This short preview is based on my experiences with Slackware Linux 9.0-RC3; Slackware Linux 9.0 has not yet been released at the moment of writing. UPDATE: And while this story was going live, Slackware 9.0 final is being released.Introduction
At the moment of writing Slackware Linux 9.0RC3 is just released. This
might be a good moment to moment to look what Slackware Linux 9.0 has
to offer. But any good article starts off with an introduction ;).
Slackware is one of the oldest distributions around and is
well-known for adhering to (well, at least unofficially) the KISS (Keep
It Simple, Stupid) principle. That’s right, no graphical installer,
no GUI configuration tools and no advanced package manager. But
in turn you get a very transparent, stable and fast system.
So, What’s New?
Let’s start with the standard stuff (note that this is based on Slackware
9.0RC3, only Patrick Volkerding knows what will be in the final 9.0 version).
The newest XFree86, version 4.3.0, is included. Besides better hardware
support, XFree86 now has alpha blended and animated cursors. On the GUI
side Slackware 9.0 also has KDE 3.1 and Gnome 2.2.
Developers might already have noticed that Slackware has finally switched
to gcc 3.2 (Slackware 9.0 has gcc 3.2.2). Gcc 3.2 has been introduced in
Slackware-Current in august 2002 and has been tested thoroughly afterwards.
Gcc 3.2 generates much more efficient code compared to older gcc versions,
this is especially the case for C++ applications. The gcc 3.2.2-compiled
KDE 3.1 in Slackware 9.0 is really fast on my Athlon XP. Slackware 9 with
KDE 3.1 seems to be somewhat faster then Slackware 8.1 with KDE 3.0. This
may be caused by the transition to gcc 3.2 as well as improvements in the
KDE code base. There is one catch, though: browser plug-ins compiled with older
gcc versions often do not work with gcc 3.2-compiled browsers.
Another great addition is hotplugging support for PCI, Cardbus and USB
devices. The hotplug package is a collection of scripts which automatically
initialize these classes of devices and probe the required modules.
Hotplugging caused some problems with Slackware-Current some time ago
because sometimes framebuffer drivers were modprobed. If the framebuffer
device does not work well with the graphic adapter you get a flickering
screen. Now most “dangerous” drivers are blacklisted, meaning they will
not be loaded. After this blacklisting a notebook which started flickering
after booting Slackware-Current now works perfectly. I also experienced
some problems with the old PCMCIA support which did not correctly initialize
an old Boca card, the new hotplugging support also fixed this mysteriously.
Lastly, I would like to mention some of the applications
included. First of all, Mozilla 1.3 appeared a short time ago in
Slackware-Current. My guess is that it will be included in 9.0. The
office applications included are KOffice, AbiWord and Gnumeric. For
professional typesetting TeTeX 2.02 is included. I also have to mention
that Patrick Volkerding has added checkinstall to the extra/ FTP
directory. Checkinstall is a really handy tool which you invoke after
compiling a program. Checkinstall invokes “make install” and registers
which files are installed. After that it creates a Slackware package
of the software that you just “make install”-ed and installs it. This
provides excellent package management for programs you manually install.
The Downsides
The first problem many people encounter with Slackware is the lack of
a tool to upgrade the system. Slackware Inc. provides security patches
and important fixes in the patches/packages directory on FTP mirrors,
but the standard Slackware distribution has no means to automatically
look for which updates are available and to apply them. Fortunately, this
is where Swaret comes to the rescue.
Swaret is a package tool for Slackware Linux, comparable to Debian’s
apt-get. Of course, it does not provide dependency checking (Slackware
packages do not have the means for that), but it can install and update
packages. A “swaret –update && swaret –upgrade” is enough in
the most cases to interactively update your system. Swaret currently
supports Slackware Linux 8.1 and Slackware-Current, but it should probably
work with 9.0 too. It is actively maintained, so if it does not work
with 9.0 an updated version will probably be released soon after Slackware
Linux 9.0 is released.
Another problem, which is not really Slackware-specific, but reported
on USENET repeatedly is the inability of some BIOSes to boot the Slackware
Install CD. Starting with Slackware Linux 8.1, Slackware switched from
floppy emulation for booting from CD-ROM to ISOLinux. The problem is
that not all BIOSes are able to boot ISOLinux. However, in most cases
this can be solved by using
Smart Bootmanager, which is
a boot manager that can be installed on a floppy disk. It can also
boot El-Torito bootable CD’s, including Slackware Linux 8.1 and newer
versions.
