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Wed May 19 08:58:23 UTC 2010 Slackware 13.1 x86_64 stable is released! Lots of thanks are due -- see the RELEASE_NOTES and the rest of the ChangeLog for credits. The ISOs are on their way to replication, a 6 CD-ROM 32-bit set and a dual-sided 32-bit/64-bit x86/x86_64 DVD. We are taking pre-orders now at store.slackware.com, and offering a discount if you sign up for a subscription. Consider picking up a copy to help support the project. Thanks again to the Slackware community for testing, contributing, and generally holding us to a high level of quality. :-) Enjoy!
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Slackware 13.1 release notes. Wed May 19 04:40:19 UTC 2010
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Hi folks,
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Historically, the RELEASE_NOTES had been mostly technical
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information, but once again Robby Workman has covered the important
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technical details in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT. Thanks! If you are
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upgrading an existing installation, don't miss the section on the LIBATA
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SWITCHOVER.
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I'll mention a few technical items here. Slackware's userspace does
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require a recent 2.6.x kernel (I believe 2.6.27.x is a minimum for
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udev), and as usual unless your needs are specific you're probably
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better off running the included kernels that we've tested things
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against. The best kernel to run (even on a one CPU/core machine) is the
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generic SMP one, but that needs an initrd, so be sure to read the
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instructions in /boot after installing with a huge* kernel if you plan
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to switch. We have chosen to use the 2.6.33.4 kernel after testing the
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2.6.33.x kernel branch extensively. I would not suggest trying to run
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without udev. Consider it the userspace portion of the kernel. It *is*
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possible, but if you must do that you'll have to tweak a couple things
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here and there. The specifics are left as an exercise for the advanced
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user. Wait, an advanced user would just use udev. Really, it works and
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makes things a lot easier.
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Slackware 13.1 contains version 4.4.3 of the KDE Software
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Compilation. In the nearly 8 months since the release of Slackware
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13.0, the KDE team made some huge improvements, including better
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handling of netbook screen resolutions, a new authentication framework
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based on standards from freedesktop.org, and a new tabbing feature that
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allows applications to be grouped in a tabbed interface. You'll notice
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a snappier feel, helped also by the improved performance of Qt version
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4.6.2.
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Several Xfce components have been updated as well. Xfce continues
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to be a great lightweight desktop that doesn't get in your way. If you
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haven't looked at this great desktop environment lately, you might want
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to give it another try. Thanks to Robby for tracking the Xfce
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development closely and making sure everything was just exactly right in
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the Slackware Xfce packages.
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If you prefer GNOME, there are teams online producing GNOME for
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Slackware. Here are a few places to look:
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http://gnomeslackbuild.org
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http://www.droplinegnome.net/
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http://www.gware.org/
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If any of these replaces some system components, using them voids
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your warranty. ;-) But it should work, *if* you absolutely must have
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GNOME. I'd suggest Xfce instead if you want a GTK+ based desktop. If
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you do want to use GNOME, remember that there may be some updates needed
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after 13.1 is released, so it might be best not to rush into it.
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Thanks to these teams for making the GNOME desktop a viable option for
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Slackware users.
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Need more build scripts? Something that you wanted wasn't included
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in Slackware? Well, then check out slackbuilds.org. Several of the team
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members work on the scripts there.
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Thanks to the rest of the team (and other contributors) for the
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great help -- Eric Hameleers for major work on the KDE SC packages, init
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scripts, installer, documentation, and all the extra packages like
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multilib compilers (read more here: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/),
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Robby Workman for following X.Org, udev, wicd, xfce, and tons of other
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projects, building and testing all that stuff, writing documentation,
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his work with the team at slackbuilds.org, and lots of package upgrades
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(like the switch to the bluez4 bluetooth stack), Piter Punk for udev and
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slackpkg work, updating the shadow password system, writing the initial
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patch for polkit to use a shadow authentication backend so we could
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consider using KDE 4.4.3, and making tap-to-click work with Synaptics
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touchpads out-of-the-box, Stuart Winter for more updates to
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linuxdoc-tools, and for all kinds of fixes throughout the installer and
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system (he finds my bugs all the time while porting packages to ARM for
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the ARMedslack port: http://www.armedslack.org/), Alan Hicks for
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testing the installer on Apple hardware, Vincent Batts for keeping Ruby
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working well and other miscellaneous fixes, Andrew Psaltis for work on
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the polkit/shadow patches, Heinz Wiesinger for Qt (and other) fixes,
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Amritpal Bath for various bugfixes and helping with release torrents,
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mrgoblin for testing RAID, bluetooth, and well, everything (and fixing a
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lot of it, too), other very honorable mentions go to Erik Jan Tromp,
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Mark Post, Karl Magnus Kolstoe, Fizban, Fred Emmott, and NetrixTardis,
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and anyone else I'm forgetting (including the other team members who
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contributed little fixes and suggestions here and there along with
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general moral support), and all the folks who emailed in bug reports
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(and especially fixes). Thanks for the technical assistance (*you* make
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this possible), and for keeping the project a good time. And, of
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course, thanks *much* to the upstream developers for such nice building
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materials. As always, thanks to my wife Andrea and daughter Briah (who
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is becoming a surprisingly good beta tester already!)
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Have fun!
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Pat Volkerding <volkerdi@slackware.com>
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