Patrick Volkerding has released Slackware 12.0. From the changelog: “Released as Slackware 12.0 with no changes since the last batch. Big Thanks again are due to the CREW, without whom this just wouldn’t be possible to do with the level of quality that Slackware users demand. We had a lot of help this time, and I hope it shows in project output that you’ll enjoy. Thanks for the support of the Slackware community, because without your support I wouldn’t be able to keep leading this project.”
finally, an updated 2.6 kernel based (by default) slackware version!
this is not too long after 11.0 was released, good thing patrick’s healthy again and the project seems to be doing better.
he’s been getting/accepting a lot more help from the community lately. that is what has helped more than anything.
It’ll be nice to have Slackware with uptodate kernel and packages (Xorg, KDE) to use on brand new, state of the art hardware.
Now I can offer my customers an alternative to Vista without sacrificing hardware functionality and features.
I pre-ordered the CD set, now it’s just a matter of time… 🙂
Thanks Pat, and all the other fine Slackers!
I salute the veteran distro master!
I thoroughly enjoy using Slackware. It does exactly what I want it to do. It stays out of my way, and provides a nice stable system. The package management might not be as advanced as apt, but it does its job well.
As soon as I get around to getting an optical drive attached to my server, I’ll be removing Ubuntu, and going back to Slackware!
I find it much quicker on the desktop too. That may not be entirely true, but it feels that way right now.
Long live Slackware!
slapt-get can make Slackware’s minimalist package system usable for people used to apt. I’m a klutz at package management, particularly when it comes to dependencies, but as long as the packages include the extra slapt-get depdency fluff, I’m good to go.
Yep, it’s great that Patrick is accepting patches and help from the Slackware community. I have to use other distros at work but I am always running Slackware at home.
Browser: BlackBerry7290/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0
Hey guys and gals, I have a question. It was mentioned in the last Slackware thread that they do not support PAM. I’ve been using PAM extensively since I became a system administrator a few years ago, and I’m curious how much can be accomplished without it.
At work many of my machines authenticate LDAP users with kerberos passwords. The LDAP and kerberos databases are on different servers. Effectively, the /etc/passwd information comes from LDAP server X, while the /etc/shadow information comes from kerberos server Y. Is this possible with Slackware Linux (i.e. when not using PAM)?
PAM is a generally poor authentication method, since the documents one must use to base their implementation on are not good enough to ensure that all implementations are properly inter-operable. It’s also a security risk, because of said badly made spec, Slackware doesn’t carry it largely because of the security risks.
OpenBSD has no PAM support, and advises against it, and instead uses BSD authentication, which comes from BSD/OS.
Just because OpenBSD has no PAM, does not prevent one from compiling a PAM implementation (whichever is needed) and using it, the same can be said of Slackware.
There is a little bit of (dated) info on LDAP without PAM here: http://wombat.san-francisco.ca.us/faqomatic/cache/95.html
Edited 2007-07-03 02:31
Slackware 12.0:-)
Thanks for all of your hard work, Patrick!! We Slackers appreciate all that you do for us. 12.0 looks wonderful, I can hardly wait to run it. I’ll be upgrading my Slackware 11.0 boxes soon.
Very cool, indeed:-)
I have a Dell Inspiron 600m and I wonder if can connect wirelessly using Slackware 12.0 . I am currently running Xubuntu but I also run Slax which is Slackware based distro and I love it.
Thanks… and PV for a wonderful distro.
-2501
I use Slackware 11.0 on my laptop and I can connect to any wireless network (not encrypted, WEP or WPA), I just had to compile wpa_supplicant by myself.
But Slackware 12.0 includes everything you need out of the box, so you don’t have to compile wpa_supplicant
I droped Slackware after Gnome was dropped from the official release, but with XFCE, I might give it another look, that and Linux 2.6 isn’t treated like a brand new experimentat kernel anymore.
I don’t understand peoples’ gripes about the 2.4 kernel. It’s never been mandatory in Slackware and there have been 2.6 kernels on the CD for the past few versions. Just cos it’s not the default, folks get the idea it’s nto supported!
Meanwhile 2.4’s been great for keeping my 8 year old PC going on. Choice: it’s a good thing!
