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The "problem" (not really, depending on how you look at it) is that slackware-current has become more like a rolling release than a pre-release. At what arbitrary cut off point does it become Slackware 15? When would it ever be "done"? Tomorrow, next year, after some milestone like switching from KDE 4.x to KDE Plasma 5.x in the distro?
We're getting incremental updates for things in slackware-current.
It's actually a damned nice rolling release distro :-)
Last edited by TheRealGrogan; 09-18-2019 at 05:12 PM.
Distribution: Slackware/Salix while testing others
Posts: 1,718
Rep:
10 June 2014
That was the release date for CentOS 7. PV is 2 years ahead of the stable game.
14.2 is working just fine here, I prefer stable branch, unfortunately I use a few too many Slackbuilds so -current is not always Slack enough for me. Stable is the perfect sweet spot.
Distribution: Slackware/Salix while testing others
Posts: 1,718
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRealGrogan
The "problem" (not really, depending on how you look at it) is that slackware-current has become more like a rolling release than a pre-release. At what arbitrary cut off point does it become Slackware 15? When would it ever be "done"? Tomorrow, next year, after some milestone like switching from KDE 4.x to KDE Plasma 5.x in the distro?
We're getting incremental updates for things in slackware-current.
When PV decides that it is bulletproof. Can you imagine Dupont-Kevlar releasing a new vest that they are "sorta certain, pretty sure, crossing our fingers that it will be bulletproof". This isn't RedHat or *buntu you know.
Well, this is not the way slackware-current used to roll (and as you know, I'm not criticizing... quite the opposite)
It's really pretty sane, not like other "rolling release" type distributions IF you consider it in that light.
The reason I want a release is because at that point I'm going to stop updating and go off on my own, recompiling significant parts of the distro, and from then on upgrading stuff from source as I see fit. That's the way I've always done Slackware... this is the longest (~ 5 months) I've ever kept up with even slackware-current before that happens, but I'm keeping any installed distro packages in sync until that day. I'd like that, but I'm good with the way -current has been going until then.
I'm fine with 14.2 for my use cases, the kernel is what bothers me a little and I'm planning to switch to 5.3 and maintain it on my own. Speaking of kernels, a topic that was extensively discussed in several threads after GKH published: http://kroah.com/log/blog/2018/08/24...-should-i-use/
I believe I'll start using the latest stable and break the "tradition" to consider & use only the LTS releases. The kernel code looks pretty stable these days (past years), it's been a while since I experienced (& heard about) kernel stability issues.
This is my approach as well. Do you have any 5.x.x kernel configs or do you use 4.19.xx?
People want some new release as stable ,cause current some times break third party packages, thats okey , is current ... some of this 3rthd party packages are impossible to install under 14.2 , cause some libraries start to go obsolete , like gtk3 , some apps , want more gtk stack up version , or glib , or other part of this gnome things.
People under 14.2 trying install some new apps , or versions , CANT , casue 14.2 only receive CVE FIXES , i want a CVE UNDER GTK3 , to force updates...hahaha.
For me , this cycle ,is turned ·slack-turtle , more than one year requesting qt5 , to start migration to plasma , or at least supporting all apps migrated qt4--> qt5 , but no ...1 year not sufficient , same like python2/python3 things.
YES , im angry with this development cycle , ready when ready ..ok ... 200 years later ... ready when ready ..ok ... patrick junior 3 , when ready is ready ... end of humanity , no new slackware after 14.2.
And for this people, saying me , a ,, but we have now some new libs/apps , like ffmpeg , ..python3 .. or others ..YES , BUT NOT CAUSE WANTED, THATS THINGS ARE UNDER CURRENT CAUSE OTHER PACKAGES FORCED TO ADD , ITS NOT THE SAME THING , add to make better , than add..to make possible other updates , by forced.
Hey folks , i era , no like pulse, i make some parallel packages only ALSA ,... OK FOLKS , OK ..but cant add qt5 ... ok folks ,..ok.
Last edited by USUARIONUEVO; 09-18-2019 at 06:50 PM.
This is my approach as well. Do you have any 5.x.x kernel configs or do you use 4.19.xx?
Sorry, I waited for 5.3 to be released (happened a few days ago) and haven't got time to play with it yet. Planning to study it during the weekend, there are a few new things I like to explore and experiment with (learn), mentioned them here: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6030774
Will maybe start with the default Slackware 4.19 config as inspiration (diff) and then enable the extra new stuff if it's not already enabled by default. I'll post the config in the more appropriate "The Latest Kernel Release" thread.
