+1. One release every two years, with five years support for each release looks like a sane approach to me.

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Exactly. Debian takes about two years to put out a new release. It is important that Slackware maintains its legendary stability and security. PV will release 14.2 when it meets his criteria for excellence. I can wait.

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Maybe I misunderstand but lilo works fine on all my UEFI motherboards.
What else do you want elilo to do?
It boots fine here.
I guess I just don't get it.
John

@AlleyTrotter: Then you are enabling BIOS emulation/compatibility mode. This is not an option for everyone, particularly those who wish to dual boot with modern Windows. It is (probably) also not an option on all UEFI hardware.

Well, my statement was too terse, so let me elaborate a bit (and also on what ruario just posted).

Lilo can still be installed in case of GPT (GUID partition table) but then only if installed on the protective MBR of the first hard disk and with some limitations about the file system of the partition where lies /boot: see about that Installing Slackware Using GPT with a BIOS motherboard written by ruario.

Then with respect to pure UEFI lilo doesn't and will probably never provide an UEFI image that can be used to boot, nor the ability of setting the EFI variables to modify the firmware's boot menu.

EDIT: link corrected, see next message from ruario

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Its a nice doc but I didn't write it, that one was written by metaschima. Maybe you meant this one, where I wrote,

However, I learnt this from from jstn.

You are right: I corrected the link, thanks for the heads up.

On another topic, would you like to review Slint's translation to Norwegian that Dan-Simon begun?

I know that Norwegian is not your native language but you should write it very fluently now

And knowledge of Slackware and of shell scripting would be very useful. Of course reviewing a translation is time consuming, but not as much as translating.

Sorry to hijack this thread for that, I'm not sure that your old email address be still valid.

Each has given life and meaning to a thread that otherwise had little point in retrospect...

Nothing to hijack, it leads where it leads, and all for the good so far!

[posted in wrong thread, deleted]

There has been some great changes that have come with tons of work from the slackware team. 4.9.2 gcc. Pat has been working very hard on the next update I am sure for us very very old timers it will be released close to the time when any SubGenius should release it or it is a conspiracy.

I am sure at which time a huge praise to Bob will happen and I bet it will be close to X day. Which will be July 5 but it has been a conspiracy for thing to wonder on to October and December But with all the Slack that has been saveed I am sure it will be fine. If I am wrong Pat never bought a church and moved into it. I am sure the grateful dead will play in Chicago 2015 put that in your pipe and smoke it J.R. "Bob" Dobbs.

Once the system is booted by lilo/elilo/grub/grub~n whatever doesn't the kernel take over handling nearly all communication with the hardware and software?
If you need a pure UEFI experience elilo provides that experience. Maybe when UEFI changes it will require elilo to be modified, but it works fine now.
If I needed Windows I wouldn't be using Slackware on that particular machine.
I have not had a Windows machine in my home for more than probably a dozen blue moons.(Version 98)
No harm no foul, just my humble opinion.
John

Good for you. But not for everybody: some people need both Windows and Slackware and can't afford or just don't want to buy two machines, that also makes more complicated to share data between systems.

Just got another small update today. OpenSSL and OpenSSL-solibs.

Thanks Patrick!

For however little my novice Slackware user opinion counts, I find the idea of slower development cycle refreshing. I am still discovering all that there is to know about the Slackware distribution. Coming from Debian (and running Testing or Unstable branch), every day there was an update, which can often lead to complications/bugs of their own. More importantly I am finding that Slackware 14.1 provides software that is up to date enough to do everything I require- which has never been the case in a stable release of Debian. I am tempted to try Slackware-current but for now I am satisfied with what Pat has provided.

I can only hope Linux users from other distributions will make the same discovery I have.

First off @Gazl - I was not offended by your initial post nor by the responses. I frankly thought people were tactful if not openly friendly and was quite proud of Us especially when quite a few outsiders view Slackware as some sort of elitist religion which confuses me no end. I was also confused by your post and curious as to why slow updates was sufficient reason to leave which was the impression I, and apparently many others got. Apparently most of us here have learned from long experience that even where people have the same native language, misinterpretation is common even face-to-face and is orders of magnitude more likely in mere text especially where most try to be brief. So I sincerely thank you for the follow up clarification.

