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-Slackware 13.37 release notes. Mon Apr 25 02:43:57 UTC 2011
+Slackware 14.0 release notes. Wed Sep 19 21:47:07 UTC 2012
Hi folks,
@@ -7,58 +7,75 @@ Hi folks,
information, but once again Robby Workman has covered the important
technical details in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT. Thanks!
- I'll mention a few technical items here. Slackware's userspace does
-require a recent 2.6.x kernel (I believe 2.6.27.x is a minimum for
-udev), and as usual unless your needs are specific you're probably
-better off running the included kernels that we've tested things
-against. The best kernel to run (even on a one CPU/core machine) is the
-generic SMP one, but that needs an initrd, so be sure to read the
-instructions in /boot after installing with a huge* kernel if you plan
-to switch. We have chosen to use the 2.6.37.6 kernel after testing the
-2.6.37.x kernel branch extensively (and because there are still a few
-things that work in 2.6.37.x but not in 2.6.38.x). But, for those who
-would like to run the latest kernel, there are 2.6.38.4 kernels included
-in /testing. Also in the /testing/source/ directory you'll find config
-files for two other kernel versions, 2.6.35.12 (which is a longterm
-supported branch), and 2.6.39-rc4, a release candidate for
-the next major kernel series.
+ Linux has finally moved past 2.6.x versions (yay!) and already
+has several different maintained 3.x branches. After extensive
+testing, we chose to ship this release with a kernel from the 3.2
+branch (3.2.29), which Ben Hutchings says will be maintained on
+kernel.org for an indefinite amount of time (probably at least 2 more
+years), making it a good choice for a production release. As usual,
+the kernel is provided in two flavors, generic and huge. The huge
+kernel contains enough built-in drivers that in most cases an initrd
+is not needed to boot the system. The generic kernels require the
+use of an initrd to load the kernel modules needed to mount the root
+filesystem. Using a generic kernel will save some memory and possibly
+avoid a few boot time warnings. On the 32-bit side of things, there
+are both SMP (multiple processor capable) and non-SMP (single
+processor) kernels. The non-SMP kernel is mostly intended for machines
+that can't run the SMP kernel, which is anything older than a Pentium
+III, and some models of the Pentium M that don't support PAE. On
+32-bit, it is highly recommended to use the SMP kernel if your machine
+is able to boot with it (even if you have only a single core) because
+the optimization and memory handling options should yield better
+performance.
- Slackware 13.37 contains updated versions of both KDE and Xfce, but
-if you prefer GNOME then you'll be pleased with the work that the
-GNOME SlackBuild (GSB) team is doing producing a full-featured GNOME
-desktop for Slackware:
+ If you'd like to try out some of the newer kernel branches, you'll
+find .config files for Linux 3.4.11, 3.5.4, and 3.6-rc4 in the
+/testing/source/ directory.
- http://gnomeslackbuild.org
+ Slackware 14.0 contains updated versions of both KDE and Xfce, and
+both of these have been split as much as possible into their component
+packages rather than larger bundles. This not only makes it easier to
+remove software that you don't need, but also makes it easier to
+maintain on our end. If something needs a patch, it's a whole lot
+easier to issue a patch for only the affected item. This saves storage
+space on the archive sites, and your time and bandwidth downloading
+the updates.
Need more build scripts? Something that you wanted wasn't included
in Slackware? Well, then check out slackbuilds.org. Several of the team
members work on the scripts there.
+ There's a new community driven site for Slackware documentation,
+http://docs.slackware.com -- check it out, and join in to share your
+knowledge!
+
Thanks to the rest of the team (and other contributors) for the
great help -- Eric Hameleers for major work on the KDE SC packages, init
-scripts, installer, documentation, and all the extra packages like
-multilib compilers (read more here: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/),
-Robby Workman for following X.Org, udev, wicd, xfce, and tons of other
-projects, building and testing all that stuff, writing documentation,
-his work with the team at slackbuilds.org, and lots of package upgrades
-(like the switch to the bluez4 bluetooth stack), Piter Punk for udev and
-slackpkg work, Stuart Winter for more updates to linuxdoc-tools, slacktrack,
-and for all kinds of fixes throughout the installer and system (he finds my
-bugs all the time while porting packages to ARM for the ARMedslack port:
-http://www.armedslack.org/), Alan Hicks for testing the installer on Apple
-hardware, Vincent Batts for keeping Ruby working well (difficult!) and other
-miscellaneous fixes, Heinz Wiesinger for PHP (and other) fixes,
+scripts, installer, documentation (especially getting docs.slackware.com
+up and running), and all the extra packages like multilib compilers
+(read more here: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/), Robby Workman for
+following X.Org, udev, NetworkManager, wicd, Xfce, and tons of other
+projects, building and testing all that stuff, writing documentation, his
+work with the team at slackbuilds.org, and lots of package upgrades,
+Piter Punk for slackpkg work, Stuart Winter for more updates to
+linuxdoc-tools, slacktrack, and for all kinds of fixes throughout the
+installer and system (he finds my bugs all the time while porting packages
+to ARM for the Slackware ARM port: http://www.armedslack.org/), Mark Post
+for his assistance porting our website to a newer PHP, Vincent Batts for
+keeping Ruby working well and other miscellaneous fixes, Heinz Wiesinger
+for working on PHP, mysql, icu4c, LLVM, and lots of other stuff,
Amritpal Bath for various bugfixes and helping with release torrents,
mrgoblin for testing RAID, bluetooth, and well, everything (and fixing a
-lot of it, too), other very honorable mentions go to Erik Jan Tromp,
-Mark Post, Karl Magnus Kolstoe, Fred Emmott, and NetrixTardis,
+lot of it, too), other very honorable mentions go to Alan Hicks,
+Erik Jan Tromp, Karl Magnus Kolstø, Fred Emmott, and NetrixTardis,
and anyone else I'm forgetting (including the other team members who
contributed little fixes and suggestions here and there along with
-general moral support), and all the folks who emailed in bug reports
-(and especially fixes). Thanks for the technical assistance (*you* make
-this possible), and for keeping the project a good time. And, of
-course, thanks *much* to the upstream developers for such nice building
-materials. As always, thanks to my wife Andrea and daughter Briah.
+general moral support). Special thanks to the folks who mailed in bug
+reports (and fixes) and helped collaborate on this release. This was
+a stellar release cycle for community participation, especially on the
+LinuxQuestions.org Slackware forum. Thanks for the help, for keeping
+this project fun, and making it possible for us to keep up with the
+rapid pace of Linux development. Thanks to Honeypi and Doodle, too!
Have fun!