Next Slackware Release? (>13.37)
 

It has been 8 about months since the release of 13.37 AND the Slackware Changelog would normally, by now, be a bevy of activity as new packages are upgraded & rebuilt. But, there is very little going on there.

Does anyone have any info or comments?

When the time is right it will be released.

Kind regards

Hi,

Wow!

Wanting a new release already. :)

As it has been said many times before: It will be released when PV & Team have it ready. Patience.
:hattip:

I just worry a lot. I have about 17 years dedicated to Slackware. I want to see it live another 50 years or more. The alternatives (deb, redhat, etc) terrify me.

13.37 is flawless; no problems whatsoever!

OK, I'll be patient.

It has been 7 months not 8. In some ways it has been nice that little has
changed. This has been the closest I've come to staying with a "stable"
release in years.
:)

Hi,

Actually 7 mo 2 days 18 hours 11 min CST.
:)

I can wait. No concerns now, whatsoever. I just had a fear (based on the near empty changelog) that, maybe, Slackware was dying. Nothing else in the Linux world has the elegance & simplicity of Slackware!

And, yes, it is nice that things may finally be stabilizing in the Linux world (except for a "gazillion" GUI aps I will never need.)

Hi,

You really cannot always rely on the changelog for reliance factor to gauge state. Sometimes changes upstream take a while to settle before PV & team will consider changes or adaptation. Things will eventually start to change when new things start to get pounded by testers.
:hattip:

Very true, man! Well-said. :)
The next stable release of Slackware will arrive when PV determines that it is ready. All is well.

I am greatly relieved! Sometimes, I think my life depends on Slackware existing forever.

Get a girlfriend, amigo.

The only one who can say 'All is well' is Pat. The rest of us just have to sit tight and wait.

If I'd been doing this as long as Pat I know I'd have to take a step back from time to time to reclaim my mojo! Perhaps this is such a time, and perhaps one day he may decide that his mojo lies elsewhere. It'll be a sad day, but you can't expect him to do this forever. One needs to be prepared for such an eventuality however unwelcome.


Just to be clear, I'm just stating the obvious. I have no inside information and am not claiming that this is what is actually happening now.

Slackware is my girlfriend, my true soulmate.

I have no inside information either. I think a lull in development in itself is not something to be overly alarmed about. Some release cycles take longer than others.

If or when PV "moves on", who will take the helm of Slackware?

I'm sure that there are people willing. Many already help with development and testing.

Indeed, who needs a gf when you have Slackware. It's all that I need ... plus a good computer to run it on.

I can only speculate, but we know the upcoming changes in KDE (and maybe even in XFCE) will cause some upheavel in the rest of the system. So they are probably testing like crazy behind the scenes but not satisfied enough to push it out. ;)

Repeat this 1000 times:
It will be released when it's ready.

Ok, here is the second time:

It will be released when it's ready.



Next!


:D

Actually (but don't spread it around), from the beginning of April next year, there will be a new release every month. This is to get one up on Ubuntu & Fedora. And the releases will be given alliterative animal names, but with 3 parts. The first one will be Awfully Ambiguous Aardvaark. The stable(?) release will be renamed -current, and the -current renamed -OMGifthisworksitwillbeamiracle!

Sorry guys, it's urgent. Does anyone know when the next Slackware release is going to be out?


.... just kidding:)

Are we there yet?

I feel a strong smell of Linux-PAM, from Patrick's kitchen ... ;)

Unfortunately, Linux-PAM boil hard, so we have to wait. :)

PAM? Is that su's sister?

Nah. Is that SHADOW's ugly brother.

Actually, it's Kate's sister-in-law who is into LaTeX

I have read somewhere that Patrick dislikes PAM. However, I guess developers can change their minds with the time.

Is there any reason to think that PAM is being cooked, or it is just speculation?

By the way, I don't feel I need another Slackware by the moment. For me, Patrick can take three years to release the following version, if he wants. I prefer a slow but reliable release cycle than a rushed but unstable product. The main reason I use Slackware right now is that I got fed up with distributions of the second category.

Mmm, my kind of woman! Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!

Praise Bob! :)

Yeah, I've been surprised by the timing of the past three releases. All seems to be going well and suddenly *wham* a new release is out already! It's kinda like Linus and his release of the 3.0 kernel. It just happens.

I get impatient for new features, but that's why I run current. That way, when the new release comes out, I'll already be there!

I plan on staying with 13.37 for a while too.

Slack --current's kernel now breaks abi w.r.t firewire. I lose building a few key apps that I need/use regularly. It's not Slack's fault, btw it's supposedly progress in the kernel, but gives me breakage :(

True bromance. Love at first sight. <3

Patrick, will you hold me?

My take on the entire next release status version of Slackware is this...

