A few years ago (circa 2006 ?), I was very active in the Slax/Slackware world. There were at least three or four places where one could easily get the latest and greatest pkgs ready-made for Slackware. Like SlackBuilds.net (still alive), Packages.Slackware.net (still alive), and Linux Packages (seems to have gone extinct.)

Today, I went looking for some rather routine (and supposedly popular) stuff and I can't easily find 14.0 x86 JRE7.45 and Firefox25 pkgs.

I've actually made my own packages from the orig source tarballs, but I won't this time, for time constraints and other options. But what gives ???

The Oracle java cannot be redistributed these days due to licensing. But the slackbuild for making the package is included in the Slackware source tree, here.

Firefox has been the topic of recent discussion, but as I recall Pat has included a long term support version in official Slackware.

For most non-official applications you can get build scripts from http://slackbuilds.org.

I can't help much when it comes to pre-built non-official packages, other than the usual cautions about using any from non-trusted sources.

Robby Workman and Eric Hameleers have completely trustworthy prebuilt packages.

http://rlworkman.net/pkgs/

http://www.slackware.com/~alien/

Try this: http://www.microlinux.fr/mled.php

If you only want individual packages: http://www.microlinux.fr/slackware/

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Aren't the Salix repositories and Slacky.eu valid places to get prebuilt packages too?

+1 to Salix repos

Hello
I'm running Slack v14 on my main box and originally had the built-in Firefox 15 from the install set. Then I began to see on YouTube some crazy warning that I was using an outdated version of Mozilla Firefox whose support would end soon. While I actually doubt that is true, I went ahead and installed v25 just like I used to and it is very simple and requires no packaging whatsoever.

All one has to do is unpack the tarball and copy the contents to "/usr/lib/Firefox-vFoo" and link that to "/usr/lib/firefox". Assuming you have, as is common, "usr/bin/firefox" linked to "/usr/lib/firefox/firefox" nothing really has changed other than the version.

Upon launching firefox, it will search automatically to see if addons/extensions etc are compatible and finally will go to the Mozilla page that verifies your version and thanks you for updating. No need to complicate things.

Java can also be similarly installed.

I certainly hope all this concern over packages isn't heading in the direction where essentially all other distros have gone. Automatics make you weak. Stay Slackware. Stay strong!

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Alternatively you could just use the Firefox 17 ESR version provided as a Slackware update. You should keep your system always up to date, so that you get important security fixes.
Either use slackpkg for that or manually install the updates fom the /patches directory from your favorite mirror using upgradepkg.

Thanx to all for the suggestions. A couple sites I didn't know about, like microlinux or salix. However, you've all missed answering the most important part of my inquiry. Why is Slackware so far behind on something like Firefox ? I know this is a labor of love and maintaining an entire repo an ENORMOUS labor of love, but Firefox is HOW MANY revs (years) behind ? BTW, did LinuxPackages die or morph into something else ? LP was slick, commercial-class repo as I recall.

I'm not trolling or criticizing, it's just that in the 2006-7 timeframe, the Slackware world wasn't like this. Isn't Slackware nearly the oldest distro ?

@enorbert: Had a good friend named Norbert, who might've chimed in w/ a remark like this, a long time ago !

Back in '06 I took it on myself to enable/compile in the kernel driver version of NTFS-3g into my then-fav distro. Also made extensive hacks to the initrd code, as part of my self-assigned project. Posted a detailed HOWTO of the entire process on the forum as well as provided less ambitious forum mates w/ a downloadable, ready-made upgrade kit. Bottom line: have paid my Linux dues !

Actually, my intent was to make a couple of minor tweaks to a part of a much bigger project. Frankly, I can get along just fine w/ FF17 or 18. Was a bit curious about why one has to make do....

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slackware-current has firefox 25.0.1 (released Nov 13 2013). Your slackware-14.0 was released in September 2012 and had firefox 15.0.1 which was released in September 2012. If you had installed all the patches, your slackware-14.0 would now have firefox-17.0.11esr (released Nov 14 2013).

Had you checked the Changelog on Jun 29 2013 you would have noticed the reason why the patches moved from firefox 21.0 to 17.0 esr.

It is not behind. "Slackware 14" follows a long term supported version of FF whereas "Slackware 14.1" which was released approximately a month ago shipped FF 25.

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Then, we're done. I understand fully now and my notions about some of this stuff was simply wrong. Thanx again.

It was indeed and I don't know what happened to it. Wasn't it handled by "linuxmafia" for a time?

Much to the credit of Patrick and others' hard work it is THE oldest surviving distro, and with good reason since it is also entirely unique these days.


Any chance you used to hang out in Linux IRC channels? or did you mean IRL?

Good! Don't stop

While I do enjoy the convenience of Slackbuilds since they don't destroy my ability to edit options, the main reason I came to and then stayed with Slackware is that "stuff compiles right in it". Therefore I have never had to feel like I have had to "make do". Only the choice to become dependent on repos, PPAs, and all that crap will make one a slave. Thankfully the Slackware Team has always respected it's users enough to freely allow this level of freedom and power and that, my slack friend, has not changed since 1993, let alone 2006.

All that has changed really since 2006 is "market share" since there are many more casual Linux Users today than there are Admins, thanks to all of the "do it for ya" distros, especially the high profile Ubuntu. Like it or not (and OMG I don't) it is a Windows World, having well in excess of 90% Market Share Globally and the pressure to "me too" is just an immense grind. Thankfully, Slackware has not bowed.

It really wasn't. It never required that packages be built on freshly installed distributions, and many of the submitted packages were therefore broken.

This was one of Linuxpackages.net's last updates, from 2010-01-06:

http://web.archive.org/web/201209130...php?newsid=192