SLINT - The Slackware Internationalization Project
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A quick note just to confirm the the Slint project is still alive.
I will upload Slint64-14.2 beta as soon as I can. I had to learn some Python, Qt and the xdg specification (I knew almost nothing about desktop until recently, being a fluxbox user), to provide a working control center, usable under all windows managers and desktops shipped in Slackware (and all that will be added as third party software) and honoring the OnlyIn and NotIn desktop lists from the .desktop files.
The control center will provide a centralized access to all documentation.
Also, an XFCE 4 panel will be easily added to all windows managers through the control center. Incidentally, this will also bring a drop down graphical menu (included in the panel) with icons to all WMs as well, and bring a tray to the WMs that lack one (xdgmenumaker from George Vlahavas and stalonetray are also provided).
There is still room for improvement (for instance the "exit" command doesn't work from the XFCE panel in other windows managers as then the panel can't identify the session), but not show stoppers for a beta.
I have tentatively (I hope) no internet access in mt country house at the moment (writing this from a tourism office), so I can't give an ETA, but ASAP.
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 08-05-2016 at 09:01 AM.
As the saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. Three are attached, but this won't spare you reading a very long post
In twm_in_slint you see that Twm gets a panel (lxpanel) with application launchers, the Slint Control Center from which we headed to the Slint documentation, an xterm, the pcManFM file manager with auto-mounting of removable devices, and access to the usual "places" (including the trash, an applications browser, the devices and the network) and a root menu including an application menu, auto updated and localized thanks to xdgmenumaker, cf. https://github.com/gapan/xdgmenumaker.
The icons on the right of the panel show you that the applets are auto-started in the tray or notification area (after a 5 seconds delay): in this case nm-applet, blueman and hplip.
The last icon on the right is that of salix-update-notifier. This tells us that software updates are available, awaiting to be installed.
In fluxbox_in_Slint you see the same default background and panel (with a task bar) that includes an auto-updated application menu including the usual applications as in other windows managers. This application menu gives access a Logout (Déconnexion in French) window from where you can also shutdown|restart|suspend|hibernate the system as a regular user.
From the Slint Control Center we started the applications list, the gslapt graphical package manager (a left-click on the salix-update-notifier icon also starts it if you want) and the "preferred applications" widget.
The default applications are Xterm, pcManFM, Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird in Blackbox, Fluxbox, Twm, WindowMaker and Xfce. If e.g. you change the web browser in "preferred applications" this change will occur in all. But you can also make a change for only one WM from its own panel. Pluma is the default text editor.
The last pic shows the greeting screen of the lxdm desktop manager (in runlevel 4, in Slackware parlance). The WM or DE that you will have set as default during installation will also be the default for lxdm.
Most of the user interfaces in attached pics are in French. They will be in your language, chosen at end of installation. This stands for Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thuderbird and LibreOffice and many more.
The installer is also polyglot and accessible to blind users through a Braille display, allows to create regular user accounts and to choose the default start-up mode: Console (run level 3) or Graphical (using lxdm, run level 4). Only a full installation is available. You can remove packages afterwards, but this will void you guarantee.
In addition to Slackware's pkgtools, Slint includes tools shipped in Salix for system configuration (packages salixtools and salixtols-gtk) and for packages' management with automatic software updates notification (updates easily applied with "gslapt") and dependency resolution.
You need to initialize the packages database for this to work. As root, just type "slapt-get --add-keys" then "slapt-get -u". Of course this needs a working Internet connection. All these tools: those included in salixtools and also slapt-get, gslapt, sourcery (that build packages from SlackBuilds) and spi have associated (and localized) man pages. spi is a front end to sourcery and slapt-get that can find and install a package and/or build and install one using a SlackBuild provided by https://slackbuilds.org, with dependencies resolution.
Slint includes all packages but most of those in extra/ and those in testing/ from Slackware 14.2 (up to date as of Fri Nov 4 03:31:38 UTC 2016), some adapted to Slint, as well as tools and applications provided and/or hosted by Salix.
