Damn Small Linux

Wiki Damn Small




Damn Small Linux or DSL is a free Linux distribution for the X86 family of personal computers.
It was designed to run graphical applications on older PC hardware -- for example, machines with 386/486/early-Pentium processors and very little memory.
DSL is a LiveCD with a size of 50 MB. What originally started as an experiment to see how much software could fit in 50 MB became a popular[citation needed] Linux distribution. It can be installed on storage media with small capacities, like bootable business card, 64 MB USB flash drive, CompactFlash card, and Zip drive.

DSL is not to be confused with DSLinux, which is a different Linux distribution for the Nintendo DS handheld game console.

DSL was originally conceived and maintained by John Andrews, but has grown into a large community project with many contributors, including Robert Shingledecker, who created the MyDSL system, DSL Control Panel, and other features.

DSL was originally based on Model-K, a 22 MB stripped-down version of Knoppix, but soon after was based on Knoppix proper, allowing much easier remastering and improvements.

DSL supports only X86 PC's. The minimum system requirements are a 386 processor and 8 MB of RAM.
DSL has been demonstrated browsing the web with Dillo, running simple games and playing music on systems with a 486 processor and 16 MB of RAM.
However, higher system requirements are needed to run Mozilla Firefox and optional add-ons such as the OpenOffice.org office suite.

The current version of DSL is 4.1, released December 2, 2007. DSL currently includes the following software:

    * Text editors: Beaver, Nano, Vim
    * File managers: DFM, emelFM
    * Graphics: XPaint, xzgv (image viewer)
    * Multimedia: gphone, XMMS with MPEG-1 and VCD support
    * Office: Siag (spreadsheet program), Ted (word processor with
       spellchecker), Xpdf (viewer for PDF documents)
    * Internet:
        o Web browsers: Dillo, Firefox, Netrik
        o Sylpheed (E-mail client)
        o naim (AIM, ICQ, and IRC client)
        o AxyFTP (FTP client), BetaFTPD (FTP server)
        o monkeyd (HTTP server)
        o SMB client
        o Rdesktop (RDP client), VNC viewer
        * Others: DHCP client, SSH/SCP client and server; PPP, PPPoE,
          ADSL support; FUSE, NFS, SSHFS support;
         UnionFS; generic/Ghostscript printing support; PC card, USB, Wi-Fi
         support; calculator, games, system monitor; many command-line tools

DSL has built-in scripts to download and install APT. Once APT is enabled, the user can install packages from Debian's 'Woody' repository. Additionally, DSL hosts software ranging from large applications like OpenOffice.org and GCC, to smaller ones such as aMSN, by means of the "MyDSL" system, which allows convenient one-click download and installation of software.
Files hosted on MyDSL are called "extensions".
As of December 2004, the MyDSL servers were hosting over 200 applications, plugins, and other extensions.

MyDSL is handled and maintained mostly by Robert Shingledecker and hosted by many organizations, such as ibiblio and Belgium's BELNET.
There are 2 areas of MyDSL - 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 are mounted as a separate filesystem to minimize RAM usage).
The "testing" area is for newly submitted extensions that theoretically work 'as advertised', but may have any number of bugs.

Boot options are also called 'cheat codes' in DSL.
Automatic hardware detection may fail, or the user may want to use something other than the default settings. DSL allows the user to enter one or more cheat codes at the boot prompt.
If nothing is entered, DSL will boot with the default options. Cheat codes affect many auto-detection and hardware options.
Many cheat codes also affect the GUI.
The list of cheat codes can be seen at boot time and also at the DSL Wiki.

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