Damn Small Linux (DSL) 2024 - Review

[@samshort365]

I loved DSL. Back in the day I used it when my hard drive suddenly died on my old Pentium PC. The live DSL environment allowed me to continue working from floppy without an issue.

[@RandyHanley]

So true! I loved using it as a recovery setup for when Windows computers wouldn't boot.

[@Shard113]

I love this, specifically distros that enable netbooks from the early 2010s to still function properly.

[@RandyHanley]

Great point!

[@oldforestroad]

Man, I am stoked to have found this channel. Thanks for your videos, they are excellent. I have not heard the words "Sylpheed" and "XMMS" in a long time...loved those programs.

[@RandyHanley]

Thank you so much and I am very grateful to hear that. I appreciate you checking out my channel.

[@pazu8728]

Wow, I played around with it back pre 2010 days because of it size 50M. Glad to know that DSL is back. Can fit it on a 100M pen drive or run live on a CD

[@bombasticiti]

Nice

[@RandyHanley]

Thank you!

[@appsdecasa]

How to put the icons and texts bigger?

[@nageswaraopatha5445]

Keep doing this kind of light weight Linux os ❤

[@johndroyson7921]

Wow. This is really cool. I might have to fire up a vm with it soon.

[@PySnek]

So why the hell does arch or artix use more than 120MB of RAM even without a GUI or any other bloat but this distro with a GUI idles around 110 MB? Even a tiling WM like i3 or sway alone needs more than 200MB of RAM. I just don't get it.

[@RandyHanley]

That is a great question. I don’t think I will ever fully-understand where RAM is being allocated. Sorry, but I don’t know.

[@PySnek]

@@RandyHanley Ok I searched a bit about this topic and it looks like the old kernel that DSL is using (2.4.31) from 2016 uses waaay less RAM than modern 4/5.x lts and 6.x kernels. Another point is their init system (BusyBox). It's very leightweight in comparison to OpenRC, systemd, dinit or runit.

[@RandyHanley]

@@PySnek nice work. This is very good to know.

[@BobSockTwo]

But what's the difference between it and puppy linux? They really look Just the same. Please tell me

[@RandyHanley]

@@BobSockTwo that’s a really good question. Puppy Linux just seems very unique in the way it’s designed. That’s all I can really say. It doesn’t feel like any other distribution.

[@alwanrosyidi2772]

why do browsers use so many ram today?

[@RandyHanley]

I think it depends on the website but yes browsers do definitely use a lot of RAM for each tab open. At least 50 MB on average.

[@SebastianK.Lidström]

zathura is a pdf reader

[@RandyHanley]

Thank you for this.