Slint64-14.2.1.2 is released!

INSTALL SLINT THEN KEEP IT UPDATED

Instructions for installation are in:
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/doc/README.installation

WHAT'S NEW

A lot of software packages are updated or upgraded. This include an
upgrade of pretty much all accessibility packages to the most recent
version, a fairly recent kernel (version 4.19.30), many added packages
(cf. the file ADDED in this directory) and an enhanced installer.

What's new in the installer:
. It includes a kernel version 4.19.30 with its speakup drivers.
This should allow to get speech in all installation languages. Caveat:
Ukrainian is not spoken, because espeak-ng does not include an Ukrainian
voice yet.
. If a hard synthesizer is used to install, espeakup is not started as
it needs the speakup_soft driver.
. The sound cards are probed at the beginning of installation, so that
a working one be used during installation and set as default in the
installed system.
. GRUB is used to boot the installer if the machine is then in UEFI
mode at time of installation. GRUB will also be installed to boot Slint,
in UEFI as well as in Legacy modes.
. A new feature: auto-partitioning of the device on which Slint will be
installed is provided, under then conditions that this device be
dedicated to Slint and has a sufficient size. 
. The detection of the ESP (EFI System Partitions) and "DOS" partitions
(actually partitions used by Microsoft systems) has been enhanced. It is
based on the UEFI specification for the ESP, and on the file system type
detected by lsblk for DOS partitions.


DOCUMENTATION

Among the documents available in the doc folder in this directory, i.e.:
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/doc
we recommend all users to read at least these:
*AboutSlint			Presentation of the Slint project
*Announce			Announce of Slint64-14.2.1.2
*Introduction  		Introduction - Slint documentation
*KernelUpgrade 		How to upgrade the kernels provided by Slint
*Presentation		Presentation of Slint64-14.2.1.2 
* README.upgrade		Instructions for upgrading to Slint64-14.2.1.2 
*SoftwareManagement Software Management in Slint
*Utilities			Utilities to manage your Slint system

ACCESSIBILITY

The blind and visually impaired will also want to read documents in
doc/Accessibility

CHANGES SINCE 14.2.1.1
They are listed in doc/New

CHANGES SINCE 14.2.1

The most notable changes are:
* Addition of vlc, the ubiquitous audio and video player and recorder,
thanks to Eric Hameleers.
* Addition of mate-tweak, Compiz, Emerald and associated themes. This
brings new features, some of them benefit to partially sighted users.
* All speech-related applications now rely on alsa or portaudio only and
audio settings have been enhanced. Benefits: a better sound quality when
using speech in console mode, speech applications now start instantly in
all contexts without needing to start pulseaudio system wide, audio
outputs coming from speech application versus audio players are fully
independent of each others and do not interfere.

CHANGES SINCE 14.2

The most notables changes are:
* the addition of two desktops: LXDE current and MATE 1.18
* an increased accessibility to visually impaired users: now Slint can
be installed and used with speech and/or Braille both in text mode and
in several graphical environments including MATE.   

The installation of KDE is now optional. If KDE is installed, to avoid
cluttering the application menus of other graphical environments the
admin can just type hide-kde-apps: the menu entry of KDE apps will
then appear only in the menu entry of KDE. This can be reverted typing
show-kde-apps.

The lightdm and gdm2 graphical login managers have been added, both can
speak.

To cope with the many graphical environments and login managers and
alleviate the need of manually editing configuration files, several new
utilities are provided:
* orca-on ad orca-off allow each user to enable or disable speech and/or
  braille in graphical environments for oneself.
* session-chooser allows a user to set the default graphical session for
  oneself, among those available. This can be done by root for a regular
  user with setsession.
* login-chooser allows the admin to set the login manager, either text
  (the users can then after login start a graphical session typing
  startx) or graphical (among lightdm, lxdm, gdm and kdm) and decide to
  have speech or not for login, in text mode as using lightdm or gdm2.

Most graphical environments get a similar layout of the panels and
their menus. In addition 60 wallpapers have been added, that you can
easily set in LXDE, MATE and XFCE: just make a right click on the
desktop, find the menu entry to set the background and pick an image.

The specific appearance of the MATE desktop can be restored typing
mate-slint-theme.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Slint website: http://slint.fr
Forum: https://forum.salixos.org/viewforum.php?f=44
Mailing list: https://www.freelists.org/list/slint
Didier: didier~at~slint~dot~fr

This document has been last updated on 24 July 2019.
