Since its 4.4.10 release way back in 2008, Damn Small Linux languished as an inactive project. But a month ago John Andrews announced 4.11 release candidate 2. It includes updated apps and bug fixes. Download from here (only 50m). More on what’s in the release candidate here. DSL is popular for making older computers useful and also works well as a tiny live distro.
after all the infighting i think everyone went to tiny core anyway.
And unless they have replaced the WHOLE thing you are gonna be dealing with badly out of date software that is just a bad idea i don’t care which OS you use.
I used this for a while, but I’m going to be honest, I’d either prefer a real embedded Linux or a fuller desktop. I’m either working with small footprint dev boards such as non ia32 (random ARM archetecture SoC, Arduino/MSP403/other Microcontroller or whatever) or I’m using a “desktop” class board (ia32/X64 or ARM.)
Same here, exactly. A lightweight install of Debian would do the job just as well, if not better, because you could really expand it as much as you wish.
DSL is pretty explicitly targeted at getting old ia32 hardware to work. Tiny Core might take up less space on disk, but good luck getting that 486 with an ISA card to work right.
True… good thing that old ia32 hardware you mention is getting even older and rarer by the day, so that fact is becoming increasingly irrelevant…
That said, I’m glad DSL is back, though perhaps not as useful as it once was. The good thing is that it works well on newer hardware too, so I guess if you like DSL’s interface and prefer it for whatever reason, it’s there. Last I checked, Firefox was incredibly outdated… has that changed? Probably not, I’m guessing, because the program has blown up in size…
Personally, I liked the whole idea behind DSL-N, but it was short-lived. It was still small, but featured a more up-to-date kernel and an ISO size that IMO is much more reasonable these days than DSL’s 50MB when it comes to what can be installed. I still remember Feather Linux, too… it was based on DSL but its target size was 128MB, maximum.
In my opinion, there’s not enough “lightweight” desktop distros with specialty lighter variants of typical applications with a total ISO size in the 128-256MB range. And those distros are (were?) typically live CDs, without a “real” installer to do a “proper” (ie. non-frugal) install.
It would seem obvious that a good target device would be the Raspberry Pi, but I see no mention of that on the DSL site. Surely getting the distro to work on the Pi would get its return a lot more publicity? Maybe it does work on the Pi, but the site doesn’t make that clear.
It’s not only old slow kit that can use DSL, it’s new slow kit too 🙂
Last time I checked, ‘m’ was the unit symbol for ‘meter’.
PS: should have been a top-level comment, not a reply, sorry.
Edited 2012-11-23 18:17 UTC
Tiny core are working on a Raspberry Pi port.
Now that is something I’d love to see! I already enjoy running TCL on Wyse thin clients, I can just imagine how well it would do on the Pi. It is by far the fastest and most responsive of the lightweight distros I’ve tried.
Wont happen, the kernel and userland is too old, it wont compile unless it is ported. Even if it did, it would not work (kernel 2.4).
I don’t know why everyone was mad. It was only for old hardware and it still worked fine. Nice to see some additions but really, how much can you do on old hardware anyway?
Well… everything you could do back when the old hardware was new? Which is basically everything except use more recent functionality and newer versions of major programs that absolutely require lots of CPU and/or GPU power and memory or special artificially-imposed DRM restrictions (think Blu-Ray, for an example of something that requires all three…).
Low-res video and audio playback, older games, server, firewall, various other special-use setups… it might be limited, and I personally wouldn’t want to do it, but it’s possible. Lightweight distros (though IMO not exactly DSL… too bare, basic and outdated) are also excellent even on modern systems for getting the most out of your resources.
Really though… such old hardware is a ticking timebomb, just waiting to break, so I would really limit my own hardware to about a decade. I was using my computer from 2001 (on 24/7) for about that long before I decided to give it some rest. Some time later, I wanted to experiment with something so I hooked it back up, plugged it in and crap just started breaking down, so I just gave up.
The machine ran rock-solid for more than a decade rock-solid (though growing increasingly painful for everyday use as a desktop, as my use became more resource-demanding and desktops became heavier), but it seemed to be the extended time turned off and subsequent re-powering that finally done it in.
Reminded me about http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=97154 – apparently, electrolytic capacitors need “reforming” from time to time.
(coincidentally, they are also the prime suspects for general deterioration, in old PCs; take those two factors together…)
The issue I’ve run into with keeping my old ~1999 “classic gaming/BeOS” machine alive is hard drive failure. Over the years every PATA drive in my house has developed issues, though the one in the machine right now is in the best shape with just a few bad clusters. It’s gotten to the point that I’m about ready to throw it all out and stick to VMs on my newer machines, rather than splurge on a SATA => PATA adapter and throw in a newer drive.
Oh, but it’s so nice having native BeOS and classic games on a system with a “real” 3D video card…
PATA => Compact Flash adapter is another option – such fairly inexpensive and large-enough SSD really revitalises older machines. Plus it avoids potential issues with too-large drive & old motherboard.