A tiny live-boot Linux installation is back from the dead — sleeping giant awakens for a new lease of life

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Damn Small Linux (DSL) has officially received an alpha test 2024 release after a presumed final release back in 2007.

Yes, it’s older and fatter now (having grown in file size from 50MB to about 700MB run live, and 3.3GB when fully installed), but even though it won’t fit onto an (extremely cool) bootable business card anymore, just a regular full-sized big chonk CD-ROM, it still can run as live: meaning you don’t need to install it to either try it out or use it full-time as a regular operating system or part of a data recovery workflow.

Plus, Linux has always been about choice, so variety in your lightweight Linux distributions is always nice. The only problem is that, if you are a WSL evangelist thinking Judgment Day is here, well, you might just want to hold your bootable business horses.

Damn Small Linux alpha

See, it’s an alpha build. It’s not ready. Unless you’re a total Linux anorak living for this stuff, it’s basically just a curio. If you’re a regular old Windows user only just opening your mind, think of the alpha release as Damn Small Linux showing signs of life as a project.

And even if you do think you’re hard enough, be aware that although DSL does cut down the fairly bloated antiX distribution it’s based on – itself a lightweight, live-bootable Debian variant – this might not go far enough right now.

The Register notes that there are still choices to make amongst window managers and web browsers, and you still want some aptitude for technology, if not Linux itself, before diving in.

It might be smaller in size, than Raspberry Pi Desktop (certainly the best entry point for Linux beginners who are looking for lightweight hardware as well as software) but, at least right now, it’s probably not ready for prime time.

I can’t even finish this off with a wipe away of a tear of nostalgia for WSL, because I have none. However, it is always nice to see more Linux distributions designed to run on basically anything that can take bootable media. Am I as excited as you? Almost certainly not. Am I intrigued? Sure.