Some good news this weekend for fans of the world oldest maintained GNU/Linux distribution, Slackware. Despite some persistent rumors earlier in the year about its demise, Slackware has just officially announced their version 14.0 release.
Slackware 14.0
Slackware 14.0 comes nearly 18 months after the previous release, Slackware 13.37. The numerically astute among our readers will probably realize that Slackware releases tend to skip many intermediary numbers, though obviously every release is numerically higher than the last.
The major changes for this version of Slackware is the move to the 3.x Linux kernel branch (specifically, 3.2.29), updates to both of its primary desktop environments (KDE and XFCE) as well as a bump up to X11R7.7, plus some entirely new features and packages such as NetworkManager and the Clang compiler.
As always, despite the laundry list of new and improved packages, Slackware remains true to its core as one of the most UNIX-like and “vanilla” of the GNU/Linux distros, giving you an experience that is as close as possible (for better or worse) to what the original developers intended.
We’ve brought together the best of these and other modern components and worked our magic on them. You’ll find new compilers (including the LLVM/clang compiler that’s becoming a popular alternative to gcc), development tools, libraries, and applications throughout, all prepared with our careful and rigourous testing. If you’ve used Slackware before, you’ll find the system feels like home.
Getting Slack
If you want to give Slackware a shot, now is as good a time as any. You can get Slackware 14.0 in 32 or 64 bit versions from the Slackware Mirrors site or one of the available torrents.
You can also head over to the Slackware Store, where you can purchase boxed editions of Slackware releases in DVD and CD forms, as well as shirts and other Slackware merchandise. All proceeds from the Slackware store go right back into development, so it’s an excellent way to help the Slackware team keep things going smoothly.
