More Thoughts on DSL

I'm not sure if I can count this as a useful skill, but I've gotten really good at typing "sudo cfdisk /dev/hda". For those who don't recognize that string, I'll break it down for you:

sudo: the command to become "superuser", which is required for just about any system-altering function. If you're going to be executing several commands at the root level, you should probably do this separately by typing "sudo -s", which will make you superuser until you are ready to leave this mode by typing "exit".

cfdisk: a command-line tool for working with disk partitions. Those of you who remember the good ol' days of DOS will note the similarity to "fdisk". Those of you who don't know what disk partitions are should familiarize yourselves with them before attempting to install any version of Linux. Fortunately, this is an easy concept to learn. You can start here.

/dev/hda: "dev" is simply an abbreviation of "device". Any drivers for peripheral devices (disk drive, keyboard, mouse, etc.) will be in a /dev directory of some kind. You may have guessed that "hda" refers to a hard drive, and you would be absolutely right. If I had multiple hard drives, they would be listed as "hda", "hdb", etc. In other words, "hda" is Linux-speak for "C:\" on an equivalent Windows system.

This is a useful command to know when you've hosed your system. I expected to hose my system multiple times, so I gained a lot of experience with booting off the CD and starting over. If you plan to use DSL, you can go to their website to see what to do after typing this command. This step will vary depending on what your plans for DSL are.

I did get the MyDSL package retriever working and was able to retrieve some decent apps with it. However, it was good for me to play with the "crude" apps I mentioned in my previous post. I even used vim to edit some configuration files. In the words of David Carradine, "I'm all about old-school." It's nice to know that if something were to happen and the command-line interface was all I had, I'd at least be able to perform basic functions.

To summarize, DSL may not be terribly slick, but it definitely gets the job done. Mr. Williams wasn't too fond of the desktop, which is understandable. The average user (which Mr. Williams pretty much is) wants a slick interface and a system that doesn't require much tweaking. However, I think it was good for me to learn about the different tools common to most versions of Linux.

Next distro to step up: Puppy. I've heard a lot of good things about it, so I'm curious to see how it works on a system like Lazarus. I'll keep you posted!

First Impressions of DSL

For those of you just joining us, DSL is Damn Small Linux. Click the link for more information.

Linux advocates often cite smaller size as one of its greatest advantages. This enables it to run more quickly than other OS's, as well as run on some older hardware that might not be able to run the latest offerings from Microsoft or Apple. And they are absolutely right. The whole startup CD for DSL was around 50 MB. To give you a comparison, the version of Microsoft Office that I have on Lucy is over 500 MB.

How do they achieve such ruthless efficiency? It's the eternal trade-off between speed and user-friendliness. Imagine a spectrum with efficiency at one end and ease of use at the other end. The most efficient programs usually make significant sacrifices in things like slick interfaces and idiot-proofing. On the other end, programs that are slick and easy to use tend to be total resource hogs.

As you can probably guess, the applications that come with DSL are generally crude, but there are ways to add applications. The support pages suggest activating apt-get immediately after installation, but I haven't found it to be that useful. DSL does come with its own package retriever called MyDSL. Obviously, you're not going to get cutting-edge apps, but you can get stuff for what you need.

One really cool thing about DSL is that it has a system resource monitor built into its desktop. In other words, you can see at any time how much memory and CPU power you're using, just by looking at the desktop. No special keys or commands are required. It also shows how much free disk space you have and your IP address. I love this feature.

Dillo, the default browser in DSL, claims to be adequate for browsing most sites. It does render most pages, but the formatting may not be what you're used to; it's often similar to mobile phone browsing. That doesn't really bother me, but some people might be freaked out by that. Dillo supports multiple tabs, which is nice. And, as advertised, it is very fast.

Firefox, of course, renders pages better, but system performance suffers on a machine like Lazarus.  If you're one of those people who likes to have several browser tabs open at once (like I am), it can be a tad frustrating. Then again, maybe I need to exercise a little browser discipline anyway.

One thing I have discovered (and kind of figured from the outset), is that for long-term use, I really need to upgrade the RAM. A swap partition can only do so much. But at least I've proven that I can achieve the functionality I wanted with the resources I have. Next time, I'll get down and dirty with the details of various applications.

Give My Creation...Life!

As soon as I posted the last post, I realized that I did have a computer that could run DSL in RAM. Lucy has 1 GB of RAM and a Windows partition. While booting up the CD was very easy, DSL did not recognize the mouse. This was not a huge surprise, since the mouse is a Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse. But it wouldn't recognize the keyboard or trackpad, either. I had to shut Lucy down manually, which I don't like doing. But I decided to proceed with the install on Lazarus. I had Lucy in my lap with the DSL wiki up as I put in the CD.

Lo and behold, installation was a breeze! It probably helps that I'm old enough to remember when the command-line interface ruled the earth, therefore I don't fear it like many users do. All peripherals were detected, and I was able to connect to the web without doing anything extra. DSL comes with its own web browser, Dillo, and an old experimental version of Firefox called Bon Echo.

That's all I'm going to put up for now. I'll post details of my experience with DSL in a day or two.

First Distro Chosen

The first Linux distro I am going to attempt to install is Damn Small Linux, hereafter referred to as DSL. I chose it because I wanted to start with something that was designed with systems like Lazarus in mind. I am fully aware that I can install bare-bones versions of fancier distros and tweak them myself, and I'll eventually try that, too. But for now, I'm going to keep it simple and save the large amounts of customization for later. Obviously, distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora, etc., are out.

It seems like a lot of information on various Linux distros is rather light on installation info, so I'm hoping this means that installation is relatively easy. I noticed DSL's website references a "boot floppy." Holy crap, I haven't heard that term in ages! I'm not even sure I have any floppies in my house (I haven't used a computer at home that even had a floppy drive for almost 2 years). A few quick searches reveal that I can still get them on the cheap if I can't find any here. Sadly, I don't have enough RAM to test-run DSL strictly in memory, so I'm going to have to install it to the hard drive right off.

Token cheap plug: if you like what I'm doing, consider clicking on some of the ads. The proceeds will help me buy fancier equipment and take this operation really high-speed! That is all.