Tired of dabbling with other distros I have returned to Slackware and I am currently running the 10/29 release of current 14.1, Slackware64. I have slackpkg pointed to current.

My question is, can I just stay running the current tree (realizing there could be a bump or 2) or should I switch to 14.1 sources when it releases (is that even a right thing to do?)?

I am not a total Linux novice if that helps to answer I plan on keeping them pure 64bit (laptop and a desktop).

Thank you

Staying with -current will require more time to maintain since it changes often.

Breakages are very rare, but they can happen.

There was a period of about a week or two in this 'current' cycle (or it might have been last cycle - can't remember now) where a new set of updates were incompatible with the included xfce. xfce users had to stop following current before that update and wait until there were some further updates to xfce that resolved the issue.

Simply put, following 'current' isn't something you can do blindly; you need to read the changelogs and keep an eye on this forum for reports of potential problems before applying updates. Waiting a couple of days before applying any new updates and always having a way to back-out a new set of changes if you encounter problems is also a wise precaution. This is why I don't use slackpkg to follow current.


I guess what you need to ask yourself is why you want to follow current rather than stick with the stable release.

Good points, Gazl and hemp4fuel. Thanks. So, can I just switch to the 14.1 sources and be all set for 14.1 release?

On release day current and 14.1 will be identical, so yes, on release day you can just change the mirror you pull from in slackpkg and it's job done.

Awesome. Thanks for the help and advice