Damn Small Linux at SCALE 6x: I meet Robert Shingledecker

The highlight of SCALE 6x for me so far has been meeting Robert Shingledecker, whose Damn Small Linux is one of the best distributions out there for hardware that's seen better days.

I won't go into all we talked about, but in the way of news, Robert told me that Damn Small Linux will soo go beyond the 2.4 Linux kernel and put out a release based on 2.6 at some point in the near future. Robert plans to keep the 2.4-based version of DSL going because he foresees continued demand for it, but the newer kernel will be welcome news to many DSL users.

Robert talked a little about replacing Fluxbox with JWM as the main window manager for DSL. One of the reasons was the fact that JWM is smaller than Fluxbox and makes it easier for DSL to stay within its 50 MB size limit. That limit appears to be something that Robert is content to stick with going forward.

I hadn't yet tried DSL 4.2, but Robert showed me how the right-click application menu has come back into the distro, and he explained how the DFM file manager, besides being smaller in size than the ROX-filer, works well -- and shares icons with JWM.