Damn Small Linux

Damn Small Linux

DSL is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution.

Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:

• Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
• Boot from a USB pen drive
• Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
• Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
• Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
• Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
• Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
• Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize

If you like DSL you can install it on your hard drive. Because all the applications are small and light it makes a very good choice for older hardware.

Originally DSL was based on model_k, which did an excellent distillation of Knoppix down to 33 megabytes. But more recent versions are a reduction from Knoppix proper.

As many know Knoppix is based on Debian which really made the producer task a lot easier, but the applications on the CD are not pure Debian. This release is using a few apps that are not available via apt-get.


If you like Damn Small Linux, please consider donating (publisher`s website); even small contributions will help fund its continued development.

Where to download:

Current Full Mirror List:
ftp://ftp.oss.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/ Fast!
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/
http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/
ftp://ftp.is.co.za/linux/distributions/damnsmall/ (South Africa)
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/damnsmall/ (Austria) also rsync and FTP
http://gulus.USherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/DamnSmallLinux/Location: (Quebec, Canada)
http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/damnsmalllinux/ (Belgian)
ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/damnsmalllinux/ (Belgian)
http://planetmirror.com/pub/damnsmall/
ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/damnsmall/
http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalllinux.org/
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalllinux.org/

Rysnc Mirror:
rsync ftp.belnet.be::packages/damnsmalllinux/
sync://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalllinux.org/

Bittorrent Mirror:
http://www.tlm-project.org/torrents/damnsmall/

Metalink:
Metalink

Other Sites with DSL iso's:
http://alien2thisworld.net/DamnSmallLinux/
http://mirror.linuxquestions.org/pub/distributions/damnsmall/
http://dslmirror.vectori.net

Featured Desktop applications used in Damn Small Linux
Note: All these applications are part of the base distribution, through the MyDSL system it is possible to grab hundreds of other applications with a couple of clicks of the mouse, or make your own custom CD with exactly the applications you want
Browser: Dillo
Browser: Netrik
Word Processor: Ted
Email: Sylpheed
Picture Viewer: Xzgv
Image Editing: Xpaint
File Manager: emelFM
Window Manager: FluxBox
Window Manager: JWM
Instant Messaging Naim
VoIP Gphone
GUI Text Editor: Beaver
Spreadsheet: Scheme In A Grid
PDF: Xpdf

Some other great Applications:

• XMMS (mp3, ogg, mpeg, cd audio) and mp321 and ogg123 (that's right, you got Music and Video)
• Vim, an enhanced Vi
• Assorted Xbase utilities (Xcalc etc.)
• ssh, sshd
• betaftpd, a very small FTP daemon
• Sqlite a small and very fast SQL database engine
• Nano, a Pico Clone
• MS Office Viwer
• Postscript Viewer
• AxY FTP
• Telnet client
• Microcom
• Midnight Commander
• Bash Burn, CD Burning App
• Fast and Light GUI Admin tools
• Monkey web server
• VNCviewer
• Rdesktop
• Much More!

The Forums

• The DSL Forums
• Forum Rules
• The Search Function

Realtime Support

• The DSL IRC Channel
• IRC Rules

Related Articles:

Feather Linux
Pen Drive Linux - USB PC Linux OS MiniMe
Linux Operating System

View blog reactions