Conclusion
The disadvantage of doing a Slackware review is that you cannot review
a brand-new installer or stuff like that. The installer only differs
slightly from the 8.1 installer or the 7.0, or 4.0, or… you get the
point;). I would rather call Slackware development evolutionary than
revolutionary. The distribution in terms of installation and configuration
is very nearly unchanged the last 9 years or so. That is the advantage
of Slackware Linux, during the years we have seen many versions of
XFree come by, we have seen the development of window managers and
desktop enviroments, everything from primitive browsers to the latest
tabbed Konqueror and Mozilla, but someone who has learned to install
and use Slackware five years ago can easily install it right now without
having to learn anything new. And the same story will probably be told
in 2008. Slackware is simply consistent, flexible and transparent and
that won’t change.
Did nothing change? No, a lot changed. Right now Slackware has the
latest desktop environments, server software, utilities and libraries.
Hardware support got better with hotplugging and with the latest gcc
performance has increased. For existing Slackware users Slackware Linux
9.0 is definitely worth buying (at least if you want to support development).
To other people I would like to say: if you do like an adventure, if
you truly want to learn Linux to the bones, Slackware is really worth
looking at.
Links
Slackware: http://www.slackware.com/
Swaret: http://swaret.xbone.be/
Smart Bootmanager: http://btmgr.sourceforge.net
good old Slackware, looking forward to this…
my order will be made as soon as its official…
Gaah I tried to burn my slack 9.0 RC3 iso for 5 hours now without success! But I will never ever give up because it’s slackware 4ever!
I find this review pretty useless. Slackware is not getting worse – surprise! How about comparing it with at least one other distro?
Since autoslack looks dead I’m going to try swaret. Updating by hand is really a pain. I’m running a week old current, downloaded the mozilla 1.3 pkg and it just wouldn’t start. No error messages or anything, it just freezes on the command line. Hope swaret fill fix that
Slackware 4ever, yes?
It wasn’t a review, but a preview…
Take a look at http://www.slackware.com.
*looks at main page*
meh…
*looks at changelog*
OMGOMG!!”111
9.0 is out (according to changelog)!
Too bad a bunch of the FTPs don’t have it yet.
Ah well, viva slackware!
http://www.slackware.com/changelog/current.php?cpu=i386
if the ftp’s don’t all have it (which it appears they don’t from me looking around) then don’t tell /. yet! Last thing Patrick needs is the /. hordes downloading it before its spread around a bit
Bill
Too tempting…
I just spent the entire weekend deciding between Debian Woody and Slackware8.1, and finally settles for Woody for 2 reasons:
a. Apt (of course!)
b. I was having problems configuring my Audigy card w/ Slackware.
Just read the changelog and….
must…resist…
Right now Slackware has the latest desktop environments, server software, utilities and libraries.
Wow, how often does that happen? Slack fans enjoy while it lasts
“Right now Slackware has the latest desktop environments, server software, utilities and libraries.
Wow, how often does that happen?”
Quite often if you look at the current branch.
We could merge the simplicity of Slackware with the package management system from Debian. Yes, I read the preview and I know about Swaret. I mean the whole package management system, including dependency checking. That would be really sweet!
I say this because I use Linux and FreeBSD, and I find the FreeBSD model of administration to be quite easy to use, once you get used to it. The closest Linux distro to that is Slackware. It would be nice to be able to switch back and forth between them with out the large mental shifting of gears that’s currently required.
How well does it currently work?
Will it work with slack 9?
Are there any projects more mature than swaret?
How do you do what swaret does with the default tools?
Ok, I’m somewhat of a Linux newb. I’ve used Redhat and Mandrake, and I can do the basic source compiles (even compiled the kernel once or twice). Anyway, from my perception, Slackware, Debian, and Gentoo are all sort of “hardcore, true linux experience” distros (I may be wrong) with sort of cult followings. Could anyone quickly sum up the differences? Or is that not possible?
Well, you were right to place Redhat and Mandrake in the same category, but Slackware, Gentoo and Debian are all very different beasts. Of the latter three I’d say Gentoo is the most hardcore simply because it’s a source based distribution. In other words you compile all the software you want from a ports tree rather than simply installing a package. Debian takes this a step further by having it’s ports already compiled, in other words you download the package and install it. Slackware is simply a “clean, slimmed down” distribution like Redhat or Mandrake. Installation requires a bit more knowledge than RedHat or Madrake but is still very manegable. Slackware has it’s own package system as well which you can download and subsequently install. Try out slackware, you’d be surprised as how simple and easy to manage it is.
Cheers!
Installation requires a bit more knowledge than RedHat or Madrake but is still very manegable. Slackware has it’s own package system as well which you can download and subsequently install.
Actually, I found Slackware’s package manager to be a bit easier than apt. While Slack’s package manager (pkgtool) doesn’t have dependency handling, you can do a quick check to see what packages are required and download those if you need them – I never ran into problems.
