Some weeks ago, I heard of a new german distribution of Linux especially for older hardware, which is called ‘DeLi Linux‘. I own an rather old Notebook with a Pentium 90, so I ordered a CD of DeLi for use on my old Notebook. After some days, I hold the CD in my hands.Installation
First, I inserted the CD into my Winblows box to create the two necessary
boot disks, since my Notebook isn’t able to directly boot from a cd. This
wasn’t a problem at all, because there are many different kinds of boot
disks to choose from. Of course, there is also the popular Rawrite to create
boot floppys from images under Dos/Windows. I chose the standard IDE boot disk,
which should be the right choice for most systems.
Actually, also a network install bootdisk is available on the CD. With this boot
disk you’re also able to do an install of DeLi via a serial cable. DeLi claims to
be the first distro supporting an installation over a serial cable.
The whole network installation, no matter if either over a serial cable or a ‘real’
network, has one weak point: Both the client and the server (which is more a problem)
have to boot off the DeLi network bootdisk. Since DeLi uses the 2.2.26 version of
the Linux Kernel, it’s a problem to get most modern (typically onboard) network
controllers, which may work in the server, to work with it. Of course, you can also
install the whole thing from ftp (DeLi uses netcat for the file transfers in its network bootdisk), but this isn’t automated in any way yet.
But basically, the installation is quite o.k. for such a beta product.
After you booted from the two disks, you have to log in as root and manually start the installer, deliinstall.
Deliinstall sets up your basic system, sets up root password, boot loader (an old version of lilo),
and reboots your system. Now you can perform your first hard disk boot of DeLi.
Configuration
Now, as your basic system is running, we can go on with the configuration. DeLi comes with a package tool named delipkg,
which offers a small range of programs that come with DeLi. Of course the selection of the programs is trimmed to
low-end, there is for example XFree86 3.6, Sylpheed, fluxbox, icewm, dillo, …
DeLi is intended for using the IceWM window manager with it; only IceWM has all correct menu shortcuts to
the installed programs.
From my view, the inclusion of such an old Version of XFree86 wasn’t a good idea; I used XFree86 4.0.1 on the Notebook
before, also with IceWM, and it was noticeably faster than the older version. Maybe the new drivers for my Trident 9835 graphics
chip are better. Besides from that, the selection of included software is quite o.k. when you keep in mind that it is intended for use
on old hardware.
Sylpheed is an excellent mail client, and Siag Office does its job quite well. The only thing that I was missing is an
alternatibe graphical web browser to dillo. Dillo is just very beta at the time; it has no support for ssl encryption and doesn’t
render most we pages too well. I would recommend to include another old web browser as an alternative; probably Netscape 4.8.
The other configuration tool used in DeLi is delisetup. It handles many aspects of general system configuration, such as
setting up your network or other basic configuration tasks. Both tools are very much self-explanatory and have a nice ncurses frontend.
Setting up X wasn’t a problem at all, just the usual xf86config.
What is kind of negative for notebook users is, that DeLi doesn’t set up PCMCIA automatically. You have to insert the right modules on
your own in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules.
Using DeLi Linux for everyday work
DeLi is generally meant as a complete desktop distribution, and therefore comes with enough low-end software to do your everyday work.
-Dillo
Dillo is the only web browser included in DeLi. It’s very much a beta version at this time, e.g. SSL is missing, there is no bookmarks system
and it renders many pages not very nice. But it uses less resources than any other browser out there.
as I mentioned before, I would recommend to include an alternative browser to dillo.
-Sylpheed
What should I say, Sylpheed is simply one of the two best mail clients in the world (of which Thunderbird is the second one :))! It supports multiple mail accounts, PGP,…
-Tkftp
Tkftp is DeLi’s graphical ftp client. Nothing revolutionary, but better than using the command-line ftp 😉
-Siag Office
Siag Office is named after its spreadsheet, which is also called Siag. Siag Office is a complete office environment, with spreadsheet
(as mentioned before), word processor (called ‘Pathetic Writer’) and some little other tools, like a text editor.
Siag Office tries its best to imitate MS Office/OpenOffice, which results in the fact that it’s very easy to use and relatively feature-rich.
-Gtksee
Gtksee is DeLi’s image viewer, which didn’t use at all.
