As its name suggests, Damn Small Linux (DSL) is a damn small distribution! The ISO is just 50MB and it fits on a business card CD so you can carry it with you wherever you go. It also acts as a Live CD so you can run the system without installing it on the machine. The idea is to access your Linux environment from any computer, thanks to a tiny CD that would fit in your wallet.
Damn Small Linux 3.0 Review
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I agree with him that DSL (and Puppy Linux too btw) looks ugly. I wonder why it uses GTK 1 and Fluxbox instead of something better looking like FLTK (http://www.fltk.org) and the Equinox Desktop Environment (http://ede.sourceforge.net/page/), while still being fast. Im actually thinking of making my own version of Puppy Linux with EDE + FLTK. Otherwise DSL and Puppy Linux are great distributions, they just need to focus a bit more on looks in my opinion.
Edited 2006-07-02 17:34
I totally agree. Most very-light distros that you would use to replace win95/win98 are very ugly, so you end up using them more as a last resort or temporarily, not to do your everyday work in them.
EDE looks very nice though, gotta try it out sometime.
Edited 2006-07-02 20:34
well EDE uses a modified fltk so you’d have to have two copies any way.
but i suspect the big reason is that fltk lacks a graphical webbrowser, which as for system rescue especially is a necessity
In fact there is a “harddisk” file in the subfolders of Qemu. I suspect it’s using that file as a hardware storage device.
Heh.
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Word to the mother of Linus Torvalds.
This is on topic, right?
“This is on topic, right?”
No.
Please get back on topic, Imesh.
Well I am not a big DSL fan but…
The reviewer seemd to evaluate it as a desktop distro. As the next challenge to linspire or something. I dont consider DSL popular because it is pretty and includes tons of software and one click software installs.
The reviewer seemd to focus on it as a desktop right out of the box while leaving out what really makes DSL cool. He did cover the embeddable part but missed some other cool stuff like…
# Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
# Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
# Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB
# Modularly grow — DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize
DSL much like debian itself can be anything you want it to be and it is easy to make it into anything and often just means adding a module. THAT is what IMO should of been reviewed. More about what makes DSL amazing and less about what makes it just like other linux(s)!
He covers 3 of the 4 points you mentioned, albeit not extensively, but he does mention them. He makes mention of the toram function of dsl, as well as the debian install and he did mention that they said it could run on a 486 dx.
Yes he mentions it but doesnt review or cover it. That stuff is what makes DSL popular, not the artwork, or installed apps so much. So IMO a awesome review of DSL would be to dig in and really show what DSL is all about which is NOT a pretty desktop.
I guess I am also saying that the things he was critical of arent of much importance to most DSL users since that isn’t what DSL is about.
I forgot what sticks in the mud your average Linux user is.
Just downloaded and ran it on this machine inside windows xp professional.
AMD Athlon xp 1700+ with 768MB of ram.It ran nicely though Firefox was a bit sluggish but overall it was a good experience.
I was trying to get CO-linux work for the longest time and didn’t.This was a breeze.
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=683&slide=3…