Time to Celebrate! DSL 1.0 is out!

Forum: Site News
Topic: Time to Celebrate! DSL 1.0 is out!
started by: John

Posted by John on April 13 2005,06:19

What a great mini-distribution DSL has become, thank you to everyone who have made DSL much more than what I would have been able to do on my own.

Special thanks to Robert for working all his magic, to Kent for doing an amazing job testing and maintaining the MyDSL repositor, to Tronik and SaidinUnleashed for maintaining the Docs, Cbagger01 for all the great input and ideas, and the rest of you for helping out in all the ways you do. This really is a community project!

John

Posted by l0st on April 13 2005,10:05

kudos to all
now the devs can take a good long deserved rest

....and all was good.

Posted by gunnix on April 13 2005,11:50

Congratulations, it looks really nice. You even got an updated xpdf in the final version, great!

Posted by adraker on April 13 2005,12:10

And thanks to you too, John.
The whole project, and the people who support it with
help for others in the forums, docs, builds, - the list goes on,
it's a great thing.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on April 13 2005,12:12

TIME FOR DANCING!!!!

/o/ \o\ o/ \o <o> \o> <o/ |o| \o/

Posted by tronik on April 13 2005,13:20

Hehe..Psycho dancer =D

Posted by bluefreak on April 13 2005,13:30

yeah. thanks to everyone who has in making this THE BEST MINI DISTRO EVER!

special thanks to John and the devs, you guys are a really amazing bunch.

now i can finally put my last business card cd to good use.

Posted by clivesay on April 13 2005,13:41

Where's the release party?

Posted by AwPhuch on April 13 2005,22:34

Way to go guys!

Long hard fight..but it was well worth it!

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by cbagger01 on April 14 2005,04:38

Congratulations!

DSL certainly is something to be proud of.

It's cool that feedback is used to improve the distro again and the little things like file manager associations and other tweaks are not ignored because seemingly small changes can make a big improvement in the ease-of-use of the distro.

Posted by adssse on April 14 2005,14:05

Congrats, its been great to see the evolution of dsl.

Also thanks to all those that contribute by answering hopeless peoples questions like mine in the forums, you make it possible for people like me to learn new things.

Posted by AwPhuch on April 14 2005,20:13

I vote for the distro release party to be held in Houston...heh!

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by Waterns on April 14 2005,20:22

CONGRATSSSSS!!! Do you guys/girls realize that DSL is probably the best Bootable distro for semi older PCs (anything under 600 mhz). Sure Knoppix rocks on but since it incorperates KDE gnome and such they require much more ram and CPU power. But still kudos to the Knoppix team also since DSL is knoppix based.

DSL is more than something to be proud of. DSL will be remebered and redone and reused many times before it becomes forgotten.:D

DSL has my gratitude of making use of all the old laptops and PCs.

Posted by Rapidweather on April 14 2005,22:47

Thanks to DSL for introducing me and so many others to the LiveCD.
I have been on dial-up internet access for a long time, and DSL was the only one I could download. Knoppix was out of the question. My first two copies were purchased from John, however, since I did not then know how to burn my own, and wanted the real thing.
I have spend endless enjoyable hours working with, and using Damn Small Linux. Thanks to all.

Posted by reidar on April 15 2005,05:13

Congratulations to everyone! John, Robert, Kent (and everyone else involved), you guys are doing a great job!!!!

-r

Posted by bluefreak on April 15 2005,11:00

looks like 1.0.1 has been released. it's just a bugfix version right? because i just got 1.0 yesterday...

Posted by MrBear37 on April 15 2005,14:45

John et al,

First, allow me to say that I love DSL. It totally rocks and is in fact my most favorite of the distros.

I wanted to ask what happened between DSL version 8.4 and pre-release of version 1.0 that has caused a performance issue in flux ? The apps run a bit slower. Can you shed some light on why this might be ? I know that for Newer machines this is not an issue.. however, for some older machines ( Mine is a thinkpad 770) there is a definite degrade in performance in the new version.

THanks !
Mark

Posted by roberts on April 15 2005,15:46

Quote

looks like 1.0.1 has been released. it's just a bugfix version right? because i just got 1.0 yesterday...

Yes a bug fix release. See < Notes > for the list.

Posted by ke4nt1 on April 15 2005,16:12

Mark,

Are you enabling dma at boottime?
It no longer is the default,
and requires the "dma" to be added at runtime..
( because many computers won't boot with it defaulted )

My IBM 770's cdrom does not like dma enabled,
so I added this line to the /opt/bootlocal.sh in my backup.

hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

It makes a difference in how my laptop performs..
Course, if you've got the floppy in it instead of the cdrom,
you can use the "dsl dma" at boottime.

