Should I just switch to Slackware-Current, or will there be a new release coming soon? Last upgrade from 14.0 to 14.1 was in 2013. I haven't even seen an RC v.1 yet.

I know you are busy. Sorry to bug you about this. I just don't want to think the unthinkable: that you retire as Linux OS Master, and Slackware dies with your retirement. Hoping that you keep the faith.

Sincerely,

Charles Broam
Loyal Slackware end-user since zipslack.

PS. Please, don't force us to use systemd.

Patience! We had a huge amount of updates in Slackware-current a month ago. Development is ongoing. It will be ready, when it is ready. No one will force you to use systemd(that is a bit of a red herring). Slackware 14.2 will be amazing.

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Slackware's bsd init, more than likely, is here to stay. The only complete alternative at the moment is Aaditya's OpenRC package. Fear not good fellow. Patrick may be our dictator, but he is benevolent and wise. Praise be to Bob...

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It looks like it will take longer than usual, but that's fine, I'm sure there is a reason for it, which seems to be lots of package major version upgrades.

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I'll be happy with amazingly similar. I love that about Slackware: no sudden & devastating changes. That (and that programs/applications really have little to no alterations from the original sources) is the reason I keep using Slackware -- year after year.

Patience.... I know. gotta have patience.

I switched from Debian to Slackware because I was unhappy with systemd, the massive dependency chain of .deb packages, the fact that Slackware's community and documentation are so inviting.

Happy to hear some assuring information that Slackware will remain as it is and that active development is under way.

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Many of us also maintain our own packages for various purposes and have worked on providing alternatives to certain packages of "that-which-shall-not-be-named" by "he-who-shall-not-be-named".

Slackware is like a good woman. You treat her right, and she stays with you forever.

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Good point. Slackware does not change a lot between versions. There are steady incremental changes. I am loving Xfce 4.12 in -current. ☺

Unless you have a compelling reason to switch from a stable release to our development release (some software requires library versions that are not part of the stable release for instance), I would just advise you to stick with your installed stable release.

That is not a reason to start worrying,
Slackware releases are always done "when ready". There is no dogma that there must be a new release every year.
With the increasing complexity of all the software components which make up a Linux distro, it is only natural that it takes longer between every release to be "ready for release" again.

Rumours of Slackware's demise are greatly exaggerated.

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Same here. Stability of Slackware is not only about lack of runtime hick-ups, but also about long-term reliability, trust and faith in the way it is being carried into the future. It is conservative in the best sense of the word, but at the same time it is up-to-date and keeps easily pace with developments in the Linux cosmos. It is very well-balanced.
Add a core development team and a community that are both helpful and very patient with the rest of us, and equipped with a good sense of humor, as opposed to fanatic, find out about easy installation, package management and administration, and there you are: At home at Slackware.

gargamel

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Extremely exaggerated...

We probably have enough community contributed packages and scripts scattered across hundreds of FTPs, gits, svns, cvses, rsyncs, etc. to keep Slackware going for years to come, maybe even forever, as long as their is a Linux kernel and a GNU userland.

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Hmmm... This statement reminds me the parable of Hora and Tempus in Sciences of the Artificial from Herbert A. Simon.

It doesn't suffice to have the parts, someone has to make them fit together.

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That's why we're downloading Patrick's brain into a 64 core Opteron server with 1 zetabyte of storage space and 1024 GB of DDR4 RAM.

This will be merged into the Slackware powered Patrick-bot/borg eventually as technology gets smaller. And yes, it will run on beer.

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That reminds me of something...

But the biggest question is: Will it blend?

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Only if we classify it as a light truck.