The biggest advantage I found to pkgtool over apt is that you don’t have to hack a sources.list file to get software that isn’t from the stone age
I downloaded one of the nightly build ISO’s the other day, spent a couple of hours upgrading and fixing it (removed the older packages manually – didn’t think to use grep on an old package list).
However Gnome 2.2 is running, as is KDE 3.1 and the new XFree. It’s awesome! I’ve been a windowmaker fan since i started using linux, KDE and Gnome seem more tempting that ever now. I did manage to crash kolf though
As soon as I get my next student loan cheque i will buy slack 9. It’s just that good.
When will isos be out?
I used slackware 8.0, slackware 8.1 up to January.. Then my system got a little bloated.. So I thought I’d try something new, just until Slack 9 gets released. So I instaled gentoo. Now I don’t think I’ll install slackware 9 after all
Portage is just awesome..
But I might install it later on if I ever get extra adventurous
upgradpkg *.tgz | grep Error:
The grep will list all the packages it didn’t upgrade in the directory
but in the A series you need to install sed first
Worked for me anyway.
By far the most intelligent, flexible, and powerful dependency checker I’ve ever used is… ME! Who needs a script telling me to go and do this and that? Quick test: does a libary need to be installed before the binary package that “depends” on it? no. So why make me go out and do it first? Maybe I dont want to install that library just now.
🙂
It is like the sun coming up on a spring day, blotting out the darkness and speading life to all it shines upon.
COME-ON NUMBER NINE, I JUST CAN’T WAIT.
please excuse all the shouting.
Slackware is indeed the oldest Linux Distro, but the reality is that just a few folks are using it worldwide. The linux market share has been taken over by Red Hat and others who intelligently implemented and revolutioned the way Linux was.
Red Hat Linux is installed in about 80% of linuxers around the world. The rest 20% is devided among smaller groups like Mandrake, SuSE, etc.
This whole 100% about, in reality is just 2% of all machines installed worldwide, being that Microsoft Windows is present on 95% of machines and 3% is on the MacMania culture.
I don’t live the Linux bubblegum tale.
that math is completely wrong
95% MS
3% Mac
2% others
MS n linux = ?, n = the intersection dual booters.
MS n Mac = ?
Mac n linux = ?
Ms n Linux n BSD = ?
etc etc etc.
Redhat n Slackware = ?
Redhat n Gentoo = ?
Redhat n Debian n Suse n Mandrake = ?
so you see dont bring in statics to prove your point.
I’m on slackware 9 right now. its incredible. FAST as hell, easy as hell to set up. Same good ole slack. I had my nvidia, aureal vortex 2, and internet all set up without a single reboot from right after install. this is linux man. KDE 3.1 is impressing me very well, and im using my good ole gnome right now to see how much faster it is. Everything is just perfect. I dont know how it is running so much better than my slackware 8.1. which incidentily ran faster than gentoo 1.4 also (using these flags “-s -march=pentium3 -mmmx -msse -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -fforce-addr -fforce-mem -ffast-math -mpush-args -mfpmath=sse -fschedule-insns2”). I regret not telling Patrick to include nano as a default editor and a mplayer package. I wonder why the fonts are so big in all the apps. (i know i can fix this… im just saying its a default gripe of mine.
BTW DONT INSTALL mplayer from linuxpackages.net…its for slack 8.1 and WILL NOT work..messed up my libdvdread.so.2.
other than that, im falling on my ass.. thanks Patrick!!!!!
Well I think Slackware can be a perfect desktop os (although it requires some efforts). I currently run Slack 9 beta and it is a great os. It automatically detected my sound card, i set up x very easily (although slack did detected correctly , but i am using a beta version and thing are fixed in the final release) and I have a beautifull Kde 3.1 desktop. You get the latest version of Mozilla, Gaim, Xmms . Simply install grip (for mp3 ripping) mplayer (for dvds) and openoffice (for .docs) from the web and you can forget about buying a M$ os. I did it and Slack fulfills very well my needs.Any other distros can do that but with slack you experience Linux.
Damn… when they will be out ?
Slackware 9.0 iso iz out!!!
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Slackware 9.0 iso iz out! But this will not make you life a better one!
Just made my life a better one.
Me 2
how ? I wished that would be true to Iraq people too !
Slack will eventually bring about world peace and end starvation. Just give it some time.
I have personally burned over 100 CDs of Linux distros in the past year trying to find the “right” one. They all went into the trash except for Slackware.
Thanks Pat.
I’ll have to get the ISO sometime soon when I find a mirror thats not being flooded. Old-Fart I have to agree. I tried Gentoo, RH because the packages were ahead of others but Slackware I find is so much better. Now Slackware is ahead – its all timing but 8.1 was getting out of date so it was time for an upgrade.
