Damn Small Linux Not So Small

An anonymous reader writes "According to DistroWatch, Damn Small Linux (DSL) is currently the most popular microLinux distribution. Linux.com (Also owned by VA) takes a look at why this might be the case, and how you can best take advantage of it. From the article: 'What began as a toy project to stuff the maximum software inside a 50MB ISO file has matured into a refined community project known for its speed and versatility. DSL includes the ultra-lightweight FluxBox window manager, two Web browsers, Slypheed email client and news reader, xpdf PDF viewer, XMMS with MPEG media file support for playing audio and video, BashBurn CD burner, XPaint image editing, VNCViewer and rdesktop to control Windows and Linux desktops remotely, and more. If they could do all this in 50 megs, imagine what they could do in more space. Last month the DSL developers released DSL-Not, a.k.a. DSL-N 0.1 RC1. It's 83.5MB of DSL coated with GTK sugar. Yummy!'"

Comments

DSL and DSL-N

[aymanh]

Last month the DSL developers released DSL-Not, a.k.a. DSL-N 0.1 RC1. It's 83.5MB of DSL coated with GTK sugar. Yummy!

Actually, looks like DSL-N is more than just GTK sugar, from its web page, DSL-N features a modern kernel with more hardware support, in addition to more apps, like MPlayer, Gaim, and gFTP.

It's also worth mentioning that the original DSL uses a lightweight GUI toolkit called FLTK and Lua for its tools, interesting!

Re:Good, but not perfect... Knoppix is a pain

[grasshoppa]

There is a very real need for a quick and dirty distro. What you are describing is a situation where another distro would fit better.

The problem isn't the tool. The problem is you trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.