Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob M
Ok, here's a thread that's gonna cause some disagreement 
What I need is a Linux distribution that meets the following criteria:
1. Should be lightweight, using minimal system resources;
2. Should have a simple installation mechanism;
3. Should only install the bare minimum of software/applications (networking, GUI, etc), or should allow applications that are to be installed to be chosen at the time of installation;
4. Should be easy to add applications to, to configure, and to customise, following installation;
5. Should be fairly easy to use generally (nothing too exotic, I know things like Slax can be a pain) - preferably something with the 'user friendliness' of Ubuntu.
- frankly I have enough to do with installing the tools that I want without having to uninstall a heap of stuff before I can get started 
Thanks guys |
slax can be a pain, how so?, if you cant learn to install and boot a simple Slax and simply copy/delete to add/remove any apps you might want to it, then linux (or windows or anything other than your basic put in the cd and power up games console) isnt for you to be quite blunt.
essentually its:
1)Format your usb drive with HP-USB Format tool
2)Copy the 2 directories to your usb drive
3) lunch a bat or sh command depending on what OS your in at the time,simple.
from inside windows XP for instance.
take one USB stick, format it with the real old HP-USB Format tool to make it a real primary boot device.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...X-UNITY-I23839
get eather the
http://www.slax.org/get_slax.php?download=tar
or the LiveCD
http://www.slax.org/get_slax.php?download=iso
or even the new test 6.8 rc6 with Pxe server to Pxe boot any other lan connected pc to that slax image if you like ,
NO other generic user linux liveCD does this Pxe booting out of the box currently.
its a real cool option to use for fixing,servicing and playing your remote LAN files and video with the addition of the VLC module for instance.
ftp://ftp.slax.org/testing/slax-test/slax608-rc6.iso
copy the /boot and the /slax dirs to the top of the USB stick.
cd in to the new /boot dir and run the bootinst.bat script from a dos shell
grab any of the self contained modules you might like to use here
http://www.slax.org/modules.php
and copy them to the /slax/modules dir of your stick.
if you forget any modules or just want to try them on the fly,you dont even need to install them to your boot device, you can simply search on the module you want in the above website and click it to install it directly, it stays there in memory until next reboot.
ok so you dont want to use simple,cheap and quick USB sticks but rather a real clean HD, so do a search for your prefered way,there are many threads instructing you how, heres just one such simple option.
http://www.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=7602
BTW slax lzm files are just plain linux compressed so can be used on any other linux once you understand how to install it....
the easy way to find what you might want to use if its not already in the slax modules site is to see whats in the full blown
slacks sites apps , and run the slax provided tools over them to then use in slax.
read the slax forum site to learn how to make your own modules for your use, and how you can convert your USB stick to a liveCD and back again etc.
of all the linux, slax is as simple as it gets for most windows people to use and get a handle on the apps without really needing to mess to much in the shell.
you could be up and running in 10 minutes and adding your own self contained modules from then on.
making it as light or as heavy as you like, and with the added bonus you can take your slax with you and continue were you left off by simply booting it on some other PC somewere else,and zero pain involved.
find a more versitile,flexible,small and simple linux distro than that and your doing well.