Now that almost four weeks have passed since the last update of Slackware’s “-current ChangeLog” I am seeing posts from people who (1) start getting worried and (2) are speculating that a new stable release is imminent.
Let me re-assure you: there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on. Some of the updates require the recompilation and testing of other packages and this takes time to get it right.
When the time comes to push the next batch to the public, be sure that it contains a lot of goodies. Nope… no PAM in there 🙂
And equally no, this is not the runner-up to a new stable release. Due to the size of the changes, I expect that some serious user-testing is required first. Just be patient for a little longer…
Eric
Hey Eric,
Great update. Unfortunately, this “behind-the-scenes” stuff is really making me reconsider slackware as my distro. I miss the days when -current updates were available publicly just after a release was made. Now, alot of the fun and exciting things happen behind closed-doors, and it’s really quit sad (and takes the fun out of running the development branch).
The times are long gone where the separate components that form Slackware were easy to update. The kernel is a complex beast which takes many iterations to make it work for a wide audience; X.Org has been in a pretty unstable state for the past two years and if the tens of component sources are not combined correctly you will have a working X desktop but your neighbor won’t.
So, Pat and the team try to find the right mix and make it work _before_ releasing to the public. This takes a lot longer than a few years ago, indeed.
Look at modern 3D game development, and you can observe the same trend – systems become more complex all the time – entropy can not be reversed.
If that makes you reconsider your distribution, then you are of course free to walk away and choose a distro which fits better with your needs and demands. There is nothing wrong with that. I just don’t think you would be doing it for the right reasons.
Eric
Hello Eric,
Thank you for giving us a sneak preview of what’s going on in -current (kernel, Xorg). Is there any possibility to get some pointer regarding KDE. I’ve read in LQ forum that we should not expect KDE 4.4 in -current for the time being (so my guess is KDE 4.3.5 will make it).
How about those of us who install your KDE 4.4 packages. Will you try to keep them compatible with -current?
> How about those of us who install your KDE 4.4 packages.
> Will you try to keep them compatible with -current?
Actually yes. By the time Pat V. publishes his updates to slackware-current I will have several updated KDE 4.4.0 packages & dependencies ready & waiting, and you will see recompiled multilib gcc/glibc as well.
This is the advantage of keeping the updates private – I get the opportunity to (re-) build the packages I maintain myself and have those ready so that yu are not left in the cold for a day or two when you are running -current.
And yes, do not count on official KDE 4.4.0 packages. The KDE 4.3.5 upgrade would be more likely to show up in slackware-current.
Eric
Once these updates are made public, here’s my challenge to anyone thinking that the delay was “inappropriate” or “wrong” or “against the Slackware way” or some such and instead should have been made public sooner:
Start with the previous -current tree and upgrade all of those components. Wait – don’t use our packages — build them yourself. That’s right: figure out what order to build them so that everything keeps working. As you do that, YOU figure out somewhere along the way that it makes sense to release them before we did. Good luck.
Please, don’t forget to dump tetex and incorporate texlive instead.
The situation for LaTeX users on Slackware has become impossible.
Without PAM, the newer Desktops will become impossible sooner or later…
> This is the advantage of keeping the updates private – I
> get the opportunity to (re-) build the packages I maintain
> myself and have those ready so that yu are not left in the
> cold for a day or two when you are running -current.
Day one is growing and I wait hour for hour. Hope, you’ve have an updated KDE 4.4 next few hours to really see that ‘advantage’ of private development in -current 😉
Any plans to incorporate qt-4.6? Several program I like have now switched and will not build with -current’s version of qt-4.5.3.
Sigil, the ePub editor has come out with 6 versions since switching to qt-4.6. I may have to build a second version of qt myself soon, I really want the new version. 🙂
I for one appreciate all the good and unselfish work the team put into Slackware and I am happy to wait till they consider it fit for release. It never fails to astonish me how impatient people can be to get their hands on something which is done by and large FOR FREE.
People – stop complaining and be grateful we have experts freely giving of their time and energy to do this work for us.
It’s quite pathetic listening to some of you with your DEMANDS.