Okay so I had to reinstall my system and I only have 12.2, well I downloaded 13 and right now am having issues burning DVDs BUT that's another issue I'm working on, anyways, is upgrading to 13 worth it right now or would I be better off waiting until I decide to reinstall again? I put it on a virtual machine and noticed it had support for ext4 and I don't like KDE so the fact that it comes with a newer version of it isn't really all that exciting, any input? Is 13 really that much better than 12.2?

I suggest you make you own opinion about that reading the Release Notes as well as the Release Announcement, as it depends on your needs, wishes, taste, preferences and <add any missing word here>.

I'm running 13.0 on 2/4 of my Slackware boxes, I'll be upgrading my 12.2 boxes in the coming days. Yes. I think it is worth the upgrade. But, Pat will support 12.2 for years so you'll be fine if you stay with 12.2.

Thanks for the input to both of ya Anyone notice any performance differences at all?

I think so, if you don't compile the last version kernel on your box, newer kernel boots faster than other ones, kde and xfce are pretty better... It's using more ram memmory than any other slackware release but yeah worth the upgrade...

Hi,

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Seriously, if you are using the 12.2 or whatever today and find the OS meets your needs then why change? Security fixes are still supported for most of the Slackware family. Do you have newer hardware that you expect to be supported? Why not just upgrade the kernel?

You say KDE is not for you. Ok, but XFCE is available for the 13.0
as another DE.

If there are utilities on 13.0 you must have then you probably could get those for 12.2 from SlackBuilds. As a general user you really won't find that much by moving to 13.0. Especially if your hardware is not the newest. Not saying you can't run 13.0 on older hardware but to just upgrade or change for the sake of hopping to a new version may not satisfy that newness expected.

I've got 12 installed on several systems that will remain at that version. Shucks, I still have 10/11 on some older controllers that just merrily chug along.

Hi,

My question to you is, How do you support this statement;
Benchmark? Your hardware configuration is unique?

How do you substantiate the memory usage in such a broad sense?

Hey thanks, but yeah, I know it has xfce, I'm running it on 12.2 now and I did have gnome on it before I reinstalled, I was just stating I wouldn't upgrade for something like that.

Hi,
I thought your query was about the reasoning for the upgrade. I agree that too upgrade just to get KDE is not a valid one. I'm using Slackware 13 X86_64 on a Dell Laptop and really not satisfied with KDE. Just trying things out for now. I do like the way things are going for now but think I'll revert to XFCE. I don't like the way KDE exits dirty. At first I thought configurations were not proper. I checked and rechecked but everything was go. But on exits I still have an occasional lock. I've checked the logs but nothings stands out. Flipping back to console then back is OK.

It seems the transitions between major releases of software/hardware is always the most annoying. I've found that the most trouble will be with things that use QT4 or KDE4 and if you have a need to move to 64bits.

I mention QT4 because it's new an some GUI applications haven't fully switched from QT3 to QT4 yet and you will have to use development versions from them. MythTV for example.

Additionally, some of your old unmaintained programs will not compile on the gcc installed with 13 but will on 12.2. zsnes is one of these... you actually have to know about the secret download that the slackbuild script uses.

If you move to 64 bits you may have issues with some of your games or installing multilib or remembering to install the 32bit openGL for your card AFTER you install multilib support. (look at Alien Bob's wiki page)

If none of these things bother you, then you might enjoy the new KDE and having the latest and greatest slackware in lucky 13.

The value of updating is an individual choice. I have been using 13.0/KDE 4 with my eventual HTPC. I'm using 12.2 with my office machine.

I am not a "window manager only" type of person. Using 13.0 led me to choose between Xfce or KDE4. I have used KDE since 2002 and although KDE 4 is experiencing serious growing pains, I have seen enough that I am convinced KDE 4 will be better than KDE 3.

KDE 4 is not yet complete and remains buggy. That is a statement of fact. Nothing more. Version 3.5.10 is a reputable choice for people needing a more complete desktop and stability. Hence my decision to remain with 12.2 on my office machine.

My eventual HTPC is another story. I can afford to experiment there. Thus my decision to acclimate to KDE 4 with a fresh install of 13.0.

KDE 4 is just enough different in design to add some frustrations. Some patience is required.

You mentioned you are not a KDE fan. Most of the Xfce users here seem to like the newer Xfce 4.6.1.

Overall I am inclined to say that 13.0 is snappier. I don't know for sure. My two machines where I run both systems are only slightly different yet the improvements I notice might be due to slightly better hardware. Also I use 2.6.30.5 kernel with 13.0 because of known problems with 2.6.29.5 with the forcedeth driver.

It was about that :P I was just explaining something else from earlier, pretty much asking for a reason to switch "other than that" lol

And I looked at the new xfce, does seem nice but seems like they're starting to slowly get towards what gnome and KDE used to be, idk, both look good though, KDE looked really good and it's actualy tempting to try it for my every day use lol

Sorry for the double post BUT I decided to upgrade it and I think I'll try out KDE for a bit at least, why did I switch? Why simply because I have 4GB of ram and my computer only picks up 3.1 with 32 bit and I tested it out with the 64 bit and it picks up the full 4GB lol

There's lots of benchmarks, and a text from Linus itself saying that were a change in the development that made the kernel faster (i think that the tux logo changing its linked to that) and yeah once installed im my machine i noticed a performance improvement...



By that i meant that applications and kernel itself gained features increasing the memmory usage, newer applications tent to be heavier than older ones...

How do you install a .txz package? lol, I would like to get wicd on there so I can connect to the network easily, never tried it without it.