Make the Most of Todayrs"s Smallest, Fastest Desktop Linux DistributionDamn Small Linux! Damn Small Linux (DSL) is a super-efficient platform for everything from custom desktops to professional servers. Now, DSLrs"s creator and lead developer have written the first definitive, practical guide to this remarkable system. The Official Damn Small Linux Book brings together everything you need to put DSL to work in just minutes. Simply learn a few essentials, boot the live CD-ROM, and master the rest...one step at a time, hands-on. If yours"re new to Linux, you can quickly discover how to use DSL to take your data on the road, safely running your programs and personal environment on nearly any computer. Easily adapt DSL to run on anything from an alternative device (Internet appliance, hand-held, diskless PC, or mini-ITX system) to an older PC that might otherwise be headed for landfill. Use this book and CD-ROM package to Run DSL at blazing speed, from CD, USB pen drive, or directly from RAM Run DSL from your hard drive or in a virtual environment within Windows Add applications and create shareable extensions Customize and remaster DSL to create your own distribution Build a complete music and multimedia server Use Skype VoIP phone service in DSL Quickly set up an XAMPP Web server, complete with MySQL, PHP, and Perl, to host your personal Web pages CD-ROM Includes Several versions of Damn Small Linux that let you run DSL directly from the CD, a Windows desktop, a pen drive, or your PCrs"s RAM. Software packages (MyDSL extensions) including everything you need to create an Edna music server, Skypereg; VoIP calling client, multimedia picture frame, and tiny XAMPP Web server. Tools for rebuilding and remastering Damn Small Linux. Your Practical, Hands-On Guides to Getting Real Results with Free Software Every book in this series encourages and challenges you to advance in the free software world. Boot the accompanying live DVD or CD and watch the Linux system, applications, and content described in the book come to life. When you finish, yours"ll know how to use, customize, and rebuild that open source software. Start as a novice, by trying out examples...and finish as a professional! System Requirements Processor: 486DX (recommended Pentium I) or higher Memory: 32MB RAM or more (can run entirely in memory in 128MB RAM) Disk space: No hard disk space required to run from CD-ROM or USB thumb drive; 50MB minimum for frugal hard disk installs; 200-300MB recommended minimum for traditional hard disk installs Graphics: SVGA-capable card with monitor capable of 800x600 resolution

Robert Shingledecker’s IT career spans 35 years, beginning with hand-coding machine language programs targeted for Burroughs Corporation minicomputers. Later, he enjoyed using an assembler and then COBOL. Always having a passion for computers, he was an advocate for COMAL, and was an early hacker on MINIX and Coherent OS. In regards to Linux projects, Robert led the first large-scale deployment of Linux in the city of Garden Grove, California, where in 1994 he deployed Samba on DG/UX systems. He also designed a massively scalable Linux/AOLserver/Sybase e-commerce system. Robert then became CTO of several Linux-based dot-com companies. While building Linux-based, no install, live CD-ROM appliances, including firewalls, VPN, web, email, and database appliances, he became interested in Damn Small Linux. Soon, Robert joined John Andrews to help lead Damn Small Linux development. Now retired, Robert spends his time writing code and working on Damn Small Linux. He also enjoys traveling.

 

John Andrews is the creator of Damn Small Linux (DSL). As owner of a bead and jewelry store in 1996, John learned HTML and Perl to develop his own website. It eventually broadened to running websites for others on Linux servers. His interest in Linux encouraged him to switch to a Linux desktop full time. The appeal of fast and efficient applications led John to develop Damn Small Linux. After trying several mini-distributions, primarily for diagnostic and system recovery, John wanted to build a sub-50MB distribution that essentially had what  he needed to accomplish a day’s work; the result was the Damn Small Linux distribution. John’s proficiencies include Perl, shell scripting, Lua, awk, *SQL, php, and some C programming languages.

 

Christopher Negus has been one of the world’s leading writers of Linux books for nearly a decade. His Red Hat Linux Bible series has sold more than one-quarter million copies worldwide. Chris also authored or coauthored the books Linux Bible (2005 through 2007 editions), Linux Toys, Linux Toys II, and Linux Troubleshooting Bible for Wiley Publishing. For Prentice Hall, Chris is the editor of the Negus Live Linux Series and author of that series’ flagship book, Live Linux CDs. Before becoming a full-time author, Chris Negus worked on UNIX operating system development teams at AT&T Bell Labs, UNIX System Labs, and Novell in the 1980s and 1990s. In particular, Chris worked in the areas of UNIX system administration and networking. When not working on computer books, Chris likes to spend time with his family: Sheree, Seth, and Caleb. Chris also enjoys playing soccer, singing opera (when nobody can hear him), and making things out of old computers.

 

= 0) {slash = '\\';} else {slash = '/';}openLoc = figLoc.substring(0, figLoc.lastIndexOf(slash) + 1);while (pPage.substring(0,3) == '../') {openLoc = openLoc.substring(0, openLoc.lastIndexOf(slash, openLoc.length - 2)+ 1);pPage = pPage.substring(3, pPage.length + 1);}popUpWin =window.open('','popWin','resizable=1,scrollbars=1,location=0,toolbar=0,width=525,height=394');figDoc = popUpWin.document;zhtm= ' ' + pPage + ' ';zhtm += ' ';zhtm += ' ';zhtm += ' ';zhtm += '' + pPage.substring(pPage.lastIndexOf('/') + 1, pPage.length) + '';zhtm += ' ';figDoc.write(zhtm);figDoc.close();}// modified 3.1.99 RWE v4.1 --> Introduction IntroductionDamn Small Linux (DSL) started as an exercise by John Andrews to fit an entire desktop computer system into a compressed 50MB image. Within a few years, DSL grew to one of the most popular Linux systems in the world (in the Top Ten, by some accounts) without growing beyond that 50MB target.In a world where desktop systems are bloated with eye candy and many rarely used features, you may wonder what makes this little operating-system-that-could so popular? Well, it could be that people don't want to throw away a usable computer because the latest Windows system won't run. It could be that people are tired of waiting for common computer operations to complete while who-knows-what goes on in the background. Or maybe it's just a love for simplicity and elegance.DSL sets out to include all the basic features you need in a modern desktop computer system--and then makes those features functional, fast, and efficient. As a result, DSL can run well on hardware that is smaller, older, or less powerful than what most of today's desktop systems demand.Some wonderful offshoots of DSL development are that you can do the following with DSL:Take it anywhere.It fits on a live CD, USB flash drive (also called a pen drive or a thumb drive), Zip drive, or a bootable business card CD that you can carry around with you.Run it anywhere.All you need is a standard PC (with a minimal processor, small amount of RAM, and no required disk space) that you can reboot. Or, you can run a special version of DSL that's set up to run from a Windows desktop. If you like, you can even do a traditional hard drive install of DSL.Add software.If you only need a couple more applications, a few clicks download, install, and save the applications you need.Build projects.To make a computer into a music server, tiny web server, or digital media frame, DSL doesn't fill up your hard disk or RAM with software you don't need so you have more room for the music, web content, or digital images y