Damn Small Linux (DSL) has returned with a new 2024 edition. The arrival of DSL 2024 has surprised many, as the last release of this compact Linux OS was more than a decade ago. Over the years DSL has put on weight (haven’t we all) inflating from 50MB in 2008 to today’s 700MB. That sounds like a lot, but the philosophy of making a usable desktop distribution for older PCs with limited hardware resources is similar. Moreover “applications, the kernel, and drivers have all mushroomed,” explains John Andrews, the driving force behind this project.
Originally, DSL was launched as a business card-size live CD Linux distribution based on Debian and Knoppix. The relaunched version a Debian and antiX distribution, will still run from a live CD, but it needs a full-sized CD. Andrews asserts that 700MB is a new hard limit for DSL going forward, and it needs to be for standard CDR compatibility.
While the live CD distribution of DSL has multiplied 14-fold, it may still find a workable niche. There are a lot of perfectly serviceable PCs dropping off the Windows support cliff-edge which are still otherwise fit for duty. DSL 2024 will suit older PCs which may lack the performance to run one of the heavier modern Linux distributions with aplomb.
In a news post about DSL 2024, Andrews says that the bundled apps were “chosen for their functionality, small size, and low dependencies.” Nevertheless, there seems to be quite a lot of flexibility here, with two window managers, three web browsers, multiple office productivity apps, media playback, and various other essentials. Other techniques for saving space included loading up DSL 2024 with term-based applications, limiting locales to a handful of English options, and stripping out various source codes and document resource files. Last but not least, DSL 2024 has apt fully enabled (unlike earlier editions), so users can install favorite apps they might miss in the distro.
It is great to see DSL revived but, as Andrews admits, the current ISO is classed as an ‘alpha’ release, and Puppy Linux has been doing a great job with its similar full-but-light desktop OS philosophy over recent years. If reading about DSL 2024 has made you think about recommissioning some old hardware with a fresh OS it might also be worthwhile taking Puppy Linux for a walk.
