Incredible…
July 30th 2003
I just downloaded this tiny distribution of Linux called Damn Small Linux (DSL, not to be confused). It’s 50MB, no more, no less, so it fits on a business-card CD. And it boots from that CD. And sets up display, sound, all your ethernet hardware, internet connection, mouse (even USB), mount points (other drives), etc. etc. in seconds, literally. And then it boots up to a graphical desktop (which I’m pretty sure I can take a screenshot of, convert to JPEG, and upload with the included FTP client). I am currently listening to a Top-40 stream with XMMS, with a few tracks from my Windows C drive (which mounted incredibly easily, considering it’s NTFS formatted).
And get this — the web browser I’m currently using isn’t included on the CD. There’s a little script that downloads the entire Mozilla Firebird package (which happens to be my favorite web browser), installs it, downloads the Flash 6 plugin, installs it, and runs Firebird. Everything worked. Very cool. This has to be useful for something sometime. Imagine, when your C drive won’t boot, plopping in a Linux bootable business card and fixing the MBR after looking up how to do it on the net and listening to the tunes that are still (hopefully) on your C drive. Very impressive. Which reminds me, I gotta get Linux back on my spare 6 gig hard disk… I am such a geek. B-)
In other news, I have to go feed the rabbits, the puppy down the street, and myself. Then I have to clean the house… argh. Later. ::