Introduction:
Damn Small is a niche distro, much like Puppy Linux. The two are actually quite similar in other ways as well. They both boot from a LiveCD, both are very small, and both offer a surprising amount of useful tools considering their relatively tiny memory footprint.
Install:
Damn Small uses the Knoppix boot/configuration scripts so hardware detection is very good.
Software Selection:
The selection of software is adequate, but after having tried Puppy Linux, Damn Small seems... well... damn small. There's not the amazing plethora of applications in Damn Small that are there in Puppy.
Firefox is included, but not the Mozilla suite. Editors are included, but not AbiWord. A harddrive installer is present, but it didn't work for me. Compared to its contemporary, Damn Small just left me wanting more.
Most Annoying Feature:
Since it's a LiveCD and the harddrive installer didn't work for my hardware, I wasn't able to do any actual real work on it. This means no 3D acceleration, no gaming, and since I have no internet connection, that makes this distro pretty much dead in the water.
Who's it best for?
The size of Damn Small is suited to those who want to have a business-card CDROM in their wallet. However, since trying out Puppy Linux I must say for sheer bang-for-your-buck I'd go with it instead of DSL at this point.
Damn Small Linux 2.0
description: |
Tiny LiveCD |
CDs: |
1/13th (approx 50MB) |
estimated install time: |
N/A (LiveCD) |
rating: |
 |
date ranted: |
11/22/2005 |
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