BSD kernel.

17 new DE's made by Pat himself.

Bazaar development tracked on launchpad.

Custom wallpapers.

Dependency tracking.

Doom 3 included.

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While the Pat's away, the mice will play!

Rolling the rumour mill, things I would not be totally surprised to see amid a flurry of updates.
KDE-4.14.3
Xfce-4.12
kernel from the 3.18 series
PAM builds in /extra
enhancements in package handling
enhancements for virtualisation
introduction of MATE

* Updated core packages

* Thoroughly reviewed applications list resulting in multiple changes to packages, extras and pasture

* Whatever Pat has decided is necessary to maintain Slackware's unique character and usefulness against a rapidly changing Linux landscape

To quote one Dr Frank N. Furter... something about antici... pation.

Shall we do the "Time Warp" again?

Slackware's development process reminds me of that special day of the year when my dad decorated the Christmas tree, and I have come to appreciate the fact that this is part of its charm. On that special day, it was strictly forbidden to take the slightest glimpse behind the living room door, and more often than not, I was exiled in my grandmother's flat to prevent any act of industry espionage. But when I came home and behind doors the scratched record of hungarian Christmas songs began to play and the living room door opened, oh the glory, oh the smile on everybody's face.

I agree with that, if the rumor mill revolves about what is changing or not in Slackware. If the lack of communication instead ends up with people asking about Mr. Volkerdings well being that lack of communication has gone to far. A simple "Don't expect many changes in the near future, we are working on something big" in the Changelog or somewhere else would have steered the rumor mill in the right direction and this thread would be named something like "Which changes might that be?" instead of "Is Patrick OK?".

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Pat does not communicate a lot, and that has not been any different in the past. It's one of the reasons for me to have my blog site, so I can tell about what's going on in Slackware land. Pat may not enjoy the smalltalk or to engage in discussion, but I do.
I think it is OK if people are asking about Pat's health, it shows that they care. But with Pat you'll see that the more you push the more resistance you encounter. Do not expect Pat to make visits all over the place suddenly, because people want to know if he's still feeling well. You'll have to be satisfied with second hand information. That's how it is.

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so Pat's a non-Newtonian liquid

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Exactly. In the past Patrick was ill at one time or another which led to some worry over Slackware's future. Today this may not be the case since Robby and Eric are both in the shared co-pilot seats meaning Slackware's future is safe, but we all still wish Patrick long life, good health, and well being.

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Live long and prosper.

Even if one doesn't like very much to communicate, a simple one-liner in a changelog is not to much to ask for, I would think, but to each its own. I personally think that there is something wrong when people have to speculate about your well being because communication is missing, but if that is the way he wants it than we will have to live with it.

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Patrick is around and helping with even small issues that Noob's (like me) need assistance with. Had note from him in last 48 hours on a prickly kernel/udev issue.

I hope that Slackware continues to lay a path for steering clear of SystemD, keeps the SysV format, Keeps it simple and makes it fun (KISMIF), while continuing to be the easiest Linux in the world to use. Because it is a full distribution with the necessary files to build your own applications from source and not have to worry about dependencies too often. I also would be in favor of a xBSD based Slackware, it shouldn't be too hard to convert to the BSD style, should it, since the file layouts and inits both follow the SysV (remember this is a NOOB writing).

I also hope to continue to see FVWM as a window manager option since its code is being actively updated and improved. Nice to have would be something like FVWM-Crystal or FVWM Nightshade as a entry DE for those who have older hardware and need small memory footprints since even XFCE is no-longer small. I'd also like to see some additional small business based applications, like Claws-mail, GNUCash, Skype, WINE with latest .net support, and Apache OpenOffice (for MS read/write) ability rather than some of the KDE applications which lean too much to FSF ideals, which are not business world realistic. I'm trying to run a small business from my computer and I found all these apps necessary to interact with my clients.

There are my two cents. BrianA in MN

We've received a communication from one of our lead Slackware developers (Eric). There are significant updates coming. I have three -current boxes that will need to be upgraded.

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Excuse me, but the ChangeLog is for recording changes to Slackware. There has been no change in a month, which I do not consider to be an outstanding absence. Anybody who has concerns arising from recent vulnerabilities have recourse:
- if you want the latest Firefox then use the excellent script from ruario
- if you want security patches then use the excellent patches provided by mancha
Official Slackware provides a base, the community helps build the scaffold for the erection of the next tier.

As to communication, anybody following Slackware will be well aware from comments made by the hard working developers such as Alien_Bob, rworkman and drmozes, that there has been a lot happening with close involvement with our BDFL. It has been commented on before that Slackware provides an easier path to the developers than other distros. That Patrick Volkerding allows his work to do the talking for him makes for greater esteem on my part. I do not feel that "I have to live with it", but rather feel grateful to take whatever he wants to give.

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Oh, so it's your fault.

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