Beyond Slackware packages, configuration and packages management tools, you get from Slint out of the box LibreOffice, ClawsMail, the terminal emulators bicon, fbterm and mlterm, the file managers X File Explorer (xfe) and pcManFM, the archive manager engrampa that allows to compress/open/extract archives from PcManFM, the po4a and poedit tools for translators, the doclifter, pandoc and txt2tags documents' format converters, the fontforge font editor, guefi (EFI boot menu editor written by George Vlahavas), inkscape and scribus for graphics, flash plugin, the atril document viewer, zenity (graphical dialog) and other utilities like hardinfo.
It's not enough? To install the Mate desktop just type "slapt-get --install-set mate". Maybe LXDE will come later. For Lumina it's slightly too early in the development process.
The Salix repository for 14.2 includes 711 packages and extra-14.2 2589 packages at time of writing, some shipped in the Slint ISO.
These sources of packages are included by default alongside those for Slint and Slackware repositories in /etc/slap-get/slapt-getrc, hence available through slapt-get, gslapt (its graphical front-end) and spi. And you will be notified of all updates of installed packages coming from the Slint, Slackware, Salix and extra-14.2 repositories.
The repository "extra-14.2" maintained by Salix is fed of packages built by a tool written by George Vlahavas from slackbuilds provided by contributors to https://slackbuilds.org, see this blog post: http://salixos.blogspot.fr/2016/08/o...epository.html. This is rather new so if you find missing dependencies please report them.
To know more, follow the links under Information in the Slint Control Center after having installed Slint.
Bugs? Of course! Your mission, if you accept it, is to spot and report them, either in this thread or in our forum hosted by Salix: https://forum.salixos.org/viewforum.php?f=44
Some are already known e.g. after having used Fvwm, Twm won't start until you restart the X server.
Beyond fixing bugs, my main tasks to prepare the release candidate is to write documentation and to provide an updated POT file for translators as there are a few more messages to translate.
I will also have to tune the default MIME apps, maybe the default configuration of some windows managers (if one looks weird, please report) and upgrade Fvwm to 2.6.7 as it includes huge enhancements.
The Slint project exists mainly through to the hard work of the Slint translation team and other contributors, thanks to all of you!
Thanks also to George Vlahavas for his advice, tools and invaluable help, and to other member of the Salix team.
Thanks to the contributors to the SlackBuilds.org project, whose work helps building so many additional software.
And of course, the Slint project would not exist without Slackware, brought to us by Patrick J. Volkerding and contributors. Thanks Pat and crew!
As Slint relies on Slackware, I encourage all Slint users to contribute to its funding, and also to donate to the Salix project.
Enjoy!
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 11-13-2016 at 11:07 AM.
Reason: Typo corrected.
I just realized that I forgot to include a new script among those to be translated. A new POT file has just been uploaded and the script is attached, FWIW.
The Dutch, French, Italian, and Russian translations are complete, thanks to Eric, Matteo and Serg and I see that others are working at it.
This update brings some fixes and enhancements and only one upgrade: fvwm-2.6.7. Give it a try, I'm sure you will like it! I have also done some more tweaking of twm, which gets a different setting of the panel than other window managers.
If you already installed the beta, no need to download beta2: just upgrade with slapt-get or gslapt*, run dotnew (to take care of the .new files) and create a new user with usersetup : there are changes in /etc/skel/* thus otherwise you won't get the new stuff.
*Or just left click on the icon that informs you of available updates in the tray.
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 11-22-2016 at 07:49 AM.
what is this distro? a sub-slack?
time to install VM into my SlackTop and check this one out....
Out of curiosity I dowloaded the version 3.4.1. Let me quote the README:
Quote:
1.1 Q: What is FVWM-Crystal?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A: It's a set of FVWM configuration files, some Python and shell scripts, a set of application icons and images. This combination produces a fairly decent and customized Linux desktop using FVWM as it's basic component. With additional file managers, such as Thunar ROX-Filer or Nautilus (from GNOME Project) you can create usable and good-looking Linux desktop environment.
So it's not fvwm itself, you install that on top of an existing distribution, and have to install fvwm separately if it's not included in your distro.
