| Slackware 11.0 RC3 available |
Aug. 25, 2006
 Every now and again, someone will loudly proclaim that Slackware is dead. Wrong. While it's not as popular as young whipper-snapper Ubuntu, its long-time competitor the Debians, or the solid SUSE family, Slackware is still alive and well with a healthy user community.
Slackware is also still improving and evolving. Its supporters hope, with some reason, that the forthcoming latest edition, Slackware 11 will gain this oldest of still going Linux distributions new fans.
According to Patrick Volkerding, the distribution's founder and lead developer the third release candidate of Slackware Linux 11.0 is now out.
Volkerding wrote, "Most of the irresistible upgrades are in here now, and the bug reports have been mostly handled. There may still be a few changes, and possibly another release candidate, but this is pretty close to final with the exception of updating documentation and building ZipSlack [a stripped down version of the operating system that's compressed into a ZIP archive]. Thanks very much to everyone who is helping to test these release candidates -- I think this is going to be a very up to date and stable release."
This release features a 2.4.33 Linux kernel, X.Org 6.9.0, a KDE 3.5.4 desktop, and the KOffice 1.5.2 application suite.
The operating system also comes with the 2.6.17.x kernel in the /extra directory. According to Volkerding, "It runs stable by all reports, has better wireless support, and is not going to be stale as soon. In addition, HIGHMEM4G has been enabled." HIGHMEM4G is a way of mapping memory on 32-bit Intel systems so that the kernel can access memory at and above 1GB of RAM.
As has been the case since the last release, Slackware no longer comes with the GNOME interface. GNOME users, however, can add their favorite desktop to Slackware with add-on packages such as Freerock or Dropline.
While these packages only come with installers for Slackware10.2, they will soon be updated for Slackware 11.
In addition, the distribution includes the following applications and updates:- GAIM 1.5 messaging client
- Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 email client
- an upgrade to udev 097
- rebuild of glibc 2.3.6 for both 2.4.33 and 2.6.16.27 kernels
- bootdisks upgraded to Linux 2.4.33 kernel
- alsa-driver-1.0.11_2.4.33-i486-1.tgz upgraded to alsa-driver compiled for Linux 2.4.33
Slackware Linux provides new and experienced users alike with a full-featured system, equipped to serve in any capacity from desktop workstation to machine-room server, according to the project. Web, ftp, and email servers are ready to go out of the box. A full range of development tools, editors, and current libraries is included for users who wish to develop or compile additional software.
Availability
You can now download the latest CD/DVD images from this Slackware site. The new version should be available shortly from the main Slackware site and its mirrors.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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