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Slamd64 is an unofficial port of Slackware Linux 12.1 for the 64-bit PC. It was started from slackware-current in 2004, and was created by cross-compiling from scratch, rather than using an existing 64-bit distribution as a base.
Slackware Linux is legendary for simplicity, stability, and security. Originally developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, the UNIX-like Linux operating system now benefits from the contributions of millions of users and developers around the world. Slackware Linux provides new and experienced users alike with a fully-featured system, equipped to serve in any capacity from desktop workstation to machine-room server. Web, ftp, and email servers are ready to go out of the box, as are a wide selection of popular desktop environments. A full range of development tools, editors, and current libraries are included for users who wish to develop or compile additional software.
Slamd64 is a multi-lib distribution, which means that you can run 32-bit applications easily without a chroot. You can directly install most packages targeted at the PC platform of Slackware Linux.
Slamd64 12.1 contains major new features such as GCC 4.2.3, SCIM, and greatly improved CJK support. This release is mostly an incremental improvement over 12.0, including:
- Linux 2.6.24.5
- GCC 4.2.3
- X11 7.3.0+
- Glibc 2.7
- Apache HTTPD 2.2.8, with SSL support and PHP 5.2.5
- Updated development tools
- KDE 3.5.9
- XFCE 4.4.2
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14
- Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.14
- Java (JRE and JDK) 6u6
Like previous releases of Slamd64, 12.1 provides seamless FHS-compliant 32-bit compatibility, via a multilib system (/lib for 32-bit libraries and /lib64 for 64-bit libraries). This provides easier and increased support for both existing 32-bit software (in most cases, you can just install a package designed for Slackware with no special work needed), and for 64-bit binaries too (which require /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 to be present) such as the NVidia drivers, without requiring compatibility symlinks which clutter the root directory and remove the separation of 32 and 64-bit binaries.
Additionally, nspluginwrapper is included in c/, allowing you to easily use 32-bit browser plugins (such as Adobe Flash) in the included 64-bit browsers, such as Firefox and Konqueror.
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