DSL - lite

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: DSL - lite
started by: Rapidweather

Posted by Rapidweather on Mar. 07 2004,17:51

Some of us have been working on remastering DSL, to add, in my case, Foxfire, and some other things. I have not been very successful in the remastering effort, but will continue to try.
I think an enhanced version of DSL, with some of these things included, even though it does not fit on a small business-card cd would sell very well. When I bought 0.5.3.1, I asked for the regular-sized cd anyway, and would like to have a DSL with Foxfire and wvdial. I do that anyway with a restore, and have a couple of nice tarballs under way now that have all that. One has Foxfire, the other has MozillaFirebird. Would be nice to have most of the items wanted, and the only restore needed would fit on a floppy.
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What would DSL users want in this enhanced distro?
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Feel free to post here:
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Posted by charpie on Mar. 12 2004,00:52

I have been trying to do the same as you with all the script posted and so far no Joy. There is always a problem and I am limited in my linux programmers ability.

Firefox, flash, shockwave, java and thunderbird (sylpheed is ok but..)

I like the idea of a complete mini cd setup with the minimal restore on a stick or floppy.

By the way I just discover the toram option. That rocks. Real fast I love it.

For info:I do my experimentation on a p4 512ram using a dsl through a home lan (router). I have yet to try the dialup.

Posted by hasty on Mar. 12 2004,09:04

>>Firefox, flash, shockwave, java and thunderbird<< Absolutely.

Off the top of my head, the Gimp, Synaptic, Abiword if Open Office too big, and mplayer.

Posted by davide on Mar. 12 2004,11:03

just a few words to say that:
that has been discussed several times in this forum.
The results of these topics are generally to be resumed as follows, if I remember well:
1) this is not the goal of DSL
2) other distros already do that, or can do it if stripped down (knoppix, gnoppix, and so on..)
3) dsl has a philosophy based on the motto "keep it light and simple"

In my opinion, if I want openoffice, abiword, gimp, flash support and so on, I can use Mandrake Move or Knoppix. What I need dsl for is to bring to new life to old hardware, and to have a OS in my pocket.

just my humble opinion:)

Posted by enthusi on Mar. 12 2004,12:43

I totally agree with Davide (yeah., I'm a lazy guy)
:o)

Posted by clivesay on Mar. 12 2004,18:19

I will speak from the perspective of a clueless user.

Wouldn't a simple way to calm the apps debate be to provide scripts in the menu to easily install a few of the popular apps. I don't necessarily mean Openoffice but smaller ones such as Abiword and Firefox. I think Cbagger already has a script in the forum for Synaptic all the way to adding an icon to the desktop. I know it's easy for me to say "simple".

Do scripts take up a lot of space? There is already something similar in DSL for Mozilla I believe.

I understand that a distro called Kurumin has this feature using "Magic Icons". I haven't tried it because it is in Portuguese.

Something like this may be out of the scope for DSL......just a thought.

Chris

Posted by hasty on Mar. 12 2004,19:00

Sorry Davide,
What we are actually discussing is not really DSL.
More like fantasy football, what our dream mini distro would be

DSL was designed for the mini CD with it's 50mb limit and even the hard disk install is a secondary consideration.
Like many others I'm impressed by the versatility it gives to old equipment, but it's only human to want more!

At work I have to deal with loads of word docs, teds no use so Open Off would be handy for me.......
I also do some web mastering so simple graphic & camera progs would be a bonus as I could resize & change my photos etc..

No I don't want knoppix with all that bloat, or Mandrake.
If I want a mature distro I'd go with slack every time but have you looked at what the full install of one of thes distros takes, three CD's of mostly garbage. I haven't the time or inclination to strip one down

Once you use a system for any length of time you find you that it's a very small number of programs you use regularly.

DSL and its clones are truly excellent at what they do, but the bottom line in linux is that you roll your own and I'd rather start with small and work up

.......just a thought :laugh:

Posted by hasty on Mar. 12 2004,19:29

Should add I've done the hard disk install with firefox, java, Open Office and the Gimp installed.
Dillo, emelfm, and Ted removed.

Now what shall I call it ? :laugh:

Posted by Del on Mar. 12 2004,22:17

Quote (hasty @ Mar. 12 2004,06:29)

Now what shall I call it ? :laugh:

I'd call it Arthur. I mean, why not?

Posted by hasty on Mar. 13 2004,10:27

Arfur minute

Sorry can't resist dreadful puns <hangs head in shame an shuffles away muttering..........>

Posted by Rapidweather on Mar. 17 2004,04:29

I have been playing with Luit Linux, and rather than try and remaster that, (which I have not been able to accomplish), I just use a nice tarball, with Foxfire, Opera and all of my other stuff, wallpapers, etc.
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Been polishing the setup routine, which I write down on little cards by each
computer. It's very much a remaster of Damn Small, but goes over the 50
MB limit. BTW, Wall Street Journal reports that a scramble is on for the
replacement for the DVD. Some are going to be 50 GB, others are 30 GB.
Soon we may have larger credit card cd-type media for the small distros.
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I like the xfce4 window manager, it has Scite, Wvdial, and Gimp, which I play with some. Not enough fonts for Gimp, however, but it is fun to fool with anyway. Luit Linux seems to be based on 0.5.3.1, since it
easily takes Opera 6.12. Keeping the distro small, and using a little usb memory key seems to be the trick. Even a 64 MB key will easily keep a 18 MB backup.tar.gz and
the filetool.lst. I often keep a backup of the backup.tar.gz, in case I somehow foul up the main one. Keep those on CD, and on the hard drive, too. I agree that one will tend to use only a few of the applications on a little distro, but these have to be one size fits all, to appeal to a wide audience.
Luit Linux Screenshots from my 14 inch monitor: (kinda crowded)
< http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/luitlinux.png >
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< http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/luitlinux1.png >
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< http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/luitlinux2.png >
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I have run Luit Linux on a 17 inch Dell UltraSharp, but have not
made screenshots on that.
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BTW, screenshots are made using GIMP.
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:;):

Posted by hasty on Mar. 17 2004,20:09

Someeones hard my plea becaus the latest version of feather linux has scripts for open office, firefox & th gimp.
None of thm can fix this bloody keyboard an it's sticky ketys tho..............