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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."
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."
First distro I ever used. And I kept using it until 2002. It warped me for good on the BSD file layout. Now I can only use Gentoo because of that. :)
http://ebgp.net/ccc/
You're not just lookin' - you've found it.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
If you want a linux engineer to fix things up for you pick a Slackware user not an Ubuntu one.
http://ebgp.net/ccc/
First linux I tried was Fedora. Second was Slackware. I never went back.
Slackware is for two kinds of people: those allergic to rebooting, and those who like to play with their operating system. I learned more about Slackware in the first two days than I knew about computers from the previous 17 years of my life at the time.
As it has always been said: If you use Red Hat, you learn Red Hat. If you use Ubuntu, you learn Ubuntu. If you use Slackware, you learn linux.
But it is great when you have servers up to your ears.
Slackware is a beautiful server distro, but I used to use it as my primary desktop distro until comparatively recently. The only reason why I stopped was because of a long hiatus in the maintenance of the Dropline Gnome distribution. I just don't have time to build all that stuff myself, and it used to be so good. (And no, Gentoo just does not fill that gap.) Now I am mostly using Arch Linux which is similar in the important ways to Slackware (sweet!) but with the advantage of more current package builds.
http://www.slackware.com/announce/1.0.php
http://ebgp.net/ccc/
Yeah, unless it's Ubuntu which needs fixing. Slackware is being very conservative, and it's core system hasn't changed a lot in recent years - which is much different from Ubuntu or Fedora. Things like booting process, sound subsystem or package management are totally different now.
I loved slackware but got sick and tired of compiling everything myself... and switched to gentoo where ebuilds were. Then switched to OpenSuse... and finally I am Ubuntu user, quite happy one (not too but still).
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.
From Gentoo to Suse! Ouch. My path was Slackware -> FreeBSD -> Gentoo and never got tired of compiling. Such is Unix.
http://ebgp.net/ccc/
I loved slackware but got sick and tired of compiling everything myself...
Ah, but you're missing the fun. The whole point is that Slackware is perfect for people who like compiling their own software. It just gives them a world to stand on while they do so.
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!
Your point appears to imply that Slackware is somehow archaic. Why is that? It cannot be the kernel or the applications as these are as up to date as any other.
If the lack of a GUI installer or package dependency management is the basis for your criticism then that's really a reflection on your particular skill set, not on Slackware.
There are many fine Linux distributions out there (and BSD's too). The more of these you are comfortable using the more effective you are when choosing a platform for your particular needs at any given time.
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Also my first distro, ill never leave as long as its maintained! LONG LIVE BOB!
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?
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!
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
Really?
Putting my sysadmin cap on, the first thing that comes to mind when seeing a Slackware, or for that matter Gentoo, box is "Oh God no, a tweaker".
Have you been keeping up with the change log? He is credited 5 times. ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-current/ChangeLog.txt
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:
I wasn't particularly clear, but these were cases where the ebuild wasn't checking for USE flags before enabling an optional feature at configure time. Inkscape and numpy was one example, one where I began building inkscape manually. Yeah, I'm stubborn but I did things this way for years when I was a slackware user. Speaking of which, when I first started using gentoo it was perfectly simple to set up a system without PAM, it became so much jumping through hoops that I eventually gave in. Long live choice eh?
That's the idea isn't it, that the user can prevent optional stuff from being fetched and built? If ebuilds are not going to let me keep dependency bloat to a minimum, why then would I continue to use gentoo? There's little to gain from compiler flags on my first generation AMD64 boxes; Possibly on my newer intel machines but it's not going to make a huge difference. The Arch ports style tree (abs) is perfectly usable, PKGBUILD's are much easier to write than ebuilds and (although I initially found it difficult after using emerge for so long) pacman is a pleasure to use. That was my point ;)
Slackware was a great distro and retains it's place in heart if not on my machines, I strongly considered going back to Slackware before I found Arch. Gentoo: mask or unmask this, unmerge that to resolve a packaging conflict, run revdep-rebuild, no USE flags to disable stuff I don't want or need, perform a dance with a rubber chicken while you recompile half your system, eselect this, eselect that... I'm not missing Gentoo at all although it'd still be my personal preference over debian and RH based distros.
Slackware doesn't exist to hold your hand. Get over yourself.
As for the target audience, it's Pat Volkerding. Slackware exists for him. Anyone else who wants it can have it, but it exists to meet his criteria, not yours.
Five years ago I ran Slackware with Grub, automatic updates, a wireless card, and still got laid. More than I do now in fact. Now I'm using a MacBook.
Volkerding makes Slackware to fit two criteria: 1) Stability. A Slackware system should be able to run for 10 years without rebooting. Fantastic server system. 2) Security. A Slackware system should have an absolute minimum of bugs and/or holes.
There are no other criteria for a Slackware release.
If it is not for you, then fine. Don't use it. And while you're at it go be petulant twerp somewhere else.
"When you know Slack', you know Linux."
May the Maths Be with you!
Putting my sysadmin cap on, the first thing that comes to mind when seeing a Slackware, or for that matter Gentoo, box is "Oh God no, a tweaker".
If you have to administer a slackware user's box, it probably means they have died. To all my fellow slackers, don't forget to put the root password and some documentation in your will.
But eventually I went to Debian, and now I'm a Debian and Ubuntu user, and now I make my own debs, and I am much much happier this way thank you.
Ordinarily I cannot abide Debian users, but because you have mentioned compiling your own packages, you will be allowed to live. ;)