Search Members Help

» Welcome Guest
[ Log In :: Register ]

Mini-ITX Boards Sale, Fanless BareBones Mini-ITX, Bootable 1G DSL USBs, 533MHz Fanless PC <-- SALE $200 each!
Get The Official Damn Small Linux Book. DSL Market , Great VPS hosting provided by Tektonic
 

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

reply to topic new topic new poll
Topic: DSL vs. 250 MB WinXP, comparing two totally different systems< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
Breadman Offline





Group: Members
Posts: 22
Joined: Jan. 2006
Posted: Jan. 15 2006,13:54 QUOTE

I've been looking for a small os that can boot from an USB stick and found 2 weeks ago DSL. Yesterday I found an interesting article in a german computer magazine (Chip, Ausgabe 02/2006) about an 250 MB Windows XP which can boot from USB Stick.

I did what was written in the artilce and after 2 hours I had WinXP on my 256MB USB-Stick.

What are these Windows' features?
- WinXP on a FAT 16 partiton (well, its a Barts PE Windows)
- No outlook, WMP, Internet Explorer... with the freeware progamm "n-lite" you can get rid of all these f*** spyware infected M$-Sh** (sorry ;) )
- Browser: Firefox, E-Mail: Thunderbird , Nero, Sygate Firewall, AVG Antivirus, Ontrack EasyRecovery, WinAMP

You can include every application you wish.

Mow the interesting part: Comparison with the 50 MB DSL v2.0 USB-ZIP installation.


Both were configured on my Duron 1800 Machine, nVidia 5600, 2* Seagate HDD, 640 Mb RAM
No problems there

- Celeron 500 Mhz 256 MB RAM,USB 1.1 everything onboard from intel:
- DSL: 3-5 minutes for booting and configuring, everythingworks, internet, network, printer as well
- Win: 10 minutes for booting and configuring, also here: works fine, you can change monitor refresh rates!

Notebook: Gericom, P4 2,4 GHz,512 MB RAM USB 2.0 NVidia 5600go
-DSL: 2-3 min for booting, wireless LAN adapter does not work,
-Win: 5 minutes for booting: everything works (also LAN adapter)

Same Celeron, but only 64 MB RAM:
DSL works, Win does not really. It's to slow.

Final conclusion:
Windows works fine on machines with a lot of RAM. Otherwise it is much to slow.
This windows has more drivers included. Nearly all standart devices are supported. If you want to make it smaller, you can also get rid of them, but then its biggest advantage is lost.

Biggest plus of windows: you can change the refresh rates.
biggest minus: it is much to big and slow (naturally windows *smile*)

Biggest plus of DSL: very small and fast, good compatibility
biggest minus: refresh rates are not easy to change

Maybe this small windows can find again a place on my desktop, but it definitely will not replace DSL on my USB-drive!


Breadman
====
Download:
Barts PE: www.nu2.nu
nlite (german) german-nlite.de (There should be a english version as well) :D  :)
====

www.bread-n-linux.de.vu


--------------
***********************************
* Wenn die Sonne kommt, schein' ich mit! *
*          www.bread-n-linux.de.vu             *
***********************************
Back to top
Profile PM 
mikshaw Offline





Group: Members
Posts: 4856
Joined: July 2004
Posted: Jan. 15 2006,15:55 QUOTE

Quote (Breadman @ Jan. 15 2006,08:54)
I did what was written in the artilce and after 2 hours I had WinXP on my 256MB USB-Stick.
...

Final conclusion:
Windows works fine on machines with a lot of RAM. Otherwise it is much to slow.
This windows has more drivers included. Nearly all standart devices are supported. If you want to make it smaller, you can also get rid of them, but then its biggest advantage is lost.

Biggest plus of windows: you can change the refresh rates.
biggest minus: it is much to big and slow (naturally windows *smile*)

Biggest plus of DSL: very small and fast, good compatibility
biggest minus: refresh rates are not easy to change

One thing I'd like to emphasize is the "2 hours" part.  With that kind of time, a user can easily modify DSL to deal with its "disadvantages"....adding XFree86 to change refresh rates, include more device drivers, etc.  What you'd end up with is a DSL system that can do everything bart's pe can do, plus more, and with a much smaller footprint.

--------------
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html
Back to top
Profile PM WEB 
Breadman Offline





Group: Members
Posts: 22
Joined: Jan. 2006
Posted: Jan. 15 2006,19:20 QUOTE

The 2 hours aren't too bad...It did take a long time for me to get a running DSL as well.

With including xFree86 and certain other tools i need to recover a crashed system i worked 5 or 6 hours.

I hope that isn't too bad for a linux noop ;)

Where DSL can never been beaten is its size. Even with all tools its a third of the "small" Windows. Consequently it's much faster.

BTW: I really love this forum. Lots of Help...but here i lost most of the time searching!

Breadman

www.bread-n-linux.de.vu


--------------
***********************************
* Wenn die Sonne kommt, schein' ich mit! *
*          www.bread-n-linux.de.vu             *
***********************************
Back to top
Profile PM 
hs7sv Offline





Group: Members
Posts: 247
Joined: June 2005
Posted: Jan. 16 2006,04:41 QUOTE

This is English version. I tried it before. BartPE CD is good enough for TroubleShooting when your HDD cannot boot. For Windows Application in USB, it is not good enough. I prefer using PortableApps in XP.

--------------
"My advice is to just  return hardware that does not work with a plain Linux kernel, right to the place where you bought it, and ask for your money back..."

Klaus Knopper
Back to top
Profile PM ICQ AOL MSN YIM 
Breadman Offline





Group: Members
Posts: 22
Joined: Jan. 2006
Posted: Jan. 16 2006,19:26 QUOTE

You're right,  that's what Barts PE was orginally designed for.

But, infact, it is the only "small" Windows i know. If something from redmont can be compared with DSL, then this.  :;):

Nevertheless Windows rest tooooooo big. Even with nLite i can't get a fully working os (incl. Nero, Office, PowerDVD....) with less then 1,5 GB. It's ridiculous.

A DamnSmallLinux with equal (freeware) components such as OpenOffice not nearly reaches 800 MB. Theroretically you could install it on a CDRW and use it with a MontRanier-burner as a quasi-HDD.


Well, back to M$ WinXPensive: with BartsPE and nLite i can really build a DSLWindows: Damned&StillLarge Windows *smile*


Breadman

www.bread-n-linux.de.vu


--------------
***********************************
* Wenn die Sonne kommt, schein' ich mit! *
*          www.bread-n-linux.de.vu             *
***********************************
Back to top
Profile PM 
4 replies since Jan. 15 2006,13:54 < Next Oldest | Next Newest >

[ Track this topic :: Email this topic :: Print this topic ]

 
reply to topic new topic new poll
Quick Reply: DSL vs. 250 MB WinXP

Do you wish to enable your signature for this post?
Do you wish to enable emoticons for this post?
Track this topic
View All Emoticons
View iB Code