Slackware 10.1 beta 1

[Posted January 23, 2005 by corbet]

From:		mrgoblin-AT-dunedin.lug.net.nz
To:		changelog-AT-mrgoblin.is-a-geek.org
Subject:		Slackware Changelog Notice!!
Date:		Sun, 23 Jan 2005 19:43:19 +1300

Slackware Current ChangeLog Notice.

The following additions have been made to The Current ChangeLog.txt

Please do not Reply to this email

-------------------------------------------------------------------
New Entry: Sat Jan 22 18:12:37 PST 2005
New Entry: "Goes to show, you don't ever know"
New Entry:
New Entry: Hi folks!
New Entry: I'm going to call this Slackware 10.1 beta 1, because we're at a state
New Entry: where things are relatively stable. There have been a great deal of
New Entry: improvements over Slackware 10.0, and it would be best to get this out
New Entry: before trying to tackle the major changes for Slackware 11.
New Entry:
New Entry: As far as I know, there are no serious security issues remaining in the
New Entry: -current tree at this time. There may still be a few image decoder bugs, but
New Entry: these seem to be crash bugs at worst, if even that. I've yet to hear of any of
New Entry: them allowing remote access, or privilege escalation. I do not think they are
New Entry: worth delaying a Slackware release over. I'd like to get to them, but my
New Entry: condition is preventing this, and so I'm going to tell it like I think it is:
New Entry: The sky is not really falling, regardless of what you read on BugTraq. If I
New Entry: am missing anything major though, please mail to security at slackware.com and
New Entry: let me know about it. As always, I want this to be a high-quality release.
New Entry:
New Entry: And about my status... I didn't want to have to bring this up again, but
New Entry: since a lot of people are under the impression that I've recovered and I'm
New Entry: just fine (and are beginning to make the usual demands of my time ;-), I'd
New Entry: better clarify what's going on. Especially since I'm not exactly fine.
New Entry:
New Entry: Back on Thu Nov 25, I posted in the ChangeLog that I thought I had infective
New Entry: endocarditis (and was promptly flamed for self-diagnosing again). After so
New Entry: much beating around the bush without getting a referral to a cardiologist, I
New Entry: finally called one myself and waited the two weeks it takes to get in. He is
New Entry: a top-notch doctor and heart surgeon (I was very lucky to be able get in to see
New Entry: him), and with no planting of any suggestion from me whatsoever came to the
New Entry: conclusion that it seemed to be infective endocarditis. I'm still waiting for
New Entry: more test results, but it looks like I finally have someone working on my side.
New Entry: So, lets hope that they get some conclusive diagnostics (I get another echo on
New Entry: Wednesday), that I make it until they do, and that it's not too late for this
New Entry: to be treated without a need for valve (or heart) replacement. I've had a
New Entry: rough couple of weeks (well, months really, but especially the last two weeks),
New Entry: and I have to say that while it's good to have a near-death experience every
New Entry: couple of years to keep your head clear and your focus on the important things
New Entry: in life, having one every morning is too often. With that frequency, they
New Entry: start to become a distraction. ;-)
New Entry:
New Entry: So, this verson is going to be wrapped up pretty quickly. I hope people
New Entry: will support the release, because I'm sure I'll have a lot more bills before
New Entry: all of this is through, and I'm blowing through what little money I've managed
New Entry: to save. Again, I'm not asking for donations, but I hope that when Slackware
New Entry: 10.1 comes out that people wanting to help out will order it. Also, in case
New Entry: of emergency I've left instructions with some very trusted people, so nobody
New Entry: should have to worry that if something happens to me that their Slackware
New Entry: systems will be orphaned and unsupported. It may be a long road back for me,
New Entry: but there will be people taking care of security issues as they crop up
New Entry: (like the folks at GUS-BR and SlackSec), and if I should make an unplanned
New Entry: departure there are is a basic plan of succession in place.
New Entry:
New Entry: Thanks again to all the kind folks I've known over the years, and I hope
New Entry: to know you for many more. :-)
New Entry:
New Entry: Your Humble Slackware Maintainer,
New Entry:
New Entry: Pat
New Entry:
New Entry: Now, on to...
New Entry: Today's Slackware changes:
New Entry: n/gnupg-1.2.7-i486-1.tgz: Reverted to gnupg-1.2.7 since it produces
New Entry: working signatures for Slackware packages. GnuPG 1.4.x will not be
New Entry: considered for slackware/n/ again until after the 10.1 release.
New Entry: This version works fine.
New Entry: xap/fluxbox-0.9.12-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to fluxbox-0.9.12.
New Entry: xap/gimp-2.2.3-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to gimp-2.2.3.
New Entry: xap/xchat-2.4.1-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to xchat-2.4.1.
New Entry: xap/xfce-4.2.0-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to xfce-4.2.0. :-)
New Entry: extra/slackpkg/slackpkg-1.3.1-noarch-3.tgz:
New Entry: Upgraded to slackpkg-1.3.1-noarch-3.
New Entry: extra/slacktrack/slacktrack-1.23-i486-1.tgz:
New Entry: Upgraded to slacktrack-1.23_1.
New Entry: testing/packages/gnupg-1.4.0-i486-1.tgz: Moved this back to /testing
New Entry: because it's creating broken signatures for Slackware packages.
New Entry: testing/packages/linux-2.6.10/alsa-driver-1.0.8_2.6.10-i486-1.tgz:
New Entry: Compiled for Linux 2.6.10.
New Entry: testing/packages/linux-2.6.10/kernel-generic-2.6.10-i486-1.tgz:
New Entry: Upgraded to Linux 2.6.10.
New Entry: testing/packages/linux-2.6.10/kernel-headers-2.6.10-i386-1.tgz:
New Entry: Upgraded to Linux 2.6.10.
New Entry: (see the warning on this -- glibc should really be recompiled to make
New Entry: use of these headers).
New Entry: testing/packages/linux-2.6.10/kernel-modules-2.6.10-i486-1.tgz:
New Entry: Upgraded to Linux 2.6.10.
New Entry: testing/packages/linux-2.6.10/kernel-source-2.6.10-noarch-1.tgz:
New Entry: Upgraded to Linux 2.6.10.
New Entry: +--------------------------+

