OSNews: Getting Ready for Slackware Linux 9.0

“Let’s start with the standard stuff (note that this is based on
Slackware 9.0RC3, only Patrick Volkerding knows what will be in the
final 9.0 version). The newest XFree86, version 4.3.0, is included.
Besides better hardware support, XFree86 now has alpha blended and
animated cursors. On the GUI side Slackware 9.0 also has KDE 3.1
and Gnome 2.2.

“Developers might already have noticed that Slackware has
finally switched to gcc 3.2 (Slackware 9.0 has gcc 3.2.2). Gcc 3.2
has been introduced in Slackware-Current in august 2002 and has
been tested thoroughly afterwards. Gcc 3.2 generates much more
efficient code compared to older gcc versions, this is especially
the case for C++ applications. The gcc 3.2.2-compiled KDE 3.1 in
Slackware 9.0 is really fast on my Athlon XP. Slackware 9 with KDE
3.1 seems to be somewhat faster then Slackware 8.1 with KDE 3.0.
This may be caused by the transition to gcc 3.2 as well as
improvements in the KDE code base. There is one catch, though:
browser plug-ins compiled with older gcc versions often do not work
with gcc 3.2-compiled browsers…”

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