A question that has probably been asked, but what if I just want to stay on 14.2 because I have everything set up the way I like instead of upgrading when 15 comes out. Would this be a terrible idea?

Cheers,

To me it makes perfect sense to do so as long as the release you use is still supported and getting security updates.

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It's quite normal for people not to upgrade if they don't need to. Think of all the people who are still hanging on to Windows 7, and will do so right up until EOL. If 14.2 is working for you, just keep it and only start considering upgrading when the 14.x series EOL is announced.

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I upgraded my home server from Slackware 13.37 to 14.2 only a few months ago. If a Slackware release does everything you need, and it's still getting security updates, it's completely OK to stick with it.

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One reason not to wait too long to upgrade is that the changes will be larger, and it potentially could take longer to migrate all your configurations and such. But there's certainly nothing wrong with keeping an old version installed, as long as it is not EOL.

There is always risk when upgrading software. If the OS you have installed meets all of your requirements, why incur any risk by upgrading it?

Some of my newer systems are running 14.2, but the laptop I'm typing this on now is still running 14.1, and it's doing fine. I just retired a 13.1 server last year.

14.2 seems solid, so I expect it will enjoy longevity long after 15.0 is released.

Awesome, good info here. Thanks to all.

Cheers,

If you have enough room on your drive, consider installing 15.0 alongside 14.2.

Based on history, you should have lots of time to migrate files, get comfortable with the next release and set it up as you like it, long before 14.2 goes EOL.

TKS

Boy, I hope not

I leave Slackware at whatever version I installed when my System was new.

So my work LapTop is on Slackware 14.2 + MultiLib + the Nvidia Blob.

I keep up with Pat's Security Upgrades and I do update the Kernels frequently, mostly because of the Spectacular Meltdown Bugs but that's it.

This Laptop went into Production on Feb 8, 2018 with 14.2 Beta-2 which became 14.2 on Thu Jun 30 20:26:57 UTC 2016 and I'll run 14.2 until the hardware goes unreliable.

-- kjh

I will be doing the same. Win 7 + Slackware 14.2/MLED dual-boot. Perfect combination. I don't see the need to upgrade either OS.

I prefer this method. I like clean fresh installs more than upgrades (exclusive of security updates, nvidia drivers, and much more rarely, kernel upgrades) and I like having a template I can actually go back to.

Not a problem at all. One of my servers is still running 14.0. Technically at this point it's a bit of a hybrid beast, since it's running kernel 4.4 from 14.2 (as 3.2 was EOL'd last year) as well as some additions such as dovecot and postfix, built from Slackbuilds.org.

I anticipate I will upgrade to 15.0 when it is released, as it has pretty much incorporated most of my self-built software, so that will take some of the burden off in terms of self-maintaining.

As an aside: I've always felt that Slackware is one of the best distros of all time in terms of upgradeability. It's just been completely rock-solid for me. That above-mentioned server was upgraded from 13.0, to 13.1, to 13.37, to 14.0 without issue. 'slackpkg --install-new' is a great feature, since it allows you to upgrade without that FOMO on new additions to the distribution. It gives me that feeling that I'm upgrading the distribution and not just all of my packages, as I often feel in Debian, for example, when I ran an 'apt-get dist-upgrade'.

It depends on what you are using it for. If this is a desktop you may want the latest. If it is a mission critical server you may want to wait but keep in mind the releases tend to have close EOLs for their point releases in the last 10 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackware

As Eric stated there's nothing wrong with staying on 14.2 as long as you patch it with security updates. At some point Pat will no longer provide security patches for 14.2, but, I suspect 14.2 will receive updates for a good long while.

It does leave you vulnerable to security issues that may get "silently fixed" in later upstream releases, or those that just don't get backported: either because it's not practical to do so or because upstream just don't care about maintaining older versions. And both of those situations happen from time to time.

Whether any of that matters depends on how much of an attack surface you present to the outside world.

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