bigger than dsl?

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: bigger than dsl?
started by: toasterman

Posted by toasterman on Sep. 18 2006,11:41

Hi everyone,
I see DSL doesn't include KDE for performance/size issues.

I've been looking at building a mini-itx pc, and possibly using solid state memory instead of a conventional hard disk to keep it even smaller and lower power.
Downside of this is undoubtedly the additional cost of the drives.

I'm looking at using a 256/512mb ide flash drive. Although I'm a total newbie to Linux, Windows isn't an option for many reasons - filesize, cost (am planning it legit), speed on slower processors/lower ram amounts...etc

So does anyone know whats the smallest Linux you can get away with, that includes everything DSL has, plus KDE?

Thanks in advance for help

-Ben-

Posted by dtf on Sep. 19 2006,01:48

DSL and KDE are not a good mix. DSL was not really designed to run with KDE because the resources require to run KDE. If you are looking for a more standard graphical desktop then you might look into puppy linux or xunbuntu. Not my choices and I am not sure of the disk and memory requirements. However, if you want to keep things small and with good performance and are willing to do some configuration yourself, DSL is a very good alternative.

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 19 2006,03:12

Just guessing, but I'd say it would be much less work to become familiar with fluxbox and simplicity than to try incorporating KDE into DSL while retaining a reasonable size. A typical KDE base installation is several times the size of the entire DSL system.

Posted by dslfool on Sep. 19 2006,21:34

DSL is far and away my favorite distro under 100MB (and one of my favorites of any size). In the sub-256MB class, when I'm in the mood for KDE I use SLAX (www.slax.org). The standard version is just under 200MB, but it achieves that size by using a lot of KDE-specific apps such as Konquerer as its web browser and KWrite as the word processor - no Firefox or OpenOffice, although these and other apps can be added by way of modules.

There may be smaller distros that include KDE, but when I've used SLAX I've been pleased with how well everything's worked.

(I'll mention too that there's a sub-128MB variant of SLAX that uses XFCE instead of KDE and includes fewer apps.)

Posted by Thulemanden on Sep. 23 2006,20:08

Toasterman; I would suggest you acquire a used labtop as it is built for minimum power and is as small as any mini-itx cabinet.

I use a web server running 233mHz and you should be able to spend no more than euro200.-

Posted by Thulemanden on Sep. 23 2006,20:14

You can find a distro that let's you pick the applications you want leaving out hogs like OpO.org.

Another tactics is to use distrowatch.org to se which distro offers the fewest application in it's list AND KDE.. There can be a lot of libraries and developer tools in some, that you want to avoid.

Have you tried adding KDE to DSL?

Posted by pmisch on Sep. 27 2006,12:16

Hi,
I would also suggest using a Laptop - its cheaper and has all peripherals integrated.
SLAX may be a very good starting distro.

Peter