PS I’m not singling you out, that’s “folks” plural
But, IIRC, using a 2.6 kernel up to Slack 11.0 was somewhat and sometimes a little difficult (I recall now some fights with the modules for lm_sensors, for example).
And the use of a 2.6 kernel on current since a few months ago came without a hitch. Once PV makes his mind a change, he makes it thoroughly.
Besides that, on an old K6-2 450 128 MB RAM the 2.6 series felt even a little snappier than the 2.4 series.
That’s because it’s finally ready. Pat has declared it now ready.
Besides that, on an old K6-2 450 128 MB RAM the 2.6 series felt even a little snappier than the 2.4 series.
Now that’s got me interested! Maybe Slack 12’s worth a play on my current (ancient) hardware
I always install the latest version of Slackware when reinstalling because stability and performance have always improved, at least in the four years since I first installed version 9.0.
I tend to think that unless there is a very good reason to install a previous release such as better hardware support one should stick to the latest and greatest. There is no reason not to because this is not that other OS :-).
It’s also very nice to run Slackware 12.0 x86, MIPS and ARM at the same time. Slackware is fast and stable regardless of the architecture it runs on, which attests to its excellent design.
More precisely I was talking of Slack 10.2, when managed to (sort of) make 2.6 work on it, video playing, for example, was smoother, and Quake 3 run better too.
That venerable and beloved K6-2 is still running 10.2, by the way… and when someone (wife, kids) takes control of the new PC, I surf the web on it (using Opera and IceWM+Rox among other low requirements software).
Ah I see.
I’m on Slack 11: PIII 450, 768MB RAM which is a little sluggish compared to Slack 10.x That’s my only PC.
I’m tempted to play with Slack 12 and XFCE though, I’ve still got the old disks if it’s unusable.
Then it becomes an ecuse to _finally_ upgrade! :oD
Making Direct download ISOs mirror(CDs only)…
http://proyectos.pixelamigo.com/software/slackware/12/iso/
Please be patient and not abuse.
Use bittorrent and give something back to the community!
http://www.slackware.com/torrents/
I’m using the torrents but nobody is seeding, 99.2% done. Downloading the dvd, can wait to get this up and running.
I tried the DVD torrent, but not with much success or speed.
Perhaps you were just a little hasty. At the time of this writing, there are 1861 peers in the swarm…
Needless to say, download time is quite good.
Believe it or not, there are even 31 peers with 12 downloading on an old Slack-11 dvd image that I am still seeding…
Come to think of it, if you order the DVD with say, 24 hour delivery, the post office will manage a transfer rate of around 45 MBps (or ~360 Mbits/s)
Edited 2007-07-03 19:37
I’ve been seeding the first 3 discs since late last night. Only on a little DSL connection, though.
There’s always a mirror close to your vicinity that hosts dvd images too. I found one after some searching some directories.
A much faster release than the 10.2 -> 11.0, which is nice to see. Can’t wait to get it downloaded and running on my home server.
bring Microsoft closer to non-existence… at least in my home since I have installed the previous RC2 and loved it with XFCE. Slackware always just works the way I want. It hardly ever changes and when it does, it makes sense and seems like Pat did it for a good reason. I am going to really learn some package making this time around.
I used Slack for a couple years and I loved the stability and community. Over time I moved to Ubuntu because it was very user friendly. This 12.0 release announcement has me wanting to go back to Slack. Has anyone ever noticed how most distributions have comments where people have complaint after complaint and the vast majority of Slack comments praise it?? Long live Slack!
And that´s because Slack is getting better every time, release after release. I´ve been on –current since three years ago, and progress can be felt, together with stability and speed.
In the same machine I´ve installed Slamd64 and Gentoo64 and I keep going back to Slack for everyday use.
Go Patrick, go!!!
Gravatar test
long time slack user (since 2000), and i have to say that they’ve finally created something worthy of putting on my mac pro! on older hardware slackware runs great, on newer hardware because of the pathetic 2.4 default kernel in older versions (11.0 even), i couldn’t get simple things my network card recognized.
great job pat!
…..oh well, time to go download and compile myself, the perfect linux distro in my opinion for development workstation:
– slackware
– windowmaker
– linux kernel 2.6