To answer your question, Slint is a Linux distribution based on Slackware. Not to write one more long boring post: A full internationalized Slackware + package management and admin tools borrowed to Salix + tweaks of the included WM (fvwm and twm mostly) that all include a panel, always up to date application menus, application launchers and a tray with a similar appearance of blackbox, fluxbox, windowmaker, fvwm and xfce, plus a control center. With automatic dependencies resolution and notification of updates of installed packages.
Any power user could get the same results starting from a genuine Slackware, so it's more intended for newbies and users who prefer to have a system configured "out of the box" than tweak it themselves, although they can still tweak it if they want.
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 11-22-2016 at 01:07 PM.
Out of curiosity I dowloaded the version 3.4.1. Let me quote the README:So it's not fvwm itself, you install that on top of an existing distribution, an have to install fvwm separately if it's not included in your distro.
To answer your question, Slint is a Linux distribution based on Slackware. Not to write one more long boring post: A full internationalized Slackware + package management and admin tools borrowed to Salix + tweaks of the included WM (fvwm and twm mostly) that all include a panel, always up to date application menus, application launchers and a tray with a similar appearance of blackbox, fluxbox, windowmaker, fvwm and xfce, plus a control center. With automatic dependencies resolution and notification of updates of installed packages.
Any power user could get the same results starting from a genuine Slackware, so it's more intended for newbies and users who prefer to have a system configured "out of the box" than tweak it themselves, although they can still tweak it if they want.
groovey I isn't much savy on Slint, or fvwm. seen fvwm, google lead me there, seen version number. just posted that just cuz.. seeings it is in beta, so keel beans .. I'm running Slack 14.2 as it is - as 1 of my OS's .. check out slints wegpage, looked interesting. best wishes on it.
Please note that the ChangeLog is only that of the Slint repository. All patches from Slackware64-4.2 and Salix64-14.2 as of now are also applied (and folks who already installed a previous beta are notified of all changes as well).
The Greek, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal) and Spanish (Latin America) translations are complete, thanks to Dimitris, Hugo and Diantre.
Oh and we have now a translator to Japanese: welcome on board, Keiichi!
Keiichi (nickname BALLOON a.k.a. Fu-sen) already translated the man pages included in the packages pkgtools and slackpkg: this will benefit Slackware users (I will post more info about that in another thread).
You could consider using the SlackDocs wiki instead of setting up and maintaining your own separate platform. Like I did for StudioWare, I can give you your own namespace, with full editor rights for you and those you want to appoint as co-editors.
Thanks for offering to host our wiki, Eric, much appreciated.
I have to rethink our communication channels as a whole, as we have now a website (that needs to be completely rewritten, this will be done in the coming days), a forum hosted by Salix and this wiki. Then I will consult with you.
Congratulation Didier. I have some questions. Hopefully your answers will be useful for others as well.
- What is your preferred way to communicate with Slint users? here, Salix forum or mailing list?
- Have you requested to add Slint to Distrowatch database?
- I haven't found enough time to test Slint yet. However, considering Slint and Salix similarities (multilingual installer, same tools, same repositories) what is the difference between Salix Xfce and Slint Xfce? I think multilingual installer + dependency resolution + preconfigured WMs can be bolded as Slint niche. Isn't better for Slint to drop Xfce and Isn't better for Salix to drop fluxbox?
For technical questions from translators and contributors I'd favor the mailing list. For more general questions about Slint and feedback I'd favor the forum. But this is just a guideline, any input is welcome regardless of the media.
I didn't request yet to add Slint to the Distrowatch database. I will do that when Slint 14.2 will be officially released and the means of communication stabilized.
Xfce itself (packages in the Slackware xfce series) is the same, but Salix adds some packages (mostly plugins) as you can see here. Slint doesn't, so the Salix version is somehow more complete (but just typing in Slint "slapt-get --install-set xfce" installs all the Salix add-on that are not already there. I just checked, it works).
The main difference is that in each edition Salix ships only one window manager or desktop, plus generally speaking one application per task, whereas Slint ships all that is in a Slackware full installation plus some other applications. The window managers are tweaked in Slint so that they have roughly all the same look (also true for Xfce) and features.
