“Pat Volkerding and the Slackware team released the latest
version of Slackware Linux, 12.1, on May 2. Even though it is a
‘point one’ release, the list of new features reads like what other
distributions would consider a major new version. Slackware 12.1
features the latest KDE 3.5.9, Xfce 4.4.2, and a number of
improvements, especially to udev. The full list of updated features
is in the official product announcement. From a user’s perspective,
version 12.1 is a true refinement of the previous version.“Slackware is the oldest surviving Linux distribution; its first
release was in 1993. It is a very ‘hands-on’ distribution–nearly
all the system configuration chores require editing text files.
Additionally, Slackware is a very plain distribution. The Slackware
team makes few changes to sources, preferring to compile them and
pass them on…”