DSL 0.9.3 - BeatrIX 2005.1 Comparison
Forum: User Feedback
Topic: DSL 0.9.3 - BeatrIX 2005.1 Comparison
started by: sci_fi
Posted by sci_fi on Feb. 06 2005,15:28
Hello:I have been experimenting with BeatrIX 2005.1 and DSL 0.9.3 and am posting my early results for anyone interested. Some details:
Tests were informal and were done with the standard live CD version of BeatrIX 2005.1 and a live CD of DSL 0.9.3 remastered to provide "equivalent" functionality. Details below. I tested only live CD's. I have not tested hard drive installations. I did not test printing configuration capabilities in this exercise. I have attempted to avoid comparisons about personal preference items such as backgrounds, splash screens, window managers, etc.
Unfortunately, the Openoffice.tar.gz files in the DSL CD were in the optional folder which makes boot times not directly comparable. I estimate an additional 35 seconds to download and install Openoffice.tar.gz on the DSL system.
I am a linux newbie. There may be some newbie misunderstandings in what follows. I welcome corrections to improve my understanding. I wish to express my sincere admiration to the BeatrIX and DSL teams. These distro's are fabulous and greatly aid mass acceptance of linux. I look forward to more releases. Comments most welcome.
RESULTS:
PARAMETER BeatrIX 2005.1 DSL 0.9.3 remaster
Contents Standard Standard plus
rcfirewall.dsl,
firefox-1.0PR.dsl,
jre1_5_0.tar.gz,
openoffice.tar.gz
(in optional folder)
CONNECTIVITY
Wired Broadband Excellent out of box Excellent out of box
Other (dial up, etc.) Not tested Not tested
OVERALL HARDWARE DETECTION
Dell Desktop Excellent out of box Excellent out of box
Security Did not test firewall Firewall works well.
Otherwise seems OK. DSL appears to allow
any virus or hacker who
gets in to sudo at will.
Is this really the case?
__
Remastering Not supported yet? Documentation sketchy;
essentially the same as
Knoppix.
Posted by sci_fi on Feb. 06 2005,15:30
Damn. Most of the data disappeared when I posted. Moderator please delete this. I will try again. Thx.
Posted by Rapidweather on Feb. 06 2005,18:46
Well, I've tested both distro's also. They really limited the programs in BeatrlX,but it does run fairly well. I use the syslinux version of 0.9.3, so it boots on all my machines. I have myself remastered Knoppix linux, and am burning a cd now of the latest one. I kept the large size, but have lots of KDE programs to use. The default window manager is Icewm, so it does not use system resources that much unless one switches to KDE. One really good part about BeatrlX is the excellent Fonts. They worked hard on those, and it can compare to Knoppix when using Firefox on the font quality on web pages. I had to add in Firefox and Opera to my Knoppix remaster. Even Puppy linux has Firefox. That one sets up a puppy home directory file on your hard drive (not on XP hard drive, cannot write to it), of about 260 Mb, and saves all your config to it automatically, whether or not you want it to.
Very low memory requirements, however, but the quality of the GUI is very old fashioned, not up to DSL or BeatrlX. Puppy will detect modems well, and has a firewall. My remaster of DSL 0.6.2 has Firefox, Opera, wvdial, and runs on almost all machines with at least 128 MB.
--
Rapidweather
Posted by John on Feb. 06 2005,19:15
Maybe you should try putting the above in a blog entry, at < http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/blog > . If it is long, it might be a better fit there than in the forums.