Patrick Volkerding has announced the first release candidate of Slackware Linux 12.0: “It’s that time again, and here we have Slackware 12.0 release candidate 1! If we’re lucky, we got it all right the first time. Big thanks to the crew.”

This message has been posted on the distribution’s current changelog, together with a large number of package updates.

The upcoming Slackware Linux 12.0 is a major new version; this is the first time a Slackware release will default to a 2.6 kernel (version 2.6.21.5), now compiled with GCC 4 (version 4.1.2). Many other packages also come in their latest versions: the modular X.Org 7.2 with Xgl and Compiz support, KDE 3.5.7, Xfce 4.4.1 and, at long last, Apache 2.2 with PHP 5.

As usual, there is no ISO image available for download, but interested beta testers should keep an eye on this FTP server which periodically publishes unofficial ISO images built from the current tree; alternatively, you can build your own DVD image by following these instructions. Happy testing!

Source: DistroWatch

~LC

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