Damn Small Linux Rises From the Dead With a 4.11 RC1 Release 101
An anonymous reader writes "Damn Small Linux is back from the dead, with a version 4.11 RC1 release announcement at Distrowatch and another at the DSL Forums! Quoting: 'Here is the first release candidate for Damn Small Linux (DSL) 4.11. The changes in this release are a step toward making DSL a friendly alternative for older hardware. I've fixed some bugs, updated some applications, and replaced others. Applications: updated JWM to 2.1.0 (now supports rounding); updated Dillo to 3.0.2 (much improves CSS support); added XChat 1.8.9; added sic 1.1 IRC client; added XCalc-color. Modified desktop functionality: it is now possible to switch between JWM and Fluxbox without shutting down X; added menu items to switch between DFM and xtdesk icon engines or use none at all." Here's the download page."
TI83 (Score:5, Interesting)
I just noticed that this distro uses JWM, which was written by legendary TI-83 programmer Joe Wingbermuehle [ticalc.org]. If you went to high school in 1998-2002 and had a TI83 or TI83+, you might have had some of his programs, such as the Ion assembly shell, Boxworld, Breakout, Diamonds, Dstar, Landmine, or Jezzball.
Loved DSL. But what kernel and system libs? (Score:3, Interesting)
DSL was hugely important to me. It started me in Linux, got me understanding things, learning scripting, Perl and C. Booted all into ram it was blinding fast even on an old machine. I love small light applications and I still love the idea of a whole desktop and browser in a 50MB iso. It predates Puppy and all the others. But what version stuff is it running now?
What kernel version is it running? libc? Apart from the dispute between its owner and its lead developer (the latter went off to found Tinycore) the big problem with old DSL was compiling anything recent became a pain because it and the gcc versions in the repo were so out of date. Leaving aside security issues this began to hamper what I could do with it. Then there was the old 2.4.26 kernel.
Is that how it has to be if the goal is to support old hardware? How old? Tinycore claims to support 486 with math processor and it has the latest *everything*, tc kernel and apps are often very recent.
Re:What is the "best" small linux distro , and why (Score:5, Interesting)
Tinycore
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What is the "best" small linux distro , and why (Score:5, Interesting)
Good point. DSL was light, but also felt very clunky: UI and to install extra software. I wanted something with the backing of a standard package repository.
An year or two ago, I was looking for a light Linux to run in a VM and was balancing usability with RAM usage. Here are my numbers from some old notes. Unless specified, the numbers are for RAM usage at login to Desktop at default config (I might have removed some apps I considered non-essential - I don't recall).
Of course, these are not exactly scientific. Was sshd running for Arch?, I didn't note down. The distro version numbers were also not noted, but all distros were roughly from 1.5 years ago. They were more for getting ballpark estimates. AFAI-recall, they were all booted in a 256 MB VM (Virtualbox).
Lubuntu - 85 MB
Fluxbuntu 48 MB (31 MB without X)
Lubuntu 64 MB (41 MB without X)
Ubuntu Server 10.04 without servers and X - 145 MB (did not expect this)
Ubuntu Mint (Gloria) 144 MB
Debian Mint 138 MB
ULite Desktop - 54 MB (17 MB without X)
ULite Desktop without GDM - 26 MB
Non-Debian (without X)
Suse in light server config - 13 MB (incl sshd, 10 MB without)
Arch - 14 MB
So, Suse took the light-weight crown for RAM usage at terminal boot. For me though, Lubuntu was the sweet-spot at that time.