New Laptop Arriving Thursday ... Current or 14.1 ?
 

All --

Looking for opinions ...

I've got a new Laptop ( Sager NP9778-S ) arriving Thursday.

This is my primary ( one-and-only ) Work Machine so I need to be a tad conservative.

Q: Slackware-Current or Slackware 14.1 ?

I am leaning toward -Current because of the Wireless Board ( Killer N1535 ) and based on my preliminary rsearch, because the 3.10.x Kernels ( ala Slackware-14.1 ) have had issues with Killer's Atheros Chipset where networking issues seem to have been solved in Linux 4.1.x ( Slackware-Current ).

I've got -Current running in a VMWare Machine on my working 13.37 Laptop -- it seems stable and everything works but the hardware on my older 2011-era Box ( Sager NP7280-S1 ) is well-supported so MMWV.

I don't do or need anything fancy ...

I write and compile software, run VMWare for a Win7 VM to read Outlook Mail and to compile WinDOS versions of the programs I write for work and to play with Slackware Current as a VM.

I do know from experience that if and when I do install 14.1, that -Current will be released soon after -- seems to happen with each new machine I build <G>

Thanks in advance !

-- kjh

With the Skylake CPU you should go for -current with the latest kernel. You may run into issues with the combination of Skylake and Nvidia GPU, until Intel releases a microcode update that fixes those issues. In the meantime, if you run into issues it helps to recompile glibc without --enable-lock-elision.

-Current definitely. Your hardware is fairly new, so expect some issues, but do stay on top of updates regularly.

Also, to be safe, I would definitely consider creating an NTFS user data partition that you could share with a dual-booted system you could mount in the Windows \users\<your name here> directory and the Slackware /home/<your name here> directory so that if one OS has any issues you can fallback to another as needed, and keep data intact.

I'm running Slackware64-current on several boxes and I find it to be very stable. With a new machine I would go with -current.

+1 current, otherwise you will have compatibility issues I think

-current. Installing a Linux distribution that's older than your hardware isn't usually a good idea.

Oh, well in that case, please do us all a favor and install 14.1.

Thanks to all who replied, especially TobiSGD's hint about recompiling glibc without --enable-lock-elision

Slackware64-current it is !

-- kjh

Wow ... that's a monster !

sagernotebook.com/Gaming-Notebook-NP9778-S.html

Yes (<G> drool drool <G>), it is pretty well decked-out.

My only reservation is that my working NP7280-S1 has an Intel I7 X980 Extreme ( 6-Cores / 12 Threads ) while new the NP9778-S1 has an I7 6700K with 4-cores / 8-threads.

I imagine VMWare will see the difference when I've got two VMs running along with my daily workload on KDE + Slackware64 Current.

In addition, based on my past experiences, it'll be a few weeks to have it fully working hardware-wise -- New HW has always been a 'learning experience'.

Until it is fully working, there will be two such monsters side-by-side on my desk -- the new one and my working Sager NP7280-S1 -- usually connected via 'Thumb Net' ( Thumb Drive in / Thumb Drive out ).

On the upside, everything else is an upgrade and so far I've always been able to make the Sager HW work under Slackware and I'll relearn Linux HW Configs until my next upgrade <G>

-- kjh(<G> guess I need to clean my desk <G>)

True, but the 6700K DESTROYS the old 980X in a thread-by-thread comparison. Each core is simply so much more powerful in these newer processors that even though the 6700K has only 66% the core count of the 980X, it'll still be a fair amount faster in everything, while consuming significantly less power.

Thanks Timothy !

My experiences with VMWare Workstations and ESXi Servers is that VMWare needs a non-linear, variable amount of ( CPU Core + RAM ) for the Host and then as you add VM Guests you'll eventually run out of Resources ( CPU Core or RAM ).

At that point, things fall off the table all at once when the VM Host is finally resource-starved because the greedy SysAdmin has activated one-too-many Guests on the Host <G>

I've never starved VMWare for Resources on the 980X so I am hoping the improvements in the 6700K and/or my measly two VM Guests with one-Core each will compensate for fewer Cores.

Only first-hand testing will tell <G>

-- kjh

Just for comparison even though it's different processors, I had a laptop that had an i7-740QM (quad core hyperthreaded) and my laptop that had a i5-3360M (dual core hyperthreaded, so HALF the total thread count) was easily 40% faster overall. Even in programs that weren't so demanding of IPC and could take advantage of more simulataneous threads were only 10-20% faster on the 740QM, while programs that were all about IPC were sometimes as much as twice as fast on the newer 3360M. Now, your 980X will be much closer due to the simple fact that the 980x was in a totally different tier to the 740QM, but just wanted to illustrate the GIGANTIC improvements Intel made to their processors between the first and second generation Core-iX.

and EXPENSIVE !

Good Info Timothy.

Thank you !

The new Laptop just arrived !

Wow ! It seems light as a feather with two PCIe Drives and two SSD Drives compared to my old NP7280-S1 with three Hitachi 1TB Drives <G>.

It booted into Windows 10 PDQ but I'll be blowing that away as soon as I read up on Slackware and UEFI Installs.

Speaking of evolving CPU performance ...

I've been shipping late-model Intel Celeron, Pentium, I3, I5, I7 Linux Appliances to our Customers for a few years.

Mostly Zotac ZBoxen but also a few Intel NUC Boxes too -- all running CentOS on Hitachi EA Laptop Drives.

The overall improvement in throughput has been very impressive over the years !

Especially factoring in SATA III vs SATA II, faster RAM and as you said, the fact that the newer generation CPUs blow the old ones out of the water as far as real throughput goes.

As for the new box, I imagine everything will be fine with 4-cores and VMWare ... it felt like the only area where the new machine specs fell below the old specs ( i.e. a simple count of cores, not necessarily CPU performance ).

I am CERTAIN the new machine will blow my old one away on the Linux-Only side and I don't anticipate problems with VMWare either.

And if I do, where there's a will, there's a workaround <G>

-- kjh

Boy Howdy Is It !

Especially with the options I chose, but it's how I make my living.

I use it as a Mobile Server so it's all relative, I guess.

I did ponder getting a ( much ) less expensive but more capable Server-Class Machine to sit in my lab and then learn to use a Chromebook for mobile access.

I almost went that route but I still travel places with limited / no internet access so I thought I needed 'one more monster laptop'.

Maybe next time though ...

-- kjh