Damn Small Linux

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Damn Small Linux
Screenshot of Damn Small Linux 4.4
Damn Small Linux 4.4
developer John Andrews, Robert Shingledecker, et al. a.
License (s) GPL
Current  version 4.4.11 RC2 (September 26, 2012)
ancestry GNU / Linux
↳ Debian
↳ Damn Small Linux
Architecture (s) x86
Languages) English
www.damnsmalllinux.org

Damn Small Linux [ ˈdæm ˌsmɔːl ˈlɪnʊks ] (DSL [ ˌdiː ɛs ˈɛl ], German  damn small Linux ) is an English-language Linux distribution that can be started from a business card CD (50 MB). The Damn Small Linux Project was started by John Andrews and Robert Shingledecker and was originally based on Knoppix . Today Damn Small Linux is based on Debian GNU / Linux . For a short time, the development came to a standstill because the inventor could not come to an agreement with the main developer.

properties

Damn Small Linux is designed to run on old computers with outdated hardware (for example with 486 architecture , 16 MB RAM and small hard drives under 54.0 MB). The distribution can be used as a live CD or installed on the hard drive. It can even be started in an MS Windows window (dsl-embedded), as is also possible with TopologiLinux , Puppy Linux , CoLinux and WinLinux, for example . Due to its low memory requirements, this distribution offers the option of working entirely from RAM (from 128 MB) or a USB stick .

From version 4.0 the Linux kernel 2.4.31 is used. As of version 3.0, the UnionFS file system is used with DSL , which offers the option of changing local files in live operation and thus installing programs later, for example.

Applications included

Despite its small size, this distribution offers a complete desktop.

Thanks to the package manager supplied, the basic version can be expanded quickly and easily with a large number of additional packages.

From version 0.7 Damn Small Linux can be expanded using the myDSL extensions , GZip- compressed binary archives with the file extension .dsl . The principle of Damn Small Linux is comparable to that of VectorLinux or that of the Knoppix mentioned above.

Damn Small Linux Not (DSL-N)

In 2006, with DSL-N (Damn Small Linux Not), an attempt was made to develop a DSL-oriented Linux distribution, which was not, however, bound to the 50 MB limit of DSL. This made it possible to use the Linux kernel 2.6 and GTK2 . Not as many programs are available for DSL-N as for DSL (in contrast to DSL, Debian package sources cannot be integrated). The last version DSL-N 0.1RC4 (August 24, 2006) has a size of 95 MB.

Versions

The first version 0.1 appeared in February 2003. After more than 20 other preliminary versions, version 1.0 followed on April 13, 2005. The last version 4.4.11 RC2 was released on September 27, 2012.

See also

Web links

Commons : Damn Small Linux  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Interview with Robert Shindledecker, creator of Tiny Core Linux
  2. Release announcement of DSL 4.4.11 RC2 , John Andrews, DSL Forum, September 27, 2012, accessed July 8, 2013.