Damn Small Linux Returns After 4 Years Off ~ Bauer-Power Media

Aug 10, 2012

Damn Small Linux Returns After 4 Years Off

1:00 AM

Paul Bauer

Damn Small Linux (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of my favorite Linux distros is Damn Small Linux, or DSL. It might not be as well known as Red Hat, or Ubuntu, but it has a particular function that I like. It's function is to be light enough that it works really well on older machines. It's the perfect operating system to give an old system new life.

The problem with DSL is that it's getting old itself. They haven't produced an new release for it in almost four years. That might be fine for Microsoft (See Windows XP) but that doesn't fly in the open source world. We like our updates like we like our bowl movements... Regular.

John Andrews, DSL's project leader announce the release candidate for their newest version, 4.11, on their forums. From his post DSL will have the following new features:

Applications:

Updated JWM to v2.1.0 (now supports rounding)

Updated Dillo to 3.0.2 (much improves CSS support)

Added xChat 1.8.9 (the last version that supported gtk1.2)

Added sic 1.1 IRC client

Added XCalc-color

Removed Applications:

flminicalc

gphone (crashes)

naim/nicq/nirc (naim & nicq not updated to new protocol)

Fixed:

wallpaper.lua so that it works with color selection.

getman

updated links that have changed (mydsl, forums, etc.)

Modified Desktop Functionality:

It is now possible to switch between JWM & Fluxbox without shutting down X; I had to modify and add a few scripts to accomplish this.

Added menu items to switch between DFM & xtdesk icon engines or use none at all.

Added JWM menu to display or not display icons in menu.

Added menu items for backgrounds and theme fetch & display for both JWM and Fluxbox so that one does not need to launch and navigate DFM to select.

Added option to load the default background to native themes while allowing wallpaper.lua to override.

Coordinated default JWM & Fluxbox themes; they have the same color scheme and mood.

Used "orangetheme.thm" by Lucky13Linux for JWM, as well as modded the taskbar, menu and window decor so that they all take up less space.

PCWorld also reported on this update, and they had this to say about the update:

What's particularly intriguing about [this] announcement made last Friday, however, is that it's not just an ordinary update. Rather, news of this new release signals the return of a distro that hasn't published an update in four years.