DSL over Knoppix : No bloat!
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| vainrveenr Dec 28, 2007 10:06 AM EDT |
Another huge oft-repeated benefit of DSL over the likes of Knoppix, MEPIS, PCLOS, ... etc. is its total avoidance of any bloatware.
No OpenOffice.org or other semi-bloatware hogging up resources! Can all fit onto a 50MB business-card CD, or can compile any desired myDSL Application Extensions found at http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/... (or from another DSL download mirror's ../damnsmall/mydsl/ folder) for an bootable ISO on a standard 80mm mini-CD. Such an imense portability benefit maybe even meets or exceeds the portability of currently touted bootable pendrives/thumbdrives! DSL download mirrors at http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html ; Robert Shingledecker's main mkmydsl instruction page at http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Mkmydsl |
| Steven_Rosenber Dec 28, 2007 10:15 AM EDT |
I think it really depends on your hardware and how well the live CDs detect what you've got. DSL and Puppy especially don't work perfectly on all boxes. Sometimes you can fix that. For instance, DSL on one of my laptops picks 1024 x 768 resolution when it can only do 800 x 600. It's easy enough to open the DSL Panel, click Xvesa and change the resolution, then saving the configuration for the next boot. But on another laptop, I just can't get X configured properly at all in DSL; Puppy, however, works perfectly on it. And some people want OpenOffice, KDE and all the other stuff on Knoppix. If you've got a fairly fast CPU and at least 512 MB of memory (better to have 1 GB), Knoppix runs very well. And with DSL and Puppy, you can add MUCH software. Puppy even has a way to easily add the entire OpenOffice suite. I use all of these live CDs, some more than others, but instead of thinking Knoppix has too much bloat, I'm eager to get Knoppix on DVD to have even more software at my disposal in the live environment. |
| ColonelPanik Dec 28, 2007 10:56 AM EDT |
Knoppix! |
| hkwint Dec 28, 2007 3:43 PM EDT |
Not knowing what DSL is intended for, I checked WP, which said it's intended for older machines (PII or so) with little RAM. So I think it's silly to compare it to Knoppix, which is intended to show as much of Linux' capabilities as possible. I mean, I could say DSL is bloated as well when comparing to Linux distributions which don't run X (there are browsers etc. running on the framebuffer instead), but that wouldn't make sense, would it? |
| gus3 Dec 28, 2007 8:32 PM EDT |
Quoting:I think it's silly to compare it to Knoppix, which is intended to show as much of Linux' capabilities as possible."Running on older machines that Microsoft prefers you abandon" is a Linux capability as much as any other. |
| Scott_Ruecker Dec 28, 2007 9:21 PM EDT |
I have to agree that comparing DSL to Knoppix is not a good comparison. Like the DSL people have always said, it is meant to run on older hardware. That is one of the major factors in being able to have such a functional OS inside of 50megs in size. In my experience DSL is best on P-1 through P-3 machines. My rule of thumb is that if it is one of those old PC's that has trouble running 95, 98 or 2000, it should run DSL perfectly. My perfect DSL setup is to have two CD-ROM drives with at least one of them a CD-RW. The ROM for DSL to run in and the CD-RW to pull configuration files from and write/rewrite files too. That's the setup that has given me the least amount of hassle. |
| hkwint Dec 29, 2007 7:05 AM EDT |
Quoting:"Running on older machines that Microsoft prefers you abandon" is a Linux capability as much as any other." That's true. However, when showcasing 'as much as possible' you can't make something that both runs on older machines and runs compiz-fusion, Amarok and KDE4, so 'as much as possible' indeed presents a choice - and after that choice is made it's difficult to compare. |
| azerthoth Dec 29, 2007 1:20 PM EDT |
hkwint, I agree that CF should be included in a "showcase", putting KDE4 in at this point in time though would be less than a good idea. The two time I have played with it off of fresh daily builds I was completely disappointed. I have made my mind up not to touch it again until 2009 when some of the bugs and glitches may get worked out. I have no real problems since I am using a gentoo deriv to "downgrading" to the much more stable and appealing KDE3.5 series, when I want or need to use KDE. Mostly I am happy with Fluxbox and it's easier to handle customization and versatility. my .02 |
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