Patrick Volkerding announced the release of Slackware 12.0 .
This release is the first to use a 2.6 series Linux kernel as default and with it brings some important features:
- HAL (the Hardware Abstraction Layer) which allows the system administrator to add users to the cdrom and plugdev groups. Then they will be able to use items such as USB flash sticks, USB cameras that appear like USB storage, portable hard drives, CD and DVD media, MP3 players, and more, all without requiring sudo, the mount or umount command. Just plug and play.
- Kernel support for X DRI (the Direct Rendering Interface) brings high-speed hardware accelerated 3D graphics to Linux.
- The udev dynamic device management system for Linux 2.6.x. This locates and configures most hardware automatically as it is added (or removed) from the system, and creates the access nodes in /dev. It also loads the kernel modules required by sound cards and other hardware at boot time
- PCMCIA, CardBus, USB, IEE1394 (FireWire) and ACPI support. This makes Slackware a great operating system for your laptop.
The new modular X11 7.2.0 from the X.Org Foundation is also the new supported X Window System along with updated xfce and KDE Window Managers.
On a personnal note Slackware will always have a special place in my heart as it was my first contact with Linux some 12 years ago, release 3.0 back then 
I still have the box to prove it:
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