The changelog of the venerable Slackware Linux distribution shows a hint that the upcoming 12.1 release process is just around the corner:

Wed Mar 19 19:34:38 CDT 2008
Is this Slackware 12.1 RC 1 yet? It has to be close.
...

Looking at the changes from 12.0 (which was released on july 2nd, 2007), Slackware will still be Slackware. Almost all of the changes consist of newer versions of packages.

Currently, among other things, new stuff in Slackware 12.1 consists of kernel 2.6.24.3, glibc 2.7, X.Org 7.3, ntfs-3g, GTK 2.12.9, XFCE 4.4.2, KDE 3.5.9.

As usual ever since version 10.2, Slackware will come without Gnome. There are several projects such as Dropline Gnome and Gnome SlackBuild which fill this gap though.

For those who want a no-frills, no-strings-attached, fast, stable and reliable Linux distribution, Slackware is definitely worth a look.