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Damn Small Linux (also known as DSL) is a Linux distribution originally conceived as an operating system to run on lower specification systems, including computers which would otherwise come out of use. The distribution contrasts to most other Linux distributions by ranking hardware requirements of programs above other considerations.
As of December 31, 2006, DSL ranks as the eighth most popular distribution tracked on DistroWatch (which measures comparative popularity based on page views). This provides evidence of strong enthusiasm for operating systems capable of running on lower-end hardware.
Due to the small size of the complete distribution, it will run on smaller storage devices than most other operating systems, including bootable business card, 64 MB USB flash drive, CompactFlash card (through IDE connector) and ZIP drive. (http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=04/02/04/1533212)
Origins
Damn Small Linux was originally conceived and maintained by John Andrews, but has grown into a large community project with many contributors, most notably Robert Shingledecker for the creation of the MyDSL system, DSL Control Panel, and much more.
Although Andrews originally based DSL on Model K, a 22 MB hack-down of Knoppix, DSL is now based on Knoppix proper, allowing much easier remastering and improvements.
Features
The current version of DSL is 3.1, as of November 28, 2006. In this version the programs that are included are:
* Web browsers:
* *Mozilla Firefox
* *Dillo web browser, patched for tabbed-browsing, SSL and frames support
* *Netrik
* Sylpheed email client
* HTTP Server (Monkey web server)
* AxY GTK+ FTP client
* FTP Server
* SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, UnionFS, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, wireless LAN and PCMCIA support; NFS, FUSE, SSHFS support.
* Office:
* *Siag spreadsheet
* *Ted word processor
* *Spellcheck (US English)
* Text editors:
* * Beaver
* * Vim
* * Nano
* Graphics editing and viewing: (Xpaint and xzgv)
* Xpdf
* XMMS, audio player
* emelFM (file manager)
* naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC)
* Virtual Network Computing (VNC) viewer
* Rdesktop
DSL has built in scripts for the download and installation of Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool (APT), and Synaptic, a GUI front-end to APT. Once the repositories are enabled, (as of 3.0.1) it draws from the rather old Debian Woody repository. Additionally, Damn Small Linux provides on-demand download for large programs such as OpenOffice.org and the GNU Compiler Collection as well as smaller apps like XMMS by means of the MyDSL system, which allows users the convenience of 1-click download and installation of apps (although most DSL users refer to all things MyDSL as extensions). As of December 7, 2004, the MyDSL servers are hosting over 200 apps, plugins, and other extensions available for installation.
Boot Options
Boot options are also known as 'cheat codes'. Automatic hardware detection may fail, or the user may want to use something other than the default settings. For this, DSL allows the user to enter one or more cheat codes at the prompt before booting. If the user does not enter a cheat code, or if no key is pressed before the timeout, DSL will boot with its default options. Cheat codes affect many auto-detection and hardware options. Many cheat codes also affect the GUI. The list of cheat codes is available on the Knoppix mirrors, and can be seen at boot time.
DSL can also be easily run inside the QEMU emulator under Windows or Linux. Since this doesn't require a reboot, this further reduces the requirements for trying out or demonstrating Linux.
The MyDSL System
The MyDSL extensions and servers are handled and maintained by Ke4nt and hosted by many kind organizations, such as ibiblio and Belgium's Belnet. There are 2 areas of the MyDSL servers - regular and testing. The "regular" area contains extensions that have been proven stable enough for everyday use and is broken down into different areas such as "Apps", "Net", "system", and "uci" (Universal Compressed ISO - extensions in .uci format mount as a separate filesystem to save RAM space). The Testing Area is for newly submitted extensions that theoretically work "as advertised", but may have any number of bugs. A nickname of this among DSL developers is "Stuffing the Penguin".
System Requirements
DSL is available for x86 architectures only. This includes 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, AMD K6, AMD Athlon, and VIA C3. DSL has been demonstrated browsing the web with Dillo, playing games and music on systems with 486 processor and 16Mb RAM. However, higher system requirements may be needed to run Firefox and guest packages such as OpenOffice.
Other Versions
* Frugal.iso (minimal) install is basically the equivalent to running the CD compressed image on a hard drive partition (a Knoppix poorman's install) except it is booted with the lilo bootloader by default. It has the ability to assign boot time options and automate backup restore. For memory savings, there is the option to have persistent /home and /opt filesystems on other partitions. This is a way to run a relatively secure system. It also lends itself to simple upgrades. There are different flavours: lite, grub and usb.
* DSL-embedded (55 MB). The ISO image is easily upgradable to the latest version.
* DSL-syslinux iso.
* DSL-pendrive usb, in usb-hdd and usb-zip flavours.
* DSL-N, a larger version not constrained by the 50MB limit of business-card CD's. Uses GTK+ 2 apps and linux 2.6. The size of version 0.1RC4 is 95MB.
One can use different floppies to boot: bootfloppy.img and bootfloppy-usb.img
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