73
ke4nt

Posted by roberts on April 15 2005,17:14

Mark,
I would have to disagree with you. I have spent alot of time to engineer the system to use less resources. To see the results of my efforts do this:

Boot up any prior version of DSL, say 0.8.4. Now lets be fair, it must be a pristine liveCD boot, no extensions, no restore. Afterall, that is all that I have control over. So boot like this:

boot: dsl base norestore

Now close the Dillo Help screen and open an xterm and type free
Note the amount of free ram

Next boot up DSL 1.0.1 and do the same. Notice there has been a reduction in actual memory used. So not only have I kept the base iso under 50MB, I have also been hard at work to reduce memory footprint.

I know that does not solve your problem. But that is all that I can control. So I suspect that any of the following may contribute to what you are seeing:

1. The temtation of starting firefox on smaller less capable machine eats up and does not always give back your ram.
2. The cache of the firefox browser is another source of quickly disappearing ram. Depending on your hardware you should drastically reduce it.
3. Loading extensions many areas here. And the fact that gnu-utils has grown in size since 0.8.4 as well as dsl-dpkg. The more extensions you load the less ram you have.
4. The size of your backup also eats ram.

Believe me when I say, I am acutely aware of the less capable hardware. Most of the hardware I own is in that category. That is one reason why I so strongly support the UCI extensions.

Robert

Posted by to add tz info on April 16 2005,20:43

<grumble . . . >
4-13: DSL 1.0
4-15: DSL 1.0.1
-- 2 releases in 3 days? What's up with that?
1) wasteful of bandwidth, cd blanks, and time.
2) confusing and off-putting to potential and established users.
3) disappointing, since one expects a new release to have something "new".
4) BTW, my download of DSL 1.0.1 proudly displays "DSL 1.0" (not DSL 1.0.1) on the automatic Dillo welcome screen. Huh?

Now I remember why I like Debian Stable. Just because you can release doesn't mean you should.

PS -- please fix the timezone problem. I would have thought a project run by a radio amateur would show more respect for time. Need more room to add tz info?? Lose the games.

Posted by Seth on April 16 2005,21:49

>>2) confusing and off-putting to potential and established users.
havent head a established user complain yet

>>1) wasteful of bandwidth, cd blanks, and time.
all great work In Progress 'es require lots of raw materials

>>3) disappointing, since one expects a new release to have something "new".
M$ has never released something 'new', yet everyone jumps on the 'new' bandwagon
and the release fixes somebugs that managed to creep in, kudos to them for releaseing to so fast!

>>4) BTW, my download of DSL 1.0.1 proudly displays "DSL 1.0" (not DSL 1.0.1) on the automatic Dillo welcome screen. Huh?
Why complain about somthing like that?

Seth_Has_Errors

Posted by roberts on April 17 2005,00:24

Quote

PS -- please fix the timezone problem.

What timezone problem

Try the search button for maybe < timezone >

Posted by mikshaw on April 17 2005,01:44

Consider the numbering system used in software releases:
1.0.1: 1=major release, 0=minor release, 1=very minor fix
This means that it is basically version 1
If you are looking for something "new" added after 1.0, it would be at least 1.1. The third decimal place signifies a minor fix or patch, in this case only a couple of things were changed...things that mean nothing to most users, but are important enough for some users to make it worth an update. If you're not concerned with the 3 changes listed at < http://damnsmalllinux.org/notes.html > then there's no reason to download it. If you're so bugged by this, why not ask what's new before downloading?

Posted by cbagger01 on April 17 2005,04:42

Don't fix a problem quickly:

People bitch and moan.

Fix a problem quickly:

People bitch and moan.

Nobody is forcing you to push the "download" button. Don't want the bugfixes? Then don't download the new release.

FYI, Debian is a full blown linux distribution just like Windows XP is for win32 operating systems. Both have a mechanism in place for incremental updates to fix bugs and deploy other improvements.

DSL is primarily a livecd based distribution. For practical reasons, it is not a realistic option to do incremental updates without a new product release.

Just like it is not realistic to incrementally update my most recent U2 album to their latest release.

Posted by roberts on April 17 2005,04:55

Quote

Just like it is not realistic to incrementally update my most recent U2 album to their latest release.

Excellent analogy, Cbagger! I will have to remember that one!

