DSL was originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD. It was at first just a personal tool/toy. But over time Damn Small Linux grew into a community project with hundreds of development hours put into refinements including a fully automated remote and local application installation system and a very versatile backup and restore system which may be used with any writable media including a hard drive, a floppy drive, or a USB device.
DSL has a nearly complete desktop, and many command line tools. All applications are chosen with the best balance of functionality, size and speed. Damn Small also has the ability to act as an SSH/FTP/HTTPD server right off of a live CD. In our quest to save space and have a fully functional desktop we've made many GUI administration tools which are fast yet still easy to use. What does DSL have?
XMMS (MP3, CD Music, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, Netrik web browser, FireFox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor (Ted), three editors (Beaver, Vim, and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf (PDF Viewer), emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox and JWM window managers, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and pcmcia support, some wireless support.
Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:
Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
Boot from a USB pen drive
Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize
Cumlative Change Log for v4.1:
* New notepad (editor.lua)
* Updated pciutils to 2.2.9
* Added pop-ups to jwm tray
* Added *.siag to supported dfm extensions (.dfmext)
* Restored fluxter.bb to LHC 4-in-a-row.
* Fixed bug in exitcheck (/opt/.filetool.lst)
* Fixed reported bug in cpanel when booted legacy
* Fixed reported bug mountci (permissions and menus)
* Fixed reported bug in netcardconf (/opt/.filetool.lst)
* Completed support for alternate window managers.
* Removed background/wallpaper control from dfm and .xinitrc
* Created /opt/.backgrounds, use xsri in window file include
* Updated wallpaper.lua to use new structure
* Updated "Getting Started" with Esc and Backspace key definitions for dfm
* New boot option user=name
* New boot option settime settime=its_server_name (must have boot time net access) use with tz=XX/Yyyyy for accurate local time.
* New mini-icons in jwm mydsl menu when available.
* New iconView.lua - View & Edit xpm icons.
* Updated torsmo to v0.18 - now supports noswap
* Updated .dfminfo now a plain text file.
* Updated processing order of extensions with .tar.gz now last to better support myconf.tar.gz
* Root menu solely under user control - defaults to selected window manager menu.
* Added 'toram' to frugal installed grub checkfs menu item.
* Updated several murgaLua programs to reflect the dropped fl_ask GUI widget.
* Dropped SWM - Small Window Manager.
* Fixed System.map link error.
* Better support for alternate window managers. - see /opt/.mydsl_menu/ and ~/.{wm}.inc
* Streamlined MyDSL download procedure - dropped use of sudo and download location prompt.
* Dropped unsued emelfm wrapper.
Change Log for v3.4.7
* Udated pciutils to 2.2.9
* Fixed cpanel startup bug when legacy booted.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org
