Slackware 10.1 Released

After Patrick J. Volkerding recover from his mysterious ill early this year, he started to work on Slackware and here is the result : Slackware Linux 10.1, the latest version of Slackware. Here is the official announcement :

Announcing Slackware Linux 10.1!

The first Slackware release of 2005, Slackware Linux 10.1 continues
the long Slackware tradition of simplicity, stability, and security.

Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you'll
find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today:
Xfce 4.2.0, a fast and lightweight but visually appealing and easy
to use desktop environment, and KDE 3.3.2, the latest version of the
award-winning K Desktop Environment. GNOME 2.6.1 with several
upgrades and bug fixes compared with Slackware 10.0 is also included.

Slackware uses the 2.4.29 kernel bringing you advanced performance
features such as the ReiserFS journaling filesystem, SCSI and ATA RAID
volume support, SATA support, and kernel support for X DRI (the Direct
Rendering Interface) that brings high-speed hardware accelerated 3D
graphics to Linux. Additional kernels allow installing Slackware
using any of the journaling filesystems available for Linux, including
ext3, ReiserFS, IBM's JFS, and SGI's XFS. For those Slackware users
who are anxious to try the new 2.6.x kernel series, it is fully
supported by the system. A precompiled Linux 2.6.10 kernel, modules,
and source code are provided (along with complete instructions on how
to install the new kernel).

From the beginning, Slackware has offered a stable and secure Linux
distribution for UNIX veterans as well as an easy-to-use system for
beginners. Slackware includes everything you'll need to run a
powerful server or workstation. Each Slackware package follows the
setup and installation instructions from its author(s) as closely as
possible, offering you the most stable and easily expandable setup.

Here are some of the advanced features of Slackware 10.1:

- Runs the 2.4.29 version of the Linux kernel from ftp.kernel.org.
Special kernels were prepared to support hardware such as SCSI
controllers, SATA controllers, USB keyboards and mice, parallel-port
IDE devices, IBM PS/2 machines with the Microchannel bus, and even
speech synthesizers providing access to Linux for the visually
impaired community. The performance of the 2.4.x kernel series
along with Slackware's track record of careful attention to system
security make it the perfect choice for running your production
servers.

- As an alternate choice, Slackware 10.1 includes Linux 2.6.10
source, kernel modules, and binary packages, along with the
mkinitrd tool and instructions on using it to install the
new kernel (see /boot/README.initrd). When running a 2.6
kernel, Slackware supports udev. This is a system for
creating devices in /dev dynamically, greatly reducing device
clutter and making it easy to see what devices are actually
present in the system.

- System binaries are linked with the GNU C Library, version 2.3.4.
This version of glibc also has excellent compatibility with
existing binaries.

- X11R6.8.1
This is the current release of the X.Org Foundation's X Window
System. The 6.8.1 version is a new release that includes
additional hardware support, functional enhancements and bug fixes.
Font rendering is improved yet again with recent versions of
fontconfig and freetype. Through the generosity of Bitstream,
Inc., the Vera truetype font family is included as well providing
pleasing default fonts out of the box.

- Major enhancements to the printing system include new versions
of CUPS (1.1.23) and LPRng (3.8.28). Two IJS servers (printer
driver suites for Ghostscript) are available in this release:
HPIJS, which supports more than 230 HP Inkjet printer models
(compared with 200 supported in Slackware 10.0), and Gimp-Print,
offering support for hundreds of printers from Canon, Lexmark,
HP, Epson, and other manufacturers.

- Installs gcc-3.3.4 as the default C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran-77,
and Ada 95 compiler. gcc-3.4.3 is available as an alternate choice.

- Support for fully encrypted network connections with OpenSSL,
OpenSSH, and GnuPG.

- Apache 1.3.33 web server with Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) support,
SSL, and PHP.

- PCMCIA, CardBus, and APM support for laptops. (pcmcia-cs-3.2.8).
Slackware also now includes hotplug support. This locates and
configures most hardware automatically as it is added (or removed)
from the system. It also loads the kernel modules required by
sound cards and other hardware at boot time.

- New development tools, including Perl 5.8.6, Python 2.4, and
graphical tools like Qt designer, KDevelop, and Glade.

- Updated versions of the Slackware package management tools make it
easy to add, remove, upgrade, and make your own Slackware packages.
Package tracking makes it easy to upgrade from Slackware 10.0 to
Slackware 10.1 (see UPGRADE.TXT). The slackpkg tool in /extra can
also help update from an older version of Slackware to a newer one,
and keep your Slackware system up to date. In addition, the new
slacktrack utility (in extra/) will help you build and maintain
your own packages.

- Web browsers galore! Includes Netscape Communicator version 7.2,
Konqueror 3.3.2, and Mozilla 1.7.5 (with anti-aliased font support
and built-in junk email filtering).

- The complete K Desktop Environment (KDE) version 3.3.2, including
the KOffice productivity suite, networking tools, GUI development
with KDevelop, multimedia tools, the Konqueror web browser and
file manager, dozens of games and utilities, international language
support, and more.

- A collection of GTK+ based applications, including abiword-2.0.12
(upgraded from version 2.0.6 in Slackware 10.0), gaim-1.1.2,i
gimp-2.2.3, gkrellm-2.2.4, gxine-0.4.1, and pan-0.14.2.91.

- Large repository of extra software packages compiled and ready to
run. This includes various window managers, support for 3Dfx gaming
cards, OpenMotif-2.2.2, the K3b CD burning application for KDE,
the Java(TM) 2 Software Development Kit Standard Edition,
libsafe (advanced buffer overflow protection for additional
security), ISDN support, additional 802.11 drivers, and much more
(see the /extra directory).

- Many more improved and upgraded packages than we can list here. For
a complete list of core packages in Slackware 10.1, see this file:

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-10.1/PACKAGES.TXT

- Another Slackware exclusive: Slackware's ZipSlack installation
option is the fastest, _easiest_ Linux installation ever. ZipSlack
provides a basic text-based Linux system as a 48 megabyte ZIP archive.
Simply unzip on any FAT or FAT32 partition, edit your boot partition
in the LINUX.BAT batch file, and you can be running Linux in less
than five minutes. The ZipSlack installation includes everything you
need to network with Linux (including Ethernet, token ring, and
PPP), and extend the system with additional software packages such as
X. A ZipSlack system will even fit on a Zip(TM) disk, so you can
carry a personal Linux system with you to run on any PC with a
Zip(TM) drive.