-Emelfm
Emelfm is a classical two-pane file manager, in the style of Norton/Midnight Commander. As its ancestors
it’s quite easy to use and makes life without Konqueror/Nautilus a bit easier 😉
Conclusion
I think, DeLi Linux is a good attempt to create a Linux distro specialised to older hardware. What it currently lacks of, is
the amount of software included. I understand that the developer wants to keep it small in size, but I think this should only be appliable
to the software you have installed on your hard disk; on the CD or in the ISO, some more software should be included, mainly alternatives to
already available types of software (to mention it again, the Dillo/Netscape thing…;)). Also the using of a 2.2 series kernel was a wise choice;
to mention an example, the PCMCIA controller of my Notebook is only supported by kernels up to 2.2 – it was dropped in 2.4.
The installation system is yet quite o.k. for such a young distro. Maybe the amount of system settings supported by delisetup will grow in the future.
About the Author:
Kane is a student in Germany and currently playing around with some unknown Linux distros on his old Notebook. Besides, he likes playing First-Person-Shooters a lot ;). Oh, apart from computers, he likes reading Tom Clancy-Books a lot.
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
I stopped reading when I read “First, I inserted the CD into my Winblows box”. This should tell you how the rest of the review is going to be. How can you take this review seriously when the first line uses a derogatory statement? When you strip out your bias then maybe I will read it.
I agree. Authors should be a bit more careful when submitting articles to (big) sites. I usually decide not to edit things though in general, for the sake of freedom of the author to experss him/herself.
I agree as well. When using these kind of terms, try to use them in a joking way or something. Else, just don’t use them at all.
I usually decide not to edit things though in general, for the sake of freedom of the author to experss him/herself.
Eugenia, do you accept reviews by anonymous contributors? What I mean is I would like to submit a review, but don’t want my name on the review.
No, it has to have a name (even just first name) and a valid email address that you check regularly. People should be able to contact you about it.
Now, back to topic please, every subsequent off topic will be deleted.
DeLi Linux is perhaps the best desktop Linux distribution for really old PCs. With old I mean machines even older and slower than Pentium. Of course, there are several very good distributions for a bit newer and snappier Pentium class machines (Feather, Puppy, DSL, Vector Linux etc.)
Or does someone have better recommendations?
There used to be Tinylinux too: http://tiny.seul.org/en/ that runs even on a 1386 if I remember correctly. But Tinylinux seems not to be maintained and updated anymore – though the old installation files are still available there for those who want to play with Linux on their old PCs.
I installed DeliLinux on an old Gateway Solo 2100 and also thought that Dillo, while coming along nicely, still leaves a few things to be desired for full-time use (SSL!). Then I discovered that the included Links browser also has X11 support – it’s just a matter of using another command-line flag (I think it’s -g). I was impressed – it actually makes a very good graphical browser for low-end systems.
Yes, TinyLinux is specifically for i386 platforms. I think the last release was in 2001. Here is another source:
http://tinylinux.sourceforge.net/
Then I discovered that the included Links browser also has X11 support – it’s just a matter of using another command-line flag (I think it’s -g). I was impressed – it actually makes a very good graphical browser for low-end systems.
Yup, Links 2.x in GUI mode makes a nice light-weight browser for older systems. “Copy and paste” won’t work between Links and other apps, though, and that sucks.
…And the patched Dillo it uses makes it quite usable.
You can naturally try to install other alternative software like web browsers too. The big problem is, however, that DeLi is based on Slackware 7.1 compatible software, and it might be quite difficult to find all the libs and other required software needed to run non-standard and newer programs as Slackware 7.1 was released as long ago as 2000/06/22.
By the way, it would be interesting to read about the experiences and possible solutions others may have had when installing and using newer software with DeLi?
I’ve found vector linux to be unsuitable for really old pentiums/p2’s, so this might be just the thing I’ve been looking for . . .
I stopped reading when I read “First, I inserted the CD into my Winblows box”.
I’m surprised. You can read?
You’re right, though, Winblows was a bit harsh. Perhaps Windoze would have been nicer.
I wonder how this compares with Win 95, which does blow, very much. But I have it installed on a Pentium 75 laptop with Office 97 and it loads surprisingly fast, compared with modern hardware/software. I’m sure it lacks the features we’ve come to expect from a modern OS, but it would be interesting to see a performance comparison between these OSs and the software available for them. Office 97 is probably full featured and light weight compared with what’s available for DeLi, but I really have no clue.
