SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I am considering to abandon Arch and adopt Slackware.
The last thing that is bothering me is that the packages are old.
If I install 14.2, it was released in 2016, all the packages are 4 years old.
I mean like, I can for example update Firefox to the latest version using SlackBuilds.org,
but what about the rest of the packages? I cant go and manually update every package!
I was wandering, what does the Slackware community does about it?
If you are leaving Arch because of the frequent updates... then maybe Slackware is not the right choice for you, as the stable version is not updated frequently and over time will have some old packages as is now the case.
Note: stable packages are only updated for (usually) for security reasons
Last edited by Slax-Dude; 10-28-2020 at 01:04 PM.
Reason: added note
If I install 14.2, it was released in 2016, all the packages are 4 years old.
In every Slackware release you'll find a directory "patches" in the root of the distro tree. In there you'll find a whole lot of packages that were updated since 2016 (mostly to adrress security issues.) For Slackware 14.2, the most recent package update (glibc-zoneinfo) was yesterday, and a new kernel was added a week ago.
I was wandering, what does the Slackware community does about it?
In my younger days I would have switched to -current, as already mentioned.
Nowadays I just want a system that works without hassle. So my work P. C. and home laptop both run Slackware 14.2. I keep on top of patches, and also keep my SlackBuilds.org packages up to date. In practice, this means installing security patches as they're published, and upgrading SBo packages once a week. I also use the kernel config from -current (with a few minor tweaks) to compile my own 5.4.x kernel. If -current switches to the next LTS kernel I'll probably follow suit.
Yes, it kind of bothers me that I'm still running KDE4 and lots of things are old. But my computer works, and that's what counts. Until 15.0 lands I'll keep patiently waiting.
P.S. my work laptop runs Pop!_OS (Ubuntu derivative) (but Plasma5 instead of Gnome, of course) and I have no issue switching back and forth between using Plasma5 on it and KDE4 on my Slackware machines.
But as far as I understand, and please do correct me if I am wrong, -current is less stable.
The main reason I am switching to Slackware is the stability.
But as far as I understand, and please do correct me if I am wrong, -current is less stable.
The main reason I am switching to Slackware is the stability.
In every Slackware release you'll find a directory "patches" in the root of the distro tree. In there you'll find a whole lot of packages that were updated since 2016 (mostly to adrress security issues.) For Slackware 14.2, the most recent package update (glibc-zoneinfo) was yesterday, and a new kernel was added a week ago.
But, and correct me if I am wrong please, this means I have to download an ISO every time I wanna check are there any updates. Right?
But, and correct me if I am wrong please, this means I have to download an ISO every time I wanna check are there any updates. Right?
No need to download any ISO file after you installed Slackware.
Slackware has a package management tool called "slackpkg". You need to configure exactly ONE mirror URL in /etc/slackpkg/mirrors and then this sequence will give you every update that's available for the packages you have installed:
But, and correct me if I am wrong please, this means I have to download an ISO every time I wanna check are there any updates. Right?
You can use the slackpkg tool:
1 - modify the /etc/slackpkg/mirror text file to select a mirror. (just uncomment one)
2 - run these commands (the update gpg is only needed once per mirror) ((the clean-system is optional and will remove anything not in the main tree - you just really need to review and see if there is anything to cleanup or even maybe rebuild as it is possible something underlying it depends on may change))
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.