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Topic: Smaller, nearly apps-less DSL?, Survey Part 2

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roberts

Group: Members
Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Mar. 27 2006,20:07

There have been many topics recently posted about releasing a tiny core DSL. A DSL without many of the existing desktop apps that are currently builtin. I would like to survey the community on this. I would also like to see a discussion on how, if it happens to be so decided, would DSL retain its identiy. Would not this just make DSL a springboard for other remasters and possibly make DSL go the way of knx? Pros. Cons. Thoughts. Would this make it too difficult for a new user who happens to find this nearly useless desktop? Would the effort be worth the results?

I am hoping for a lively dicussion on this. This poll is of my own doing and does not reflect on any possible decision that may be made.

Please Vote by selecting one of the choices listed above and then optionally posting your thoughts below.

Edited by roberts on Mar. 28 2006,02:58

doobit

Group: Members
Posts: 912
Joined: July 2005

Posted: Mar. 27 2006,20:18

It's nice to be able to boot this thing up and begin operating immediately on most hardware. I'd hate to need to hunt for usable apps without knowing what's good and what's not. DSL is what it is because it's so darn useful.

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safesys

Group: Members
Posts: 49
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: Mar. 27 2006,20:22

Speaking as a new user, I tried dsl with pretty low expectations and was initially just impressed that it was an os that'd boot up on a usb stick. I downloaded it purely on novelty value, but quickly realised that it had pretty much everything I need for my day to day use right off the bat and the myDSL system (combined with the frugal setup) was a bit of a revelation for me in terms of easy access without anything going bang. Had it not included the apps it does I can't say for certain that I'd have been impressed to the same extent or found it as useful.

I really like the balance of size, built in apps, myDSL, fluxbox, torsmo etc - it just works for me.

mikshaw

Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004

Posted: Mar. 27 2006,21:02

My personal preference would be a DSL that was basically only Linux + modules, standard GNU apps, and X (including the lua fltk tools of course). Everything else would be mounted into the system when needed. I don't believe this would be a good choice for the main path of DSL, though....at best perhaps an optional download would be nice. DSL was designed to be a speedy and compact general-purpose desktop, and I think it would be a good idea to stay on that course.

If this was to become an available distro, I couldn't say what I'd like to see remain, other than what I mentioned above. This is the main probelm I had in my own attempts at remastering DSL. In a way I think it would be fine even if it were still a 50mb distro without any desktop applications, replacing those apps with more libs and other dependencies that would make myDSL packages easier to create and much smaller. However, this would surely be a problem unless the "new" DSL was the only DSL.

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newOldUser Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 241
Joined: Oct. 2004

Posted: Mar. 27 2006,21:28

I like having a small Linux distribution that I can tell other non-techie people to download and try. It boots up and offers them some good apps right away. The "hey, that old machine is working pretty good now" surprise.

Like safesys, I too tried DSL as a lark. Then I found what it could do and I was hooked.

Could I name a few apps that I would give up in order to have more drivers or libs? Yes, I could but that's the way it goes. I just need to add those on my own.

Isn't the source in the public domain? Couldn't a smaller, non-gui distribution be built as a side project by users with an interest for that sort of thing. I don't mean to make it sound trivial because I really don't know what's involved but I think it could be done as a sub-group project. No offical support. Use at your own risk type of thing.

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82 replies since Mar. 27 2006,20:07

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