That’s not the real iso… its unofficial…
i’ll download it when it ll be official…
wtf
i got fingercramp scrolling through your crap
It has been a long haul trying to get a Linux distro that I was comfortable with. I have downloaded many and even bought some. I have no problem with supporting “free software”, and have donated some money to a few.
Since slack 8.1 I have found the one and only distro I want to support so I have PRE-ORDERED a CD from the Slackware Store. I imagine that I won’t be able to wait for it and will download an ISO, but I want to “buy” a set just to show the finacial support that Pat deserves for his years of sevice to the cause. I would humbly suggest that all users would do the same.(if you can)
ALL HAIL SLACK! (o-crap, more yelling.)
In the announcement I read about “Andrew Morton’s patches to stabilize the ext3 filesystem”
Does anybody know what they do? Does it solve my ext3 problems? Today my ext3 home partition got full. After that I could not delete files because the “device is read-only”. After unmounting fsck.ext3 corrected several errors and then I could mount it again and delete files.
The something on-topic: after having brought two Suse versions I do not like to spend any more money on a distribution, and installing via FTP seems not to be possible. So I will stay with Debian, which does offer FTP installation. Otherwise I would really like Slackware, because Debian is a bit outdated being based on gcc 2.95 in most cases.
slackware can be installed from an ftp. you just have to learn how
How much work is involved in getting anti-aliased fonts in ?
Submitted that too quickly :> Should have said “getting anti-aliased fonts installed properly.”
AA fonts are already on…and it looks incredible. this is the best linux distro i have ever touched, and its the fastest my computer has ever run
http://www.whitehouse.net/index2.html
hey ppl
l00k here =]
are u using that unofficial ISO ?
is there any thing missing ?
if not… i’ll download it now …
I’m new to slackware and I think I want to give it a try. I’m tired of redhat and it’s equivelents and debian just plain sucks becuase of how old stable is and how broken unstable is (i just tried instaling it on my new computer and I couldn’t even install gnome, despite the fact I installed it the other day on my old computer). So I’m kind of sick of screwing around with that. Gentoo…I just don’t have time for it.
So basically first off where is this iso that people are talking about? I can’t seem to find it. Also any advice people can give me with using slack (creating /finding tgz packages, configuring things…etc) would be very helpful. I’m just curious how much harder it is than redhat or something like that. I know a pretty decent amount of unix commands and I’m not afraid of the command line at all (I actually installed gentoo on my old machine, but then it crashed). So I’m going to stop my rambling now, but thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.
“So I’m going to stop my rambling now, but thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.”
Slackware give you all the difficulty of installing say Debian with none of the benefits of a modern package system. Its a distro where you have to do everything by hand. Its users are proud that its not easy to do updates and think apt-get update is stupid. If you don’t love doing everything manually don’t bother with Slackware. Basically Slackware is a throwback to linux circa 1993 so if you’d like to relive that backwards unautomated time go for it.
Slackware users may disagree, but there is a reason why it has almost no market share. I guess it could be because the rest of us are “noobs” or maybe because in 2003 the rest of us expect certain things from a modern OS.
I do think its nice that control freaks have a distro to call their own, choice is good etc, but if can’t already tell slackware ain’t for me and most people feel the same way.
Ok first the ISO madness, you do know that in the dir ISOLINUX there’s a little README that tells you just how to make an ISO yourself. (windos users sure know how to do this in nero as it’s basicly … maybe the same : )
as for the problem with ISO linux and certain bioses, I have one of those bioses on an asus p2l97-s and it chocked as primary slave. strangly however putting it on secondary master worked just splendedly : )
so if your having strange errors (like PC instantly rebooting when triying to read iso linux image) try putting it on a diffrent spot in the chain. It worked for me.
Well you’ll be hard pressed to find a fast mirror if there are any. I’m sure you could scrounge around and find one but others would have found it as well.
If you look at the current tree, the most notable difference is the kmod root access problem. Which can easily be patched, fixed or you might not even be effected.
after testing a lot linux distros i tried slackware 8.0 and it was the best!
slackware4ever
now i cant see why slackware still doesnt have a package system, what do you guys have against it? it makes life 100times easier… (if its a good one)
> (if its a good one)
That’s THE problem, I never saw a really good one…
Anyway my Slack box have no access (yet) to the net so apt-stuff, urpmi & their friends are just of no use for me
, ./configure && make && su make install just works fine
>[i]slackware can be installed from an ftp. you just have to learn how[i]
From slackware.com, i’ve learnt that the only network installation method is via NFS.
Could you tell more about the ftp installation?
> Could you tell more about the ftp installation?
It is true that Slackware officially only supports NFS for network installation, but there are unofficial FTP install disks for Slackware available at http://slackftp.sourceforge.net/