It seems as if the new version of DSL came out without anyone even noticing, but deep down, I cheered a little, and then I cried …

In case you need a brush-up on Linux distros (and who doesn’t nowadays, with all the flavors out now), here is a brief summary of why this distro is so amazing, at least for me.

Not only is Damn Small Linux damn small at about 50 MB of data, it is capable of booting from a business card CD, a USB drive, or even within a computer’s primary operating system (like Windows and I guess Mac and other Linux distros, though I am not positive). On top of that, it can even be installed onto a hard drive as a main OS, which is what I use it for.

Since Damn Small Linux is so … what’s the word … small, it even requires lower system hardware specifications, allowing it to use as little as 16 MB of RAM and about 50-100 MB of install space on the system hard drive (but it’s main use is live booting, which only uses system memory). This of course means that I can use all sorts of applications on my ancient 233 MHz Pentium II, 4.3 GB, 64 MB RAM computer and still be able to have an up-to-date and stable OS (since it can really only run Windows 98 at best). Plus, it comes with core applications like:

XMMS (MP3, CD Music, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, Netrik web browser, FireFox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor (Ted), three editors (Beaver, Vim, and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf (PDF Viewer), emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox and JWM window managers, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and pcmcia support, some wireless support.

that allow me to utilize newer programs and file formats.

Here is a screenshot of Damn Small Linux in action:

and here is a link for more information: DSL version 3.3