Posted by dsl on April 17 2005,21:13

roberts,
thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply re: time zone problem. I had seen the info posting you referred to, and was aware of the workarounds listed. But pity the poor newbie, timidly trying out "this GNU/Linux thing" in Chicago; he types "date" and is shown that he is in EDT or EST. He frowns, ejects and throws away the DSL cd, reboots, and smiles as Windows comfortingly reassures him that he is indeed in CST or CDT. He won't be back; he doesn't have time for that kind of nonsense.

Not good.

what I suggest is:
1) addition of more time zone info files for those not in the 12 listed (which incidentally seems to exclude the US Atlantic timezone -- sorry Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, you just don't count enough to be considered).
2) a simple(?) addition to the startup script to either "guess" the user's time zoneand offset from UTC or to allow the user to interactively select it.
3) and could ntpdate be included, even at the cost of something else less important (hint: games)? I care about the correct time - and I wish others did too.

BTW, people can get spoiled by broadband and forget what it's like with out it. Even with a broadband connection, 50Mb is not an inconsquential download - and burn - and imagine you also had to do the syslinux version as well, for someone else using older equipment. Now imagine doing all that twice in 3 days, so as to not be "left behind".

And yes, Debian Stable is a "full" operating system, with all that implies. Both Debian and DSL have their place. And so does criticism of both, as appropriate. Ke4nt, I admire and appreciate the work you have done on DSL. Please do not take any criticism of DSL personally. Take it as encouragement to work toward the day that DSL is not #11 on Distrowatch, but #1!

Finally, to all those who have an irresistable urge to shoot the messenger, may I suggest that they put on your reading list, "How to Win Friends and Influence People", by Dale Carnegie. Don't be proud, be smart. Rread it.

Aloha!

Posted by roberts on April 17 2005,23:09

When I see a post such as yours, an unregistered user, with so much mis-informed statements. I usually let it pass and normally I don't say much.

But I feel I must set the record straight.

!. This project is not run by an amateur radio guy as you seem to think.
2. ke4nt is not a develpoper of the base iso, his role is that of QA and helping to manage the user contributed repository. This is not to belittle his contributions, not only in QA and extensions, but his helpful posts in the forums and the irc channel. He is someone with whom I can work very well with and his input is very valuable to me.
3. If you had read the forum posts then you would know why I made a quick bug fix release.
4. Still you and or anyone else certainly should read the release notes to decide if you wish to download this or any other release of DSL regardless if you have broadband or dialup.
5. If you were a regular user you would know that it is not normal for DSL to be released every two days. I certainly could not keep up with that schedule.
6. DSL is not a perfect fit for everyone. What other desktop OS fits in under 50MB. There are hard choices to make and to cut to fit in 49.1 MB. Yet you compare with Debian or even Windows.
7. DSL does not have a staff like Debian or the funding of Ubuntu.
8. DSL is not finished, I have 14 more improvements on my todo list.
9. I don't mind criticism of DSL, I listen to the community and am always trying to come up with ways to improve it.

I hope you don't take this as a "shoot the messenger" post, as it is not. It is just the facts and corrections of mis-statements.

In closing, I am sorry if your experience with DSL has been a annoying one. But should you wish to further express suggestions for improvements then they belong in the tread entitled "DSL Ideas and Suggestions" and not under Site News.

Posted by AwPhuch on April 18 2005,21:28

Quote (Guest @ April 17 2005,17:13)

Perhaps coming into someones house and bagging on thier parents work isnt a good thing (he may not be my parent..but he is the "father" of dsl)...and hiding behind the unregistered cloak while taking potshots at a man who has done damn near the impossible is very uncool

If you really want to offer up these one sided pet-peeves, perhaps registering, posting, and offering up your list of credentials might get a better response from the members of this community...

Dont come to our house, saying its ugly or not built right and expect a "nice" response...

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by Rapidweather on April 19 2005,02:01

Windows has it's problems too. A few days with AOL and Windows XP will give one more than their share of strange dialog boxes to contend with. The Damn Small Linux project has all the support and careful development one could want. With Windows, you are not going to get that personal level of support. Don't forget the security issues with Windows, it is a main target for hackers. A personal computer user is much better off security-wise running a LiveCD distribution like DSL for his web-surfing and E-mail needs. There is special mention of DSL in Kyle Rankin's "Knoppix Hacks" book, about the Knoppix LiveCD from Klaus Knopper.
DSL is a quality linux distribution that is going to be around a while!