> Yup, Links 2.x in GUI mode makes a nice light-weight browser for older systems. “Copy and paste” won’t work between Links and other apps, though, and that sucks.
The latest version of Links (2.1pre15) _supports_ “copy and paste” (Ctrl-Z for copy, Ctrl-V or middle mouse button for paste).
The latest version of Links (2.1pre15) _supports_ “copy and paste” (Ctrl-Z for copy, Ctrl-V or middle mouse button for paste).
I’m glad you proved me wrong. I quite like Links (and now that I’ve learnt the “copy and paste” shortcuts I like it even more). 🙂
Another alternative distro for old computers is RULE ( http://www.rule-project.org ), which is based on Fedora.
Yes, TinyLinux is specifically for i386 platforms. I think the last release was in 2001.
My concern would be patching services. Possibly one should disable most of the daemons, or block outsiders at least.
I’ve found vector linux to be unsuitable for really old pentiums/p2’s, so this might be just the thing I’ve been looking for . . .
I have Vector 4.0 on a Pentium 100 mhz / 64 meg ram. Works ok but I haven’t tried many big apps.
I use Dillo occasionally, it’s fairly lightweight. I wish there were something in between Dillo and Firefox. I’m disappointed with Amaya (the Windows version at least).
“I use Dillo occasionally, it’s fairly lightweight. I wish there were something in between Dillo and Firefox. I’m disappointed with Amaya (the Windows version at least).”
I run Netscape 4.7 (I think!) on FreeBSD under Linux compatibility. Works great.
I use DeLi Linux 0.5 regulary on an old 486 DX2/50 Laptop with 12 MB RAM ( http://fsinfo.cs.uni-sb.de/~abe/w5/azka.html#ayca ) as terminal to read e-mail and news and to chat with friends from my balcony, bath tub or bed. In comparision to the Turbo Desktop Environment (TDE), which initially had the same target computers, but shipped with KDE3 (*argh*) the last time I saw it’s website, (the maintainer seems to have removed from the net the second time, last URL was http://home.t-online.de/home/turbo-desktop-environment/ ), DeLi is a really consequently trimmed down Distribution for old PCs.
Unfortunately the maintainer has the opinion, that a “slim distribution” also means a slim variety of packages. E.g. he reduced the number of included number of window managers by more than the half just with the argument, that it should be a “slim distribution” and choice isn’t important. He also refuses to add further window managers, even if they (IMHO) fit perfectly into the philosophy of a distribution for old computers. (I suggested flwm, http://flwm.sf.net/ )
Heck, such a CD-ROM has nowadays 700 MB, why does he keep the ISO at around 100 MB? You can’t argue with download times nowadays, even if you just have a historical 14.4 modem: There are really a lot of mail-order shops, which ship even such exotical ISOs for an acceptable amount money (usually a few euros plus portage). (My favourite ISO shop is e.g. http://www.liniso.de/ , although they don’t have DeLi (yet).)
So I had to use packages from other Slackware 7.1 based distros (there are a few around), staticly compiled software or compiled the software locally and added zile (as Emacs subsitute), tcsh, tf, flwm and Opera to my DeLi Linux.
—
There is no place like $HOME.
Is ratpoison available for deli linux? I found it very useable on my old p100 laptop. Since it is keyboard based, i can get away completely(almost) from using the funny little mouse joystick that is on my Satellite.
Thanks for all the feedback
I’ve never written an article for OSNews before, so I’ll take care of what words I choose for some OSes the next time
I think the best choice available for older hardwer is an Opera from the 6.x serises. I used it on an P-166MMX and it was quite usable.
it is unfortunately not _that_ free as dillo… but does probably a better job for the purpose…
cheers
gaboro
In my limited use of Linux and Dillo, if you right click on an open area while in a browser page you will be given the option of bookmarking/saving the page………
Is this right or wrong?????????
Dillo includes a very good bookmarks plugin (by default) – and the latest version (0.8.2), while still being in beta, is very stable.
However I do agree with the article’s author that something like Netscape 4.8 should be included as well – much as I love Dillo, it can’t handle everything you need.
http://mulinux.sunsite.dk/mulinux.html
VERY small, and VERY fast.