The Damn Small Linux project is pretty weird. It is not updated for many years, everyone thinks it is dead, and then its authors start working on the distribution again. This happened way back in 2012, when there were no updates for about 4 years. After that, it was quiet again, already for 12 years. And now the distribution has been revived and is ready to serve the Linux community.

What happened?

The authors of the project decided to renew it again. However, for this we had to increase the volume of the distribution more than 10 times – from 50 MB to 699 MB. This allows you to fit Damn Small Linux on a laserdisc (which is less used). As before, the distribution is a full-fledged OS with various programs. After installation, it is ready to go.

DSL (Damn Small Linux) first appeared in 2002, but, let’s say, in alpha and beta versions. The first stable build was released in 2005, and all 16 years have passed since the formation of the last stable release. According to the developers, their main task is to reduce the size of the distribution while maintaining the ability to work with it as a full-fledged OS.

As far as can be judged, this idea succeeded. By the way, even the Linux Mint distribution with a minimum of components takes up about 2.8 GB. And here, as in the good old days — the volume of one laser disc.

What is this distribution?

It is intended for installation on old PCs and is able to work quite quickly even on hardware of a very respectable age. While other operating systems can feel normal only on relatively productive modern “iron”, Damn Small Linux and its “colleagues” allow you to comfortably use PCs and laptops of past years.

Installation is not too difficult, after it the user receives a full-fledged operating system, which already has a basic set of software and drivers. In order to match the hardware of modern systems, and not 12 years ago, the authors of the project had to increase the volume of the distribution.

So, if there is an old computer somewhere, you can install this distribution on it if you wish, and then use the “old woman” for various purposes. By the way, so that the volume of Damn Small Linux did not exceed 700 MB, the team had to remove a number of components. However, not too popular in most cases.

For example, all languages ​​except English are excluded, as are the options for four countries — the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. In addition, the authors removed almost all the documentation and part of the user manuals. In principle, the loss is not critical, since it can all be downloaded later from the network if needed.

After “cleaning” it turned out that there was a place for useful programs. The authors of the distribution tried to predict the software that is needed by the vast majority of users. As part of:

• email client

• browser

• editors of documents, tables and PDF files

• graphic editor

• audio and video player

• FTP client

• file manager

It is worth mentioning that the distribution includes two programs for working with windows, three browsers at once, several office programs. These are BadWolf, Dillo and Links2 browsers, AbiWord and Leafpad text editors, MPV and XMMS players, mtPaint graphic editor, Sylpheed email client.

If we talk about console applications, then they are: Ranger file manager, VisiData table processor, Tmux terminal multiplexer, Mutt mail client, Cmus music player, CD/DVD burning program – CDW, SurfRaw search engine, Vim and Nano text editors, W3M browsers and Links2. How did the authors of the project choose the program? They claim that the software for the new distribution was selected based on “functionality and size”.

It is not necessary to install almost anything additionally, almost everything is provided by the authors of the project. It is worth noting separately that, unlike the previous version of the distribution, the modern one is compatible with Debian, including apt functions. Therefore, if something is still missing, then the insufficient software can be installed without any problems.

Those who have already tested the distribution claim that Damn Small Linux takes up about 3 GB of disk space, and it also consumes about 270 MB of RAM.

“Creating the original DSL, a universal 50MB distribution, was a very exciting endeavor and one of my proudest personal achievements. However, the computer industry has changed a lot since then. Today, you could create a 50MB Xwindows boot distribution, but it would be missing many drivers and only have a few very basic applications. People would recognize such a distribution as a fun toy, but it would be unusable.”– said one of the creators of the project.

DSL 2024, based on Debian and antiX, retains the ability to boot from a live CD. The new release is alpha-quality and built in builds for the i386 architecture.