User Feedback :: My installation successes



Hi

Just wanted to give my story about how I now have three systems running installed DSL.

Firstly, I was looking for a distribution that would run on an ancient Toshiba laptop with a Pentium 133 Mhz processor, 144 Mb ram and a 20 Gb hard disk (I upgraded the machine a couple of years ago from the basic configuration) which was running windows 98.  Windows ME wouldn't install saying it needed a 150 Mhz processor or higher, which left me stuck.

I initially attempted to install the latest version of Slackware, having used it for a while on my main PC (more of that later), but even though it was only a 2 cd distribution, I found that it took an absolute age to install (probably has to compile everything as it installs it), and after a day and a half, the system was up and running, but it wouldn't use the native resolution of the laptop, wouldn't use the in-built sound and couldn't detect the Xircom PC/MCIA modem and network card that I had installed.

Oh, and when running the uptime command, the process averages were around 20!

I then started looking for a lean, mean distro, of which I decided to try DSL.  Within a short while, I had it downloaded, had it onto a business card cd, and had it running on the laptop, and it detected everything first go, without complaint and with minimal user input.  You can't begin to understand how interested, happy, excited and surprised I felt.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have also installed DSL onto a machine running a Pentium 2 233 Mhz with not much ram and also onto a machine running an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1 Ghz with 192 Mb ram (the AMD system was running Mandrake 10.1, which I just couldn't get to support my hardware, then I removed that and went to Slackware, but to be honest, I've just been having so much success with DSL, I just had to install it instead).

Well, all I can say is that with the three systems I've installed DSL on, It's detected and supported all hardware I've thrown at it, including a really annoying Netgear wireless networking card that Mandrake didn't even see, and I'm officially thrilled to bits as the saying goes that I'm finally able to use and not spend hours trying to configure a system.

Many thanks.

Simon Ferre'
Quote (simon.ferre @ Nov. 04 2005,10:39)
Hi

Just wanted to give my story about how I now have three systems running installed DSL.

Firstly, I was looking for a distribution that would run on an ancient Toshiba laptop with a Pentium 133 Mhz processor, 144 Mb ram and a 20 Gb hard disk (I upgraded the machine a couple of years ago from the basic configuration) which was running windows 98.  Windows ME wouldn't install saying it needed a 150 Mhz processor or higher, which left me stuck.

I initially attempted to install the latest version of Slackware, having used it for a while on my main PC (more of that later), but even though it was only a 2 cd distribution, I found that it took an absolute age to install (probably has to compile everything as it installs it), and after a day and a half, the system was up and running, but it wouldn't use the native resolution of the laptop, wouldn't use the in-built sound and couldn't detect the Xircom PC/MCIA modem and network card that I had installed.

Oh, and when running the uptime command, the process averages were around 20!

I then started looking for a lean, mean distro, of which I decided to try DSL.  Within a short while, I had it downloaded, had it onto a business card cd, and had it running on the laptop, and it detected everything first go, without complaint and with minimal user input.  You can't begin to understand how interested, happy, excited and surprised I felt.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have also installed DSL onto a machine running a Pentium 2 233 Mhz with not much ram and also onto a machine running an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1 Ghz with 192 Mb ram (the AMD system was running Mandrake 10.1, which I just couldn't get to support my hardware, then I removed that and went to Slackware, but to be honest, I've just been having so much success with DSL, I just had to install it instead).

Well, all I can say is that with the three systems I've installed DSL on, It's detected and supported all hardware I've thrown at it, including a really annoying Netgear wireless networking card that Mandrake didn't even see, and I'm officially thrilled to bits as the saying goes that I'm finally able to use and not spend hours trying to configure a system.

Many thanks.

Simon Ferre'

I am a member of the HAL-PC and they have a linux workgroup every wednesday night...I had a few guys absolutely blown away by the speed and response time of the virtual desktops (alt f1, f2, f3, f4)...many of them have heard of Damn Small Linux, but have never used it...

I heard some of them say while I was switching back and forth between desktops that my old Compaq LTE 5300 133Mhz with 32Meg RAM was faster or as fast as some of thier more  powerful machines!

Many have heard of it...not many have seen what it is capable of!

P.S.  Welcome to the Revolution!!!

Brian
AwPhuch

original here.