http://www.zenwalk.org/modules/news/...php?storyid=21
enjoy

Just installed the newly released Zenwalk 4, and I must say I LIKEY VERY MUCH.

One of the improvements is the softening of the font displays, looks more like the newer Windows fonts. I really think that this will be better on my eyes. The new netpkg 3.2 seems to just have bugfixes from their 3.0 version. Either way, I like it better than synaptic on Ubuntu because removepkg is completely detached from the netpkg dependencies, so if I want to uninstall something critical, I don't have to uninstall the entire distribution. Speed is definitely among its top priorities, and xfce seems very stable compared to some of the earlier releases. Its compatibility with Slackware is still going strong, and I think this is the primary reason why I'm using Zenwalk. I wanted a more desktop-friendly Slackware. Speaking of which, Zenwalk is capable of playing all media out of the box. That is something that the friendlier "free" distros have been unable to do.

One caveat: upgrading to 4.0 from 3.0 was not painless. By using netpkg to update the system to 4.0, it broke a whole bunch of key functions, bricking the system. Only a complete clean reinstall of 4.0 was able to bring the system back online. The release announcement recommends that a clean install be used by more "casual" users. I think I've been put in my place.


David
11/20

to have better chances to upgrade from 3.0 to 4.0, you can :
init 3
remove everything related to xorg/X11
netpkg netpkg
netpkg xorg
netpkg upgrade

... and cross your fingers

again : it's a "safer way", i didn't think that's the best one, and don't try it if you don't know how to repair a distrib.

One last thing : as ZW takes ~ 15-20 min to reinstall, i think it's faster to reinstall it

I never would believe that I as a SuSE fan would say that but...
Zenwalk 4 if OM?G!!!
I was using zenwalk for my small penguin powered computer since 2.4 but yesterday after installing 4, it felt like a totally new way of using your computer.
From the start I liked the idea of one app per use and it's not really bad 'cause you don't use most of the apps features(except amarok) not to say of the bleeding edge software?(xorg 7.1)

The way the desktop feels...smoooooth..(artists are also open source minded?).

I believe that this distro still have a way to go but if it walks with these steps, soon it will be on the top.

Thanks guys for this awesome distro!

Cheers,

Vangelis

I agree 100.0001%! Zenwalk is THE distro as far as I am concerned! I have been a 'distro slut' for the last few years, changing allegiance at every cover-disc on Linux Format but Zenwalk has changed all that. Do yourself a favour and try it out!

just a quick comment on the following " Speaking of which, Zenwalk is capable of playing all media out of the box. That is something that the friendlier "free" distros have been unable to do."

Slackware 11.0 plays mp3,ogg,wma etc through amarok straight out of the box as well...

regards

adrian

I was referring to the *buntu camp.

Some critics,
as in Zenwalk 3.0 alsaconf didn't find my isa sound card, the same way Zenwalk 4.0 doesn't.
Please include the CS4236 isa sound card module in the kernel by default in your future releases.
On the field of speed it is not faster then VectorLinux(about the same speed), which configured my audio device easily.

there's no isa support at all in the kernel... It's not only your card.

you can search in official forum, i'm pretty sure I saw an unofficial kernel with isa built-in.

Yup. My previous favourite distro is SuSE Linux. I just switched to Zenwalk recently. Totally agree with you!

About to try Zenwalk 4 for the first time. Had ver 3 burned, but found ver 4 now out, so downloading it. Tried others before, including RH8-9 and Suse, but never knew enough to make them work well. The welcome to Windows users article in another section here made me decide to try again.

Hmmm,

I installed 4.0 a few days ago and have been trying to get it working.

I have internet capability, but still no sound, and can't open my external HD.

Someone mentioned alsaconfig? I can't figure out how to run that: I get a 'command not found' in the terminal, and can't find it on a menu. Please show me how to configure sound.

I'm distro shopping because I have never been able to get WINE to work properly in Xubuntu. The repositories for the Debian binaries on winehq aren't working anymore, and I can't get the source to compile. I was hoping Zenwalk would work better for WINE. Since the Windows apps I want to use are music training and production related, sound is crucial.

OTOH, the included "Stormy Seattle" wallpaper is cool and very appropriate for our recent weather patterns.

--Paul in stormy Seattle

The utility is called "alsaconf", not alsaconfig. You must run it as root.

I currently have wine working on my machine, and I didn't have any issues with it. Quite a few Windows apps don't work, but I think that is an issue with wine, not the distro.

-Rob