Alien Pastures

A few weeks back Laurent Parenteau asked me to contribute a post to his series “Meet the Linux family” on the blog “Software Development with Linux“. Well here it is: http://laurentparenteau.com/blog/2010/02/meet-the-linux-family-eric-hameleers/ . Nothing spectacular, but just enough controversy (I hope… I wrote “Steve Balmer” and “Eric Raymond” on the same page) to make it interesting [...]

I have always really hated the Git Version Control System (or VCS).
I am pretty comfortable working with other products like RCS, CVS and Subversion (SVN). I am not a developer, so my main use for a VCS is a to allow me to keep track of the changes in my SlackBuild scripts or my [...]

A bit of history… I realized that just a year ago, KDE 4.2.rc1 got added to Slackware’s “/testing” area.
With all the recent posts on this blog about KDE4 and me telling people how nice I think this version of KDE is, I realize that “liking” is a very personal expression of feelings. A feeling shared [...]

… Ok, ok, it is not so bad actually! Au contraire!
Slackware Linux development made a big leap today, when Pat Volkerding updated the distro’s “vital organs” of kernel, glibc and gcc. The “dull” phase of the slackware-current development cycle is over hopefully, and it’s back to the bleeding edge.
To be fair, gcc 4.4.2 has been [...]

There are several ways to install Slackware to your computer. You have network installation options available (where the packages are on a remote NFS/FTP/HTTP/Samba server) and local options (where the packages are on a DVD/CDROM or a local directory).
In all these cases you need to boot your computer with Slackware’s installer. Traditionally you can boot [...]

Perhaps you run the 64-bit Slackware 13.0. If so, did you by any chance install my 32bit multilib packages on top, and then ran the slackpkg command after that?
There was a bug in my multilib conversion script convertpkg-compat32 (all versions before “10alien“). The compat32-tools package which I have uploaded today contains a fixed version (11alien).
If [...]

What does a Nintendo wireless controller have to do with Slackware?
Well… you’d be surprised!
On october 4th I am running a presentation about “A history of Slackware development” as part of T-DOSE (fyi: T-DOSE is a free and yearly event held in The Netherlands to promote use and development of Open Source Software). One of the [...]

I guess it will be OK to do a bit of PR for my own sake here – I am usually quite modest
Linux Magazine published an interview with yours truly by Christopher Smart – aptly called “Why you should try Slackware” (I actually liked the working title better: “The swiss army knife of [...]

By now, the world will be well aware that there was a new release of Slackware Linux last week. Yes, Slackware 13.0 is there… just when I was enjoying a quiet holiday at the french coast. A pity that the release date slipped past the start of my vacation, I always enjoy the virtual “party” [...]

[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 [...]