[NCLUG] Little Lunuxes anyone?

David Braley davbraley at comcast.net
Mon Dec 18 15:33:54 MST 2006



Chad Perrin wrote:
> I'm curious:
>
> What are the benefits to using DSL over a minimal Debian install?  My
> understanding is that DSL is basically equivalent to a minimal Debian
> install, except that it adds some lightweight user environment software
> and applications rather than making you choose them for yourself.  Is
> there some benefit other than a quicker "acceleration" from zero to GUI
> in the install process?
>   

Chad,

I did get a minimal install of Debian to install and run on my old
laptop. After installing xfree and FluxBox (to make the comparison), I
found the machine ran a lot slower. I think this has something to do
with a "customized" or "tweaked" form of xfree DSL uses, and the
installation of a lot more stuff. When the install of DSL is finished,
the footprint of "stuff" installed onto the system is about one half
what a default minimum of Debian is without X (even with DSL's xfree and
apps!). But, my main reason for choosing DSL was because even though it
is a small distro, it behaves more like a popular big one.

What I mean by this is: when DSL boots, it sees everything (hardware).
DSL configs my wireless, configs sound, etc, right out of the box. Most
of the newer larger distro's do the same thing. I think the ability of
DSL to behave this way is because it is (I think) based on Knoppix,
which is based on Debian. And in my opinion, Knoppix is one of the most
bad-ass live CD's around because of its hardware detecting ability.

If I am having trouble getting something to work on a Linux machine, and
I want to learn something about how Linux wants to detect the hardware
or how it wants to try and configure something, I boot the darn thing
with a Knoppix live CD and just poke around. Knoppix will almost always
detect things correctly, and I can then use that information in the
distro I am trying to work with. See what newbies like me have to deal with!

Now, after you install DSL, you can enable apt, point the system to a
Debian repository, and with "apt-get update", and "apt-get upgrade", you
can get a full Debian system going. BUT, and I say this with caution,
some things might break, so be careful what you put onto the system (I
think this kind of thing also applies to the Ubuntu users out there).

So, what are the benefits? From the viewpoint of being someone who still
struggles with getting things to work, I find DSL easier to get up and
running. I'm just a big wimp!

That is all.

David



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