The Slackware team starting with an alpha release, went on to release candidates (Two), and finally Slackware Linux 15.0 is now available for the public. Slackware 15.0 has undergone a lot of changes, such as the addition of the latest Linux Kernel 5.15 LTS and KDE Plasma 5.23, which brings enhanced NTFS driver and Apple’s M1 chip support, among others.
Indeed, Slackware 15.0 is an exciting release, as it also offers support for Intel 12th gen processors. Let’s dive into what’s new in Slackware 15.0.
What’s New in Slackware 15.0 Release?
Slackware 15.0 has the major addition of the latest Linux Kernel 5.15 LTS, which guarantees a great hardware compatibility experience for what's perhaps the oldest running Linux distro.
The KDE Plasma packages has been updated to 5.23, with KDE Frameworks updated to version 5.88; and KDE Plasma 5.23 included several UI improvements, and a range of cosmetic changes that improves the user experience. Also, the updated Xfce 4.16 comes bundled with Slackware 15.0, among the desktop environment options.
Highlighted below are other important additions:
- From Qt4 to Qt5
- Support for Wayland
- Improvements in the Slackware pkgtools
- Includes a “make_world.sh” script for rebuilding the OS from source code
- SMP and non-SMP kernels for single-core and multi-core processors
- Support for Privileged Access Management (PAM)
- Support for UEFI and old systems
- GCC compiler upgraded to version 11.2.0
- Support for PipeWire
Furthermore, all the essential packages like Krita, Network Manager, OpenSSH, and Ocular also got an upgrade. With important apps like Firefox, Falkon browser and Thunderbird updated to their latest available releases as well.
How to Download and Install Slackware 15.0?
Kindly note that upgrading from older versions such as Slackware 14.2 isn't feasible, it is advised that you do a fresh installation.
And for a fresh installation, you should checkout the upgrade instructions available here, and you can install the new ISO from the official website.
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