New versions of Slackware get released almost a year from the last one, so consider by then that whatever Patrick is cooking up between -current and his own private development will be good. Yes additions to -current are not as speedy as we would like them to be, but I'm guessing that Patrick wants to see some stability and finalization come from certain projects rather than push out a release with buggy software, as well as maybe see if the distribution can be trimmed down somewhat.

As far as Patrick leaving... rest assured if this does happen, the project is in capable hands and more than likely whoever the chosen successor to the throne of Slackware is, they will, and are, going to be sticking to the philosophy of what Slackware is. Minimal, stable, and easy to use.

However Patrick may very well stay with Slackware for a long long time to come.

Slackware was the first Linux I successfully installed as a newbie back in 1998.
But I ended up going with Debian for the following 10 years. The reason for this was twofold.
Firstly, Debian is built by "the many". I figured it's longevity was more assured than Slackware's,
and I'd always be able to depend on it. Secondly, Slackware seemed a bit scary to my newbie self.
But it had a feel to it that I never forgot. Sounds silly, but I describe it as the feeling of a
favorite pair of jeans. Just... right.
Back then, I didn't want to invest in something that might just "go away" given that it depends on
one guy. I replaced Debian with Slackware when 13.0 came out. I just couldn't take the weighty insanity
of Debian any more when it used to be so lean and hackerly.
I'm back on Slackware for good now, come what may. Even if Patrick deems it
necessary to include PAM, well, I'll just "close my eyes and think of England"...

Bless The Man and His changelog. Bless the coming and the going of Him. May his passing cleanse the community. May He keep the Slack for his people.

BTW, 13.37 is IMHO perfection, and "the next release" is the furthest thing from my mind.

Yeah, me too. I currently run 3 Slackware 13.37 boxen and one -current box.
Slackware forever! :)

Slackware releases/patches - how to pick good versions of packages
 

What I would like to know is how the Slackware team picks the "right" version of each package goes into a release / patches.

As I see it, unlike a rolling release distro ,
Slackware does not always about choosing the latest stable upstream version. Sometimes, selective patches are selectively incorporated too.

It seems that, although every upstream release is labelled "stable", not all "stable" releases are equal. And the latest is not necessary the best.

So, what goes into picking the right version?



eg. the choice of kernel version (disclaimer - incomplete survey)

Slackware Changelogs:
Mon Apr 25 13:37:00 UTC 2011
Slackware 13.37 x86 stable is released!

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...urrent-871456/
- this issue was discussed

http://lwn.net/Articles/435667/
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2011 15:59:14 -0700
I'm announcing the release of the 2.6.37.6 kernel.
All users of the 2.6.37 kernel series must upgrade.
No, scrap that, they should move to the 2.6.38 kernel series as the .37
series is now end-of-life and will get no more updates.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=69798
Posted: Mon 11 Jul 2011
... The kernel is recompiled 2.6.37.6, seems the best one to me for this pup, and that has nothing to do with Slackware's choice. I tried 2.6.39.2, too many modules failed to compile,

I suspect they just listen to the prevailing mood of the jungle drums, and choose accordingly.

:)

They also choose what's been the most stable. XFce 4.8 probably could have been added a long time ago, but it isn't as stable as 4.6 is. 4.8 works nice, but it's not proven itself to be 100% trustworthy.

Yep. There is a reason our distro has legendary stability and security. Mr. Volkerding adds new applications into the stable branch when they meet his litmus test for stability, security, and functionality. I know that when I install a new stable version of Slackware that everything will work as expected, there are no surprises as all applications have been thoroughly vetted.

It's like the Chuck Norris of Linux distributions.

Another little known and unbelievable fact about Chuck Norris

Uh.... I'm speechless. It's his most stunning accomplishment yet.


Inventing ground hamburger meat by throwing a cow into a chain link fence is nothing in comparison.

Yes... we all remember what happened the last time Slackware had a bad piece of software.

Chuck Norris had Samba crash and he punched his PC. Service across the internet was disrupted for at least 15 minutes, Patrick's workstation suffered meltdown, and the Slackware website almost went offline. We were never told what was in that email Chuck sent Patrick, but Patrick was as white as a ghost soaked in bleach after he read it.

Nah, I don't believe it. "Bob" would never let that happen.

Amen. Praise Bob! :)

I agree.

I suspect that some of those so-called "facts" about Ch. N. are just a pure fabrication.

Because replies of this topic became generally offtop, I propose to rewrite a bit question:
What is cooking in Slackware's kitchen now?
I mean, is there any huge or little projects in testing by Pat & Co? If we shall know that will shall be able to assume more or less precisely when it could be done and so when next "ready" state can be achieved.

When this was asked in the "Current seems a bit slow" thread we had a while ago, Eric popped up and said there wasn't anything cooking and we shouldn't expect any big-bang of updates. That was part of what lead me to conclude that Pat was just taking it easy while he has the chance. (complete supposition on my part)