Slackware is one of the oldest Linux distributions available, and with new versions few and far between, each new release is reason to rejoice. After almost a year and a half since the previous version, Slackware 14.0 is now available for download, or can be purchased on optical media.
Slackware 14.0 also comes with updated KDE 4.8.5 and Xfce 4.10.0 graphical desktop environments, that have been slipped into their respective component packages, saving storage space on archive sites as well as decreasing the time and bandwidth used to download updates. USB, Firewire, ACPI support, Apache 2.4.3, X11R7.7, support for Network Manager, new development tools, a plethora of web browsers including the ability to repackage Google Chrome as a native app, a repository of extra software packages and many more are included. What else is new?
Slackware 14.0 is a production release that holds stability and security in high regard, and accordingly the choice of a kernel is crucial. After testing, the Linux kernel 3.2.29 is used and in typical Slackware fashion it comes in two versions: generic and huge. According to the release notes, the former will save some memory as well as avoid a few boot time warnings, but the latter includes a significant number of built-in drivers. To accommodate a wide variety of configurations, SMP (supports multiple processors) and non-SMP (supports a single processor) kernels are included in the latest release.
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