You need at least the one "big" DE. If for no other reason, then you want it just for the application suite that it brings with it.

I haven't used KDE as my window manager for a very long time, and can't say I will again any time soon, but some of those KDE apps are killer (ktorrent, k3b, konsole, kwrite, etc), and it's nice to have them available immediately post-install.

Sure, you could add the ones you liked after the fact, but then you wind up in the same situation as the people currently wanting a few choice GNOME apps; You wind up having to build gigs of dependencies you otherwise won't be using, and still likely not even having the full DE available if you want it.

I'm tempted to suggest adding a minimal set of GNOME libraries and apps, but knowing what an abject mess those are, I can't. Cutting GNOME out of Slackware was one of the most impressively pragmatic and savvy moves I've seen Pat make.

It may sound holywarish, but none of these apps are killer. You always have transmission, xterm/Eterm/xftem4, SciTE. The few killer KDE apps are Krusader and Kdenlive.
But KDELibs could have been left in the distribution.

XFCE is just big enough. Actually, I would like KDE to be replaced with E17, when it is ready. It's quite big.

And YES, I would definitely like any GUI Samba client, not dependent on KDE.
Currently I use MC's built in, but it's merely a script to simplify smbmount. And I want a real client with service discovery.

... 2/5 of which are actually included with Slackware and one of which requires GNOME libraries ...

Oh ... well a fool is me, I thought this thread was "Programs, what you like to see in Slackware tree." I didn't realize that it was "Slackware, how I would change it to be my own distribution."

I like E17 too, but it lacks the apps, and it is not utilitarian enough yet for a prime-time presence in the Linux distribution. If ever there was something that belonged on SlackBuilds.org, it's E17.

As it turns out, the most well-developed GUI for samba is Smb4K, which is, you guessed it, a KDE app. (It's actually very nice and might should find its way into the base distro one day.)

KDE's big value that it brings to the table is the apps ... I'm pretty sure that they're a main reason why Pat includes it. KDE has always had relatively good and plentiful apps, way back to KDE 2 on Slackware 3.

I'm still lamenting blackbox. (A man's WM if ever there was one.)

As long as Pat keeps twm around, I'll be okay.

SystemD and PulseAudio













" I am totally joking of course "

(o )( o)

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I'd like to have Inkscape instead of the KDE drawing thingee.. Karbon? Inkscape is a much better tool...

Just wanted to point out, as someone here said wicd was old, and another said it wasn't maintained, to which I would point you to:

http://wicd.sourceforge.net/

which states that *THAT* site is "mostly unmaintained" and they clearly point you to:

https://launchpad.net/wicd

Which is where all the action is.


Regarding networkmanager, I certainly sympathize with those who need it for mobile broadband, I just hope that if it were to ship with Slackware I'd be able to remove it if I didn't like using it, and use wicd in lieu of.

Simply put, I always feel like it's getting in the way. And I truly love the 'ifplug' actions of wicd that it see's I plug in a wired eth, and will disconnect the wireless and vice-versa. With the exception of that one bad patch we had not too long ago, and thanks to Willy S for finding the fix, I've been so happy to use wicd over the years.

As far as other software for Slackware is concerned, I'm just tickled pink by all the quality updates/upgrades from the contributors to SBo and to Eric for keeping his k-town and private repo going, that well, I just don't see a need for things to bog the Slackware team down from getting us out a new shiny release. I guess I'm an old fart, and used to way the things are, but I'm happy with the status quo for now

It is worth noting that you do not need GNOME Network Manager for mobile broadband.

The command line works pretty well for this (wvdial, pppd) ... This is Slackware we're talking about, after all.

If you need a GUI, you even can use kppp, which is already included with the distribution.

GNOME Network Manager is a pretty slick app, but not worth all of the libraries that it requires, in my opinion. (And Pat's, or so it would seem.)

All I can do is point to the ChangeLog for Slackware-current.
I agree that mobile broadband can be handled in other ways in Slackware (I used pppd from the command line for a while), but NetworkManager allows me to handle all my network devices from the one window. It suits me and my netbook very well. My thanks to Alien_Bob for the initial testing packages and to volkerdi for including it.

Not a new package, but included in the lxc package.....lxc-slackware would be nice

I have some applications that need Pulseaudio. I'd like to see it in the tree.
Thanks

I'm waiting for an answer from Piter Punk, the slackpkg maintainer, to submit the version of the lxc template that uses slackpkg to the lxc developers: if the two small patches I sent will be ok for him, the template will be added to the official lxc sources.

In the meantime you can have a look here: you can either use the template linked in the article or look at the comment section for the version that uses slackpkg (and the link to an already patched one).

Good news on the matter is that the support for a complete namespace isolation is being pushed in kernel 3.5, so in the near future we will avoid using capabilities (as per template) to secure the containers.

The only things that need to ever be added to the main tree are programs that replace, are required of, or extend the functionality of existing tools. We don't need this project to get overbloated with programs that go about unused except only by SBo packages and projects. If anything we need to focus on what could be removed or trimmed down from the main distribution and focus on keeping packages that are more uniform across multiple desktop environments and more inclined to an industry standard.

And I do agree that KDE 4.x has progressed into somewhat of a more heavier project than it's predecessors, and is moving into a direction that makes it a full desktop environment with it's own programs rather than a universal UI supported by independent programs like Xfce still is to an extent.

I would prefer having mlocate over slocate, since mlocate is many time faster.

It should be noted, that wvdial isn't part of Slackware and is aimed at POTS modems (kppp is too). So there are no provisions for APN selection, secure PIN entry and of course monitoring the mobile network connection -- because roaming accidentally can get you in very expensive trouble.

The (emulated) PPP connection is only a very little part of what is needed for "mobile broadband".

Despite this you also don't have to use the GUI part of NetworkManager or ModemManager, which has the GNOME dependencies.