If for some reason you no longer wish to be notified of
Entries to the ChangeLog Please send an email
To: mrgoblin@userlocal.com
Subject: "unsubscribe slacklog"
and the subscribed email address in the body of the message.

Thank you

mRgOBLIN

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 23, 2005 18:02 UTC (Sun) by alonso (guest, #2828) [Link] (1 responses)

It would be fine to have a preorder-prepaiment link.... I'd use it for sure ;)

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 23, 2005 22:43 UTC (Sun) by allesfresser (guest, #216) [Link]

Ask and you shall receive: here's a link to preorder Slackware 10.1.

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 23, 2005 20:28 UTC (Sun) by alspnost (guest, #2763) [Link]

Poor guy - all the best Pat, and you've done fantastically well to keep your spirits up this much, as well as managing to work on Slackware. I'm sure the whole community is rooting for you.

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 24, 2005 9:55 UTC (Mon) by eskild (guest, #1556) [Link] (4 responses)

Just pre-ordered mine. You know, it's weird: I'm so used to not paying for high-quality software anymore that my first instinct was "no way I'm gonna pay for something that's free".

Well... Slackware was how I started with Linux, way back when. I've been through or sampled RedHat 3-9, Debian, Mandrake, SuSE, Ubuntu (*) and a few others -- yet I returned to Slack last year and really enjoyed it. Still do.

So: I'm not really "paying for the software"; instead, I'm paying for the high-quality selection of software, carefully assembled into a powerful distribution that "just works" (most of the time, anyway: I'm a grown-up and should know when to just leave stuff alone... ;-)

Please consider supporting Pat and Slackware if Slackware is an important part of your computer environment and experience. It's given me years of fun and proven itself to be a really capable tool.

Regards,

/eskild.

(*) Ubuntu looks nice, though. I'm still evaluating it to see if it's "friendlier" tħan Slack for non-Unix people (friends, family).

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 24, 2005 20:39 UTC (Mon) by steve_goa (guest, #27461) [Link] (3 responses)

Hi eskild,

I enjoyed reading your article.

Please tell me what you do with Slackware ie.
what do you use it for? What are the programs
that you use Slackware most for.

ps: I am a RedHat fan and have not tried Slackware
yet.

Thanks,
Steve

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 24, 2005 22:05 UTC (Mon) by glandix (guest, #27463) [Link] (1 responses)

I'm not eskild, but I can give you a list of things i'm using slack for:

1.) Desktop OS. Used for doing everything from web dev (XHTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL) to graphics design / photography (GIMP, gThumb for photographs) to basic web/email/office stuff (firefox, thunderbird, OpenOffice.org).

2.) Server OS. Used on my home file server that is used by 2 slackware machines (one of which is dual-booted w/ XP) and 1 MacOS X machine. Setup to support NFS and SMB (windows file sharing).

3.) HTPC. Used for watching movies (DVD, DivX, etc, complete with AC3/DolbyDigital and DTS surround sound using MythTV's MythMedia module and xine, of course, the display is a 540p/1080i HDTV for optimal quality!), "TiVo"-like recording (MythTV), and music (using XMMS and/or MythTV's MythMusic module). Also occasionally used to rip audio from cassette tapes for archiving to CD (using audacity), since it has both CDRW and DVD+/-R drives.

Hope that helps! As you can see, slack can do very well at a multitude of things. I've also used it on a colocated machine running apache (w/ php/mysql), e-mail, and other services.

I've found it easier to work with (especially on the HTPC end), since it doesn't try to do as much for me, thus i can tweak it exactly how i want. Plus, it definitely (DISCLAIMER: on my machines, based on the testing i have done) runs faster than RH, MDK and the like. The HTPC works great, because i'm running as few services as possible (which was the default in slack, whereas RH and the like run *lots* of services by default) and don't use a lot of "pretty" gui stuff aside from MythTV (ie: no KDE, no GNOME, straight BlackBox + MythTV + RXVT in the background).

I'm anxious to try out kernel 2.6 on the HTPC for the multitude of performance enhancements, but just haven't gotten up the nerve yet.

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 24, 2005 22:51 UTC (Mon) by steve_goa (guest, #27461) [Link]

Thanks glandix ! That was really a useful reply.

Slackware 10.1 beta 1

Posted Jan 25, 2005 10:47 UTC (Tue) by eskild (guest, #1556) [Link]

Hello Steve,

I pretty much use Slack for everything and anything: File + print serving, C++ development, a bit of Java with Eclipse, media playback (DVD, ogg, etc.), kernel fiddling, CD rip + encode + burn, Internet mail + browsing, bla bla bla...

The key is that Slack doen't try to hide Unix from me. Yes, I have to do some hand-editing of configuration files, but that doesn't scare me. In fact, in a lot of ways I prefer this to what I in many cases consider still-immature GUI frontends.

So Slack isn't for everyone, but that's fine; it just exemplifies the power of (Linux distribution) diversity.

/eskild.