Folks, it’s that time which you have all been anticipating!

 

Slackware 14 has been released today, wrapping up 17 long months of development. Read the announcement to learn all about this new release.The Slackware homepage has some more information for you, as well.

I think there has not been such a long series of release candidates, ever before. Thanks to the co-operation of our Slackware user base, there has been a tremendous amount of beta testing during the past few months. Pat could probably have gone on releasing updates and allow further testing for months to come, but essentially, we have a solid and stable Slackware release in our hands.

What’s new?

We have X11R7.7 (X.Org server 1.12.3), KDE 4.8.5, XFCE 4.10, the Linux 3.2.29 kernel as default, but with lots of sample kernel configs for newer 3.x kernels included as well. NetworkManager has been added for people who like to be mobile and configure their network connections using a GUI. We still include WICD, and we kept full support for the traditional style of network configuration. There is lots more! Of the nearly 1150 packages in Slackware core, more than 800 have been upgraded or recompiled since Slackware 13.37. “Why were not all of those packages recompiled or upgraded” I hear you say. Remember, the Slackware adagium is “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it!“.

Those who have been running “-current” will not notice much – they are in fact running Slackware 14 already. But if you are upgrading from Slackware 13.37 you will certainly want to read the CHANGES_AND_HINTS file to get a good picture of the many package additions and what to expect from them. I wrote an article for  our new Slackware Documentation Project, called “upgrading Slackware to a new release“.which will help you convert your Slackware 13.37 system to 14.0 painlessly. The Slackware Documentation Project gets a mention in the Slackware 14 announcement as well, yay 🙂

Use the weekend to download the ISO images – our torrent tracker is ready and we have initial seeds on big pipes: http://www.slackware.com/getslack/torrents.php.

And consider buying a subscription at the Slackware Store – it will help keeping the lights on at Pat’s place. Mind you – Pat is the only one in the core team who is financially dependent on the sales of Slackware DVD’s and other merchandise. The rest of the team does this for fun, not for profit – we buy our own subscriptions from the Store, just like you do.

Have fun! Eric