Sorry, I waited for 5.3 to be released (happened a few days ago) and haven't got time to play with it yet. Planning to study it during the weekend, there are a few new things I like to explore and experiment with (learn), mentioned them here: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ml#post6030774
Will maybe start with the default Slackware 4.19 config as inspiration (diff) and then enable the extra new stuff if it's not already enabled by default. I'll post the config in the more appropriate "The Latest Kernel Release" thread.
I'm using 4.19.73 and its pretty stable. I got the configs from the official site. My 14.2 is solid as a rock.
FWIW The Meson slackbuild for 14.2 at Slackbuids.org is the exact same version as for Current. Ninja is a minor upgrade for 14.2 on Current but it does work so why are you complaining again?
And my bet is, it will never come out. Why? Because the releases stopped, and everyone's still here. So the question is what's the benefit of a release? Everyone's just using -current. If that was a problem they'd have deserted.
As others have noted, -current is not always an option. I use it only on my work computer, where 14.2 does not have video drivers, but -current does. Given the amount of additional software I install, I simply cannot continuously keep track with the latest -current updates. So, I just install -current, configure, install everything I need and that's it. After a year, I did a clear install of -current of that time. Repeat.
Also, as a maintainer at SBo, I am not willing to maintain scripts for a rolling release distribution. Ponce is doing a fantastic ob, but even he cannot fix everything.
And my bet is, it will never come out. Why? Because the releases stopped, and everyone's still here. So the question is what's the benefit of a release? Everyone's just using -current. If that was a problem they'd have deserted.
I always used stable on my desktop. Since a few months, I switched to current because 14.2 is too old for me.
But on my servers (web, mail…) I will never use current so I'm still with 14.2. Because some important apps are unsupported anymore (php-5.6, python-2.7), I just upgrade them (python3 is available on SBo, php is easy to upgrade).
Openssl 1.0.2 will be unsupported in december, 31 2019. I'm pretty sure 15.0 will not be released before but I can be wrong. Openssl is more difficult to upgrade to a major new version. Because I consider it's a problem to have the latest stable slackware with an unsupported openssl, I created openssl11 (1.1.1d) SlackBuild based on Pat's openssl10 to have openssl-1.0.2 as main openssl, and openssl-1.1.1 as alternative. I tried to rebuilt some apps against and it works fine.
Because english is not my first language, I hope I don't offense anyone. I always be really happy with slackware. If I love slackware it's because of stability and because I can tweak it like I want very easily just like I do with openssl11.
As others have noted, -current is not always an option. I use it only on my work computer, where 14.2 does not have video drivers, but -current does. Given the amount of additional software I install, I simply cannot continuously keep track with the latest -current updates. So, I just install -current, configure, install everything I need and that's it. After a year, I did a clear install of -current of that time. Repeat.
Also, as a maintainer at SBo, I am not willing to maintain scripts for a rolling release distribution. Ponce is doing a fantastic ob, but even he cannot fix everything.
Yes, I've done this too. I'm not arguing that there should be no release of slackware 15.0. I'm just being pragmatic. There is no indication of when the release will be ready, what blockers there are on it, what's not working that needs fixing, what needs testing off. Is there even a test plan? :-). The fact that Patrick doesn't participate in such threads to say something like "Hey guys, instead of bitching can someone please test the kernel on a XXX motherboard, or with NVidia YYY card" or whatever says to me that he has no intention of releasing anything soon.
I'm not complaining about the new 'effective' release process, because the Slackware team have a habit of making everything work. It's astounding that with so few people things work incredibly well. I guess it helps with the KISS principle that's applied here.
The only problem with this new setup, is that it's a disaster for new users because they first go to SBo, and there's no specific indication of what to do if they are using -current, many packages don't work, and they have to go through some effort to find the Ponce stuff. There should be a link on the landing page to tell people what to do. Which package manager they might want to use, etc...
Similarly with the Slackware homepage. How hard would it be to stick something up there, saying something like "If you have recent hardware, need newer drivers, please go to location <blah> to download the -current ISO while we prepare for the 15.0 release, get your package updates from <blah>. But there is little guidance.
The only problem with this new setup, is that it's a disaster for new users because they first go to SBo, and there's no specific indication of what to do if they are using -current, many packages don't work, and they have to go through some effort to find the Ponce stuff. There should be a link on the landing page to tell people what to do. Which package manager they might want to use, etc...
IMHO new users shouldn't use current at all but, anyway, no pain no gain.
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