DSL Talk

Just tried feather linux on a usb-stick. Looks like DSL with lots of extra tools. Very nicely done anyway... But what i want to say: i sortha crambed my usb-stick (with DSL) also full with extra's and it is hard to keep it all 1) organised 2) manageble 3) easy to access. The last one is what i want to talk about. featherlinux (fluxbox) is so crambed full with stuff that it is hard to find the right tool/app when you need it. I sortha tried to change all that by filling fluxbox up with icons, but in the end, it is not getting much better. Wish that fluxbox could change color/font for every entry in the fluxmenu... Haven't found any better WM to do the trick.

Strange, every distro i try (on my usb-stick) seems to be debian/knoppix/DSL related. (INSERT/feather/....)

What're you talking about? I never in my article said "(Linux is fragmented, and will never be BIG as MS because of the chaos it creates with all its live-cd's and distro's)."

I said its fragmented, which it is. But I never said its big like MS or whatever. Come on man...In 1996, when I first started Linux, there were 3 distros...Slackware, Redhat, and Debian. Now how many are there? I'm not complaining...but the point is it is confusing. At least there are places like DistroWatch who take the time to compare all four trillion distributions.

The problem is now everyone has their own (sub)distribution. Feather is/was based on DSL, which is based on Knoppix, which is based on Debian...or all 30,000 other livecds based on debian...haha...I dunno. Its actually kind of amusing.

The reason I made that post with no replies allowed was so stuff like this wouldn't happen...But I don't want someone to take me out of context...or make a blatant miscommunication. I'm not ANTI-MS...And I'm only ANTI-Linux when it comes to BSD, as thats where I've been for the past decade. Go figure. But I like linux...and I never said its too big or that it will get as BIG as MS is or whatever.

-william
tronik @ #damnsmalllinux irc.freenode.net

Sorry for taking you out of context or for the blatant miscommunication... :-)

ps: I never said YOU where anti-linux or something

Right now i use DSL (0.8.4) on a usb-stick (frugal) and i've got it on a PC at home DSL installed (frugal) (side by side with Win XP). I use grub to boot to DSL / XP / DOS. (on the HD, not on the stick, the stick boots with DOS and loadlin.exe gets me to DSL)

I am thinking of moving from 0.8.4 to 0.9.3, but i wonder how much work/time it will take to get all the added settings/applications back into the "new" DSL.

Things i added to 0.8.4:

settings in .xinitrc/bootlocalrc/fixfstab.sh/
lots of dsl-extensions in the root
fluxbox 0.9.11 + added menu-icons/keybindings
firefox V1 PRE + lots of added extensions and bookmark-groups *
xplanet + settings/scripts/maps/markers
wm-applications
xawtv + settings/tv-channels (deb dpkg -i) *
bdc (anti-virus) (deb dpkg -i) *
scripts (diskcopy/xfree/outide ip-adres/torsmo/etc)
pictures (png/jpg)
sounds (wav)
realplayer (don't remember how i did that) *

All this work (*) sort off keeps me from making the change from one DSL to another. The rest is just a matter of copying from the unpacked backup.tar.gz to the right map in the new DSL. Maybe i am just lazy or scared that i will run into problems. I hear that there are dsl-users who are continuesly clooping (?) remastering the DSL-knoppix-file to add/delete app's and settings. Not my cup of tea i am afraid.

I often think that the KNOPPIX file has its pro's and con's. I don't know if a true HD-install of DSL will unpack the KNOPPIX-file to the HD and thereby make redundant the need to make backup's to save system-settings. Such a installation will use a lot more hd-space of course and will therefor not be a good idea for my usb-stick.

So far my thoughts about this matter...

I just made paypal-account and am ready to donate some bucks to DSL. Hope all the other DSl-users will do that to. I am very happy with my usb-stick/HD-installation. It's so easy now to make changes/improvements to DSL on the stick (at work) and then just copy the whole stick (at home) to HD. (HD boots a lot quicker, that's why i don't boot with the usb-stick at home). (right now i am running out of diskspace AGAIN on the stick = 512 Mb).

Next "project" getting my scanner at home to work in DSL. (Hp scanner). I know (thanks to usb-view) that DSL has detected it. Now i need a scanner application.dsl or maybe i need to apt-get me something... (like sane/Xsane)

PS: it seems that dsl 0.9.3 supports usb V2.0 (which is suppost to be 40 time faster then usb V1). Wonder if DSl will boot 40 times faster from my usb sticj if i upgrade from 0.8.4 to 0.9.3???

Wow, donations are cool and all. But I guess I'm still of the mind that open source (freeware as it was in the day) was just that. Hey if you want some of my money to get more diskspacage for the web or more bandwitdth to share it with the discerning masses, I'm all for that. I've got about 600 bucks from my windows refund to share :D

Higara

It is what it was in the day...but that doesn't mean people don't want to voluntarily support it ;) Like in the old days, when freeware was freeware(or postcard-ware) and authors asked for a letter or postcard...Nobodys begging for money here...Its just nice to get some support from your userbase when you work hard on something without a big corporate entity backing you ;) ...that way the freeware keeps rolling and keeps being free, rather than the person getting snatched up by some big company =) (some of that rhymed...weird.)

-william
tronik @ #damnsmalllinux irc.freenode.net