My thoughts on Slackware, life and everything

Busy days, not Slackware related

In the next days or weeks, I am going to try and rest and re-vitalize myself. It would be a waste of effort if I burnt myself out. But the shitty weather does not help. Who feels like it is summer in Europe? I have just emptied the buckets in the hallway which caught the water seeping through the crack in the roof… repair money is not available right now.

During the past week, there were many such distractions to keep me away from hacking at Slackware. This will likely remain unchanged during the next weeks. We had a fire in the kitchen, which caused damage (the stove and oven were destroyed), but luckily no one got hurt! It takes time to invite experts to assess the damage, arrange repairs and such. I als got hooked on some e-books I had loaded onto my Sony E-reader… reading is eating away precious time faster than you think!

Anyway, all this distraction had consequences for the package pipeline. With regular releases of KDE, LibreOffice, OpenJDK and VLC – all pretty big builds – my free time is increasingly limited to building updates for these aforementioned programs. It is frustrating at times that I have to make an advance planning because especially KDE and LibreOffice releases tend to come at roughly the same time. Building in several virtual machines at the same time hurts my server’s performance and it does not help the total build time per program…

Also, I really need to pick up the pace with my new but currently stalled ARM port of Slackware (which will have differences to the existing ARMedslack port). I am talking to some people about what would be a cool computer to own which really should be running Slackware. The outcome of those discussions I will reserve for a future post, because I will probably need assistance.

That is why I decided that I am not going to build packages for the upcoming KDE 4.9-rc2. I will wait for the final release of 4.9.0 instead.

I will try to get LibreOffice packages compiled for the 3.5.5 release which was announced today. It depends on the errors I encounter during compilation… I do not have time to hunt compilation issues down and fix them. So, fingers crossed!

End of rant.

Eric

20 Comments

  1. Audrius Kažukauskas

    Take some rest, Eric, you really deserve it. Hopefully the weather will get better soon where you live.

    Thanks for everything you do for Slackware!

  2. Alex

    Everyone will understand, that
    1. you need to take good care of yourself
    2. fixing things in your living environment has clear priority over *everything* else, including providing of Slackware packages.

    Some of my colleagues, also IT guys, did not notice, when it was time to reduce the number of rotations per minute and burned out. It took them a *very* long time to find their way back into a normal private and work life.

    So to all of you IT guys: Be careful, Burnout is not just a buzzword in the media, it is a real illness, and you should it take seriously! Reflect where you are, what you are doing and how you fell from time to time, and take it as serious warning, when your friends or family are telling you that they have the impression that you or your behaviour have changed.

    Stay healthy! All the best, regards

    Alex

  3. Jeffrey

    Hi Eric,
    take a rest, thats good for you 😉 not every release is important. Thank you for the great job. But anyway i am interested in, and i am waiting for, your next blog.

    best regards
    Jeff

  4. Ellendhel

    Hi Eric,

    Have some rest, we can always wait for new packages. I hope that you can have some sunny days and all you problems fixed.

  5. Gabriel Yong

    Hi Eric,

    Stay healthy man, you have been contribute a lot. Rest for a longer journey and bigger projects.

    best regards

  6. p431i7o

    Hi Eric, here from Paraguay I spect you to have rest and come back with all batteries charged.
    Thanks for all you excelent work. You need to get some slack!!! 😉

    We will be around here waiting for your news when you are ready.

  7. Caribe

    Here in Italy we have a great summer, very hot. So if you are seaching a place to reload your batteries, well, we’re waiting for you! 😛

  8. escaflown

    Have a good rest Eric!

  9. silviu

    hey, hot summer here in romania as well. If you drop by I’m buying 🙂

    Take some time off, not even linux beats home, family and rest.

  10. pvasilev

    Sometimes wee need to disconnect ourselves from the net, reboot and connect back to the nature.Rest good, and come back recharged, Eric! Thanks for what you do for Slackware!

  11. Jeff H

    Take all the time you need mate. Your packages and updates are like gifts, I/we don’t demand or need them but they are much appreciated when you do release them. thanks for your hard work!

  12. David

    Take your time boy, no problem!
    If we can help you, we are here.

    And, as Caribe wrote, here in Italy it’s a beautiful and hot summer, so if you need holidays… 😉

  13. hughetorrance

    I have noticed that its not uncommon for the hardest workers myself included to go from hard worker to cant be bothered anymore… be really careful with the estimates as I have found that the world is full of con men that would not do anything for you no matter who you are… kind regards Hugh !

  14. Eduardo

    Eric, get a nice rest. I am very grateful for all your work.

  15. Brian Lawrence

    Take it easy for as long as you want, Eric. The weather is lousy here, too.

  16. Niki Kovacs

    Hey Eric,

    Summer in South France is sunny and warm, around 30° C every day. Rivers are cool, and the swallows are looping in front of my window.

    I have a panel on my wall : “Si tu as envie de travailler, assieds-toi et attends que ça passe (proverbe corse)”. Meaning something like: if you feel like working, sit down and wait for the fit to pass (saying from Corsica).

    Cheers from France.

  17. chrisretusn

    It’s always summer were I live. This time a year it rains a lot though. Take a much needed rest. Glad no one hurt in that fire.

  18. LoneStar

    well, well… Italy is Europe, and we’re being though a couple of weeks above 40° degrees. yesterday the temperature in the car parked under the sun was 52° 😀

  19. Peter

    Sorry to hear of your kitchen and roof tribulations. Lousy summer, though my blueberries seem to thrive. Am attending the Raspberry (Pi) Jam in Cambridge tomorrow to meet others who have this fascinating device. But will I be spoiled for choice with 3 variants of Slackware for RPi?
    Cheers,
    Peter

  20. integrale

    Hi Eric,
    Regarding a cool ARM computer which should be running Slackware, I yesterday took notice of a cheap Exinos Quad-Core powered board, called ODROID-X, which should be really powerful. http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G133999328931

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