So I see no reason for Salix to drop fluxbox (unless they prefer to ship openbox that is very similar), and the Slint policy is to ship everything (if I had to drop something, that would be KDE rather than Xfce. No only because I dislike KDE, but also running KDE apps even inside other WM/DE puts some stress on the system's resources: as I see it KDE is better used exclusively, but I digress).
Maybe we could provide another edition that would ship as WM/DE: twm + fvwm + (LXDE and/or Xfce and/or Mate) in the future?
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 12-04-2016 at 05:34 PM.
A new website using DokuWiki as backend has been set up: http://slint.fr. It includes a few articles, including the detailed installation process with snapshots (in English and in French).
ISOs of Slint 14.2 release candidates are available: 32-bit and 64-bit.
The translations into Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal), Spanish (Latin America), Swedish are 100% complete, thanks to Dan-Simon, Hugo, Diantre, Ingemar.
Next/To do:
A stable version will be released mid-January. It shouldn't differ much from the RC.
Please try the RC and give feedback.
I will add documentation about Slint's usage to the wiki.
A few translations are not 100% complete yet: German, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian. I hope that they can be completed before the stable release, else they will be included as is (i.e. the few missing or "fuzzy" messages will be displayed in English).
I will write a small how-to for translating the new website. Meanwhile just send me a line with you username and real name and email address. I will register you then send you will receive a notification with the auto-generated password associated to your account, that you can change afterwards.
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 12-25-2016 at 03:35 PM.
As Slint is based on Slackware and Salix, let me just highlight the main distinctive Slint features.
At the system level, all window managers come configured and offer features usually found in desktops: auto-mounting of removable devices, auto-refreshed application menus, launch bar, pager and task bar (but in TWM), a tray with a notification area, panel applets including nm-applet, hplip, orage and blueman applets autostarted by default, ability to log out|halt|reboot|suspend|hibernate from the panel's menu as regular user. For that we use lxpanel and PCManFM with engrampa as archiver, and lxdm as desktop manager. Slint newcomers may like to read Slint Kick Start.
Fvwm is configured with a vertical panel in addition to the horizontal one, that can handle four virtual desks of four pages each and an icon manager that allows to easily manage more than 45 windows individually. Give it a try!
slap-get, slapt-src, gslapt, sourcery and spi ease packages management with dependencies resolution and usage of SlackBuids from SlackBuilds.org, salix-update-notifier notify of all updates of installed packages shipped in Slint or coming from managed repositories (i.e. those mentioned in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc). A word of caution: installpkg, removepkg, upgradepkg are perfectly usable, but usage of slackpkg (also shipped) is not recommended, see Software Management.
In addition to genuine Slackware tools, Salix tools are provided to manage users and groups, services, clock and time zones, locales, keyboards, hosts, take care of the .new files and edit the UEFI firmware's boot menu.
All graphical front-ends of admin and setup tools are gathered in the Slint Control Center, that also provides a consistent access in all WM/DE to applications, hardware settings and information.
They include libreoffice localized, localized KDE and Calligra UI, polyglot Firefox and Thunderbird, Inkscape and Scribus, Fontforge, Viewnior, Geany & plugins, Pluma, Asunder, Parole, Doclifter, Txt2tags and Pandoc, Bicon, FBterm and MLterm, Xorriso, Xdgmenumaker, POedit and PO4a, Transifex-client, Spkg, Ktsuss and Salix-codecs-installer.
A lot more software are easily installed. Want Mate for instance? Just type "slapt-get --install-set mate".
Of course the installer is polyglot and most tools are localized, thanks to the Salix and Slint translators. German and Polish translations are now complete and Norwegian reviewed, thanks to Marek Srejma, Marcin Herda aka Sycamorex and Dan-Simon Myrland.
The installer is also Braille-ready, handle the new NVMe devices (PCI Express based solid state drives) in UEFI mode. It allows to create regular users, set the default runlevel, the default language and installs localized packages accordingly, so that for a desktop or laptop usage there be in most cases no need for a configuration post installation. Find details with snapshots in The illustrated installation process.
Have fun!
Last edited by Didier Spaier; 01-21-2017 at 02:07 PM.
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