Originally Posted by kikinovak

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

Originally Posted by enorbet

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.

Originally Posted by brianL

What's wrong with the traditional and very sensible "release when it's ready"? And as for support: whatever is convenient for PV & the team.

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

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.

Originally Posted by ruario

I hate to do it but I am going to decline. My technical Norwegian is not nearly good enough. I do all my work in English, discuss IT with colleagues in English and always have my OS and applications in English.

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

I understand (and maybe shouldn't have insisted). Anyway your contributions to the Slackers' community are much appreciated. I wish you the best in your new job.

Originally Posted by solarfields

why the sarcasm?

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

It all depends on what the package can support and requires. We do have a few i686 packages too.

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

However, unless Patrick is dropping support unilaterally for i486 processors, which looks unlikely because we'd first see a i586 GCC and glibc package series first, i486 is still the norm.

Originally Posted by Darth Vader

All packages from Slackware support the i586 arch, and works better. Some, spectacular better. Trust me! Like you are seen, I already made an i586 port and I seen how behave an i586 Slackware, almost 10 years ago.