  The scientific data collected during slews of the XMM-Newton satellite are
used to construct a slew survey catalogue. This comprises of the order of 4000
sources detected in the EPIC-pn 0.2-12 keV band with exposures of less than 15s
and a sky coverage of about 6300 square degrees (source density ~0.65 per
square degree). Below 2 keV the sensitivity limit is comparable to the ROSAT
PSPC All-Sky Survey and the XMM-Newton slew survey offers long-term variablity
studies. Above 2 keV the survey will be a factor of 10 more sensitive than all
previous all-sky X-ray surveys. The slew survey is almost complementary to the
serendipitous survey compiled from pointed XMM-Newton observations. It is aimed
to release the first source catalogue by the end of 2005. Later slew
observations and detections will continuously be added. This paper discusses
the XMM-Newton slew survey also in a historical context.
