-201.html
zenray
Well, ok, maybe... but only briefly once every 6 years...
Since the average Slacker spends a few hours fine tuning their install, but then forgets all about it until their glibc is so out of date that nothing will compile against it any more, at which point they install the latest version and go through the cycle again.
There's a reason it's called SLACKware.
"...I like Slackware, and I needed a 64-bit distro..."
That says it all... Slamd64 is what kept me sane (read: kept me from switching to one of those hold-your-hand-and-wipe-your-butt distros) the last few years. (And probably the next few, since I only upgrade about every third release...)