Slackware 13.0 [x86 DVD ISO]

Description

Yes it's that time again!  After many months of development and careful

testing, we are proud to announce the release of Slackware version 13.0!



We are sure you'll agree that the improvements made in this release more

than warrant the major version bump up from the 12.x series.  We've done our

best to bring the latest technology to Slackware while still maintaining the

stability and security that you have come to expect.  Slackware is well known

for it's simplicity and the fact that we try to bring software to you in the

condition that the authors intended.



Probably the biggest change is the addition of an official 64-bit port.

While the 32-bit (x86) version continues to be developed, this release brings

to you a complete port to 64-bit (x86_64). We know that many of you have

been waiting eagerly for this, and once you try it you'll see it was well

worth the wait.



Slackware 13.0 brings many updates and enhancements, among which you'll find

two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: Xfce 4.6.1,

a fast and lightweight but visually appealing and easy to use desktop

environment, and KDE 4.2.4, a recent stable release of the new 4.2.x series

of the award-winning K Desktop Environment.  We continue to make use of HAL

(Hardware Abstraction Layer) which allows the system administrator to grant

use of various hardware devices according to users' group membership so that

they will be able to use items such as USB flash sticks, USB cameras that

appear like USB storage, portable hard drives, CD and DVD media, MP3 players,

and more, all without requiring sudo, the mount or umount command.  Just plug

and play.  Properly set up, Slackware's desktop should be suitable for any

level of Linux experience.



Slackware uses the 2.6.29.6 kernel bringing you advanced performance

features such as journaling filesystems, SCSI and ATA RAID volume support,

SATA support, Software RAID, LVM (the Logical Volume Manager), and

encrypted filesystems.  Kernel support for X DRI (the Direct Rendering

Interface) brings high-speed hardware accelerated 3D graphics to Linux.  



There are two kinds of kernels in Slackware -- the huge kernels, which

contain support for just about every driver in the Linux kernel. These are

primarily intended to be used for installation, but there's no real reason

that you couldn't continue to run them after you have installed.  The

other type of kernel is the generic kernel, in which nearly every driver

is built as a module.  To use a generic kernel you'll need to build an

initrd to load your filesystem module and possibly your drive controller

or other drivers needed at boot time, configure LILO to load the initrd at

boot, and reinstall LILO.  See the docs in /boot after installing for more

information.  Slackware's Linux kernels come in both SMP and non-SMP types

now.  The SMP kernel supports multiple processors, multi-core CPUs,

HyperThreading, and about every other optimization available.  In our own

testing this kernel has proven to be fast, stable, and reliable.  We

recommend using the SMP kernel even on single processor machines if it

will run on them.



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.		

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