Into the World of Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux 0.8.4 was released recently. Now, the Siag Office word processor and spreadsheet are included, there were adjustments to smbclient GUI; adjustments to the control panel for backup and more. We talked to John Andrews, founder of the DSL distribution last week and he opened up to us with enthusiasm on the project's future. DSL's main target is to run off business card CDs and/or USB keys (below 64 MBs of space). John is constantly trying to improve the space arranged in the distro so it never ends up being more than 50 MBs (compressed). This way, Linux can be demonstrated easily, fast and without any risk, to new users. Moreover, John told us that he has heard of others running DSL on a 486DX machine with only 16 MBs, with X11, proving DSL to be an excellent choice for older machines.
DSL runs on the Fluxbox window manager along with a few addons to allow for a visual representation of virtual screens, and desktop icons. DSL does not include KDE or Gnome, but the main power behind most apps is GTK 1.2.x, nCurses, FLTk. Applications included are a hacked version of Dillo, Links-hacked (special graphical version of Links), Sylpheed, BashBurn and the Siag office suite. Through DSL I was also introduced to axFTP, a nice GTK FTP app.
