According to Slackware Release Notes, Slackware Linux 14.1 has been released on Monday Nov 4,2013. This version of Slackware Linux comes with many updates, new features and the development team decided to stick with the 3.10.x Linux kernel. I think the main reason for this is to give the user a stable kernel on their system, a kernel that comes in two flavors, generic and huge.
What is the difference between the huge kernel and the generic one?
If you use a generic kernel you will save memory and probably some boot time warnings, but you will need to use an initrd to load the necessary kernel modules for mounting the root filesystem. You don’t need that if you use the huge flavor, it comes with many built-in drivers and in most cases you will not need an initrd to boot the system.
Is there anyone that want to give a try to the Linux 3.12 kernel? Yes, the Linux 3.12 kernel is out and you can read more information about it in our article at unixmen website. Slackware has taken care of everything, if you want to give a try to the latest kernel, you can. This is completely possible, you’ll find .config files for Linux 3.12 in the /testing/source/ directory. Test, Explore and have fun!
What about the desktop environments included in this release of Slackware 14.1? I am sorry to say that there is nothing by default for gnome users, as Slackware 14.11 comes only with updated versions of both KDE and Xfce.The nice thing is that both these desktop environments come in small packages rather than larger bundles, so you can save time and bandwidth while downloading the updates. I am pretty sure there are many Gnome users out there searching for a solution, there is a solution for them too, all this thanks to the Dropline project.This project can help you to run GNOME 3.x on Slackware. Read more about the solution here.
There are always first time Slackware users out there, or people that have never used linux before, so I feel we at unixmen should inform these guys about the system download, to make sure they will be in the right path. Do you have a usb stick? Cool, because Slackware isos have been processed using isohybrid, which allows you to write them in your usb stick and use later as the installation source. According to the official release note this works on machines running both regular BIOS as well as UEFI.
System Requirements
The minimum configuration that needs to run Slackware 14.1 is given below.
– 486 processor
– 64MB RAM (1GB+ suggested)
– About 5GB+ of hard disk space for a full install
– CD or DVD drive (if not bootable, then a bootable USB flash stick or PXE server/network card)
Download Slackware
Download Slackware 14.1 from the following links.
