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(from xkcd.com)

I’ve been interested in Damn Small Linux for a while. The frugal intallation’s ability to load the entire OS into RAM is awesome. The ability to mount different add-on programs to the OS (ala OSX) and have a very up to date OS is another. It doesn leave a bit to be desired, but overall, it is a very good Linux for slower hardware. I’m currently running the standard HDD installation on the 866mhz P3 with 256megs or Ram. It is fast and reliable. I do have a few complaints though.

1. the default kernel option contains the nodma command. I am aware of the dangers of using DMA with some hardware, but there should be a grub option with dma enabled by default.

2. Some packages much be manually remounted after a reboot.  One such package is IceWM.  I would think that a window manager would be automatically remounted so it does not break X.

3. There is no apt-get repository just for DSL and the updates from the default Debian repository make break your system.  This makes using apt-get treacherous.

There is much more good about this distro. than bad, and I suggest that everyone with an old 200 or 300mhz P2 PC try it out.  A PPC or Sparc version for old Mac’s and Sun workstations might be interesting also.

I first saw Qemu again on the Elivecd development live cd, and I was certainly intregued.  I’ve been looking for an open source alternative to VMWare, and I think I’ve found a good one.  The version found in the Ubuntu repository left a lot to be desired.  After a bit of Googling, I found a walkthrough for compiling it from source here.  Surprisingly, the directions worked well with only a couple minor changes.

I am now able to install and run Windows 2000 and DSL Linux from inside Ubuntu.  The speed leaves a lot to be desired, but it is functional, and all of the software that I’ve tried has worked.  Compiling from source also gives you an accelerator kernel module that is closed-source and so can not be found in any repositories that I have searched.

I also suggest Qemu Launcher.  This gives Qemu a VMWare feel and makes using Qemu a breeze.

Technorati Tags: qemu, emulator, ubuntu

I’ll post some links later

Is e17 the killer app that Linux has been waiting for?

I downloaded the Ubuntu binaries for e17 last night, and I was blown away.  My computer’s specs are modest by most geek-machine comparisons, but the eye candy was brilliant.  The speed of the desktop was very good and everything was nicely arranged by default to give a pleasent view of this desktop manager.  Mac snobs like to gripe about how easy everything is to use and how well everything is laid out.  With the slight lurning curve of understanding how Linux packages work as opposed to the hunt, download, and install philosphy of Mac and Windows users, I think a well thoughtout Linux based on a clean e17 desktop could be the bridging point for those on the fence between the Mac’s and PC’s.  A Linux box will be, by design, will be cheaper than a Mac and runs on the same hardware as Windows, but has the same ease of use as a Mac.  In my opinion, the biggest problem with Linux going mainstream is native hardware support and 3rd Party software.

A live cd containing e17 can be found here.  Download it, burn it, and enjoy it.

Technorati Tags: linux, e17, enlightenment