For my part it seems Slackware fits me perfectly because I try to buy near top of the line hardware just after prices start to fall from age so I commonly have what would have been a real flagship quality machine as of 3-5 years before I got my hands on it. This also facilitates knowing all the hardware is supported or not, helping to narrow down the field making my final decision(s) rather easy. I expect to get 5-7 years out of any machine I build and I find it rare indeed that I feel the need for cutting edge software. The last time I felt that issue was when wifi was just becoming important. Presently there is nothing but the exception of a few games and purposefully crippled or broken applications commonly that MS has bought out, like Raidcall and the hassles with Skype, that leave me wishing I could do something I can't in Slackware. The last time I felt that was immediately after Gnome was dropped because I had few choices for digital camera applications. That resolved in just a few months just like wifi did.

Maybe it's just me getting older and less motivated to tweak just for the fun of it as much as I used to, but I am really very content with Slackware and am not even running 14.1 or 64bit, instead opting for 14.0 32 bit (easier gaming support with my current amount of ram - 8 Gigs) with just a bakers dozen or so of addons that were not on the full install options. I do however tend to upgrade kernel faster than even -Current does but that's about it anymore. I hear people who prefer bleeding edge rolling releases say they actually need the very latest applications but apparently their work is quite different from mine since aside from the above 2 apps I mentioned (and for which there does exist usable if less popular alternatives) I can do everything I want and frankly feel I wasted money on Win7 since I spent so little time in it. I sincerely hope the direction that Linux seems to be taking of niche markets isn't going to be so fractious as to devolve into ivory towers.

I tend to think that AOL and Windows were the major proponents of the brainwashing that we need constant and swift updates for everything leading to that comical adage that "software is either beta or obsolete, or both" and it's funny exactly because that is the result for that sense of unbridled need that feels like brainwashing to me as an attempt to make me and everyone into some sort of gluttonous nymphomaniacal consumer who consumes as if consumption was an end in and of itself. I went as far back as AOL because shortly after many applications with quick updates began to be severely bloated, Nero being just one example of the plague that struck almost everybody. I don't think I'm some Luddite as there are areas in my life that I feel justified in going for "latest and greatest". For example I think safety and gas mileage issues along with reduced maintenance and a few electronics niceties make a good case for buying a new car so I own a 2014. I've been slow to adopt smartphones but now I can see both why I would want one and what it can do for me so I think I can choose fairly reasonably and I will likely get a real monster.

However PCs of late lack that must have killer app that implores us to have cutting edge stuff with the possible exception of some cases of work related software. So I'm happy with Slackware's release cycle and more and more find it difficult to imagine why anyone who has used it for more than a year or so could possibly want anything else, so I suppose I'm just becoming set in my ways and in less and less contact with those that apparently have needs of which I either don't have or am ignorant of.

This issue has been hardened by the battle over systemd. If for some unimagineable reason Patrick becomes convinced Slackware must have it I am one who will at least give it a go because I trust that Patricks vision is at the very least as good as mine and in the vast majority of cases, superior and I like his style. I will OTOH also begin exploring BSD as I already have tried a few distros that caved to systemd to experience it for myself and they have been at least workable and though I didn't like a new set of problems I deem unnecessary and for extremely little gain I could get by if I had to but I would want to know about options and it now appears that systemd will fail at becoming the must have that LP seems to have hoped he could have accomplished. It was scary how fast it penetrated but even now it seems to becoming an "also ran". I see nothing compelling or urgent on the horizon and certainly nothing that offers anywhere close to a decent cost/benefit ratio. As it has since I first began w/ v7, Slackware just does it right and the few tradeoffs that don't suit have had easy workarounds. That might be the single most compelling reason for me to stick with Slackware and it is even stated outright early on "Slackware doesn't pretend to assume how users will use it, so it leaves that up to the user". I can add that it accomplishes that far and away better than every other distro I've tried and I test a lot.

Back to Gazl - It seemed to me that early responders then, as I do now, wonder just what you feel you lack but it is just idle curiosity and I don't hold any animosity whatsoever to you or anyone who makes choices in their own best interests. I think that's the way it is supposed to be, to give what you would like to get if a situation were reversed. Whatever choice you make and for whatever reason(s) I sincerely hope it serves you well, whether you stay or return, makes no difference in judgment only possibly sadness at losing quality people. Good Fortune, Brother.