De ontwikkeling van het besturingssysteem Slackware, welke gebaseerd is op Linux, loopt op een aardig tempo door en sinds kort is de final release van versie 10.1 beschikbaar. De eerste versie van Slackware werd in april 1993 uitgegeven en was gericht op eenvoud en stabiliteit. In de loop van de jaren heeft men veel features en verandering aangebracht maar toch heeft men de eenvoud en stabiliteit weten te behouden. De release notes laten ons het volgende weten:
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.
- 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.
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Ik raad dan ook alle Slackware gebruikers die liefst Gnome gebruiken aan om gewoon Dropline Gnome te installeren ipv een andere distributie te zoeken (zoals ik hier en daar op fora al gelezen heb) 
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