-current and NVidia - is it worth it!?
 

I try to run -current however in the last couple of months there have been about 4 instances where a -current update has screwed my system! Either stopping X from starting or preventing opengl applications from running.
I'm starting to wonder whether it's worth the hassle? Every time I have to start messing around re-installing drivers and what not. I might just go back to stable and worry about it once every now and again when a version update happens.

The only cases in which I had to reinstall nvidia in -current were when there were kernel upgrades and the new Xorg was included in -current. Furthermore, nvidia reinstallation on my system takes less than 1 minute so it's not a problem for me.
On the other hand, I do keep one stable slackware system just in the very unlikely case things go really pear-shaped with -current and I urgently need to do something.

And of course, mesa :)

...and of course mesa:)

I agree with sycamorex (and willysr), it takes less than a minute to reinstall. The matter of whether it's worth the 'hassle' or not is really a personal thing I guess.

Taking a look at the Changelog is also important, specially regarding extra/xf86-video-nouveau-blacklist/xf86-video-nouveau-blacklist-noarch-1.txz

The work of Pat and team is impressive, in my expericence -current is more stable than some distros stable releases, even though it's the experimental version.

That is my experience as well; slackware-current is very stable.

The only reason to run current is in order to test and report bugs back to Pat to make the next stable release even better. If you're not taking an active part in that process then the answer is probably no, you'd be better off sticking with the 'stable' releases. Especially so if you're finding the process of following current frustrating or a hassle.

Every once in a while current will throw you a curve-ball. It's just the nature of the beast.


You also get no extra l33t-haxor-street-cred for running current. The best you can hope for will be a shout-out in the changelog if you find/fix/report a bug to Pat. And no one will think any less of you for staying with 'stable'.

+1
i have been using Slackware-Current and no problem so far, except on my laptop which has dual GPU and that's not Slackware's fault actually

Second that ...

There is another reason to run -current: support for recent hardware.

Last April, I put together a new computer with an ATI Radeon HD 4670 video card. At that time, the ATI HD 5xxx series had just come out, so I thought it would be safer to go with a prior generation card.

Fast forward to last December. Half a year after I bought the card, and two years after the card was first introduced, it finally worked with Xorg 1.9.2 and open-source drivers in Slackware -current. I would still not have a working video card if I had waited for Slackware 13.2. (*)
Ed

(*) I refuse to run the ATI proprietary fglrx driver, based on past experiences.