Choosing A Linux Distribution
Choosing a linux distribution may depend on the hardware that one is working with. One may need an operating system for performing a specific task. The reason for such a diverse amount of linux distributions is to provide us with a large array of distributions from general use to specialized operating systems for specific situations. Vector Linux is a lightweight distribution designed to be easy to use. One does not have to be very technical to get the hang of Vektor, but Vektor is generally considered well suited for older hardware because it is, in fact lightweight. YOPER is another desktop distribution, developed New Zealand, that focuses on optimizing system performance for workstation use. But let's say that you are, indeed, interested in choosing a linux distribution for the sole purpose of optimizing older hardware. The choice is quite large.
There are a number of Slackware-based distributions that are really small. Austrumi, for example, is a business card size (50MB) bootable live CD Linux distribution (developed by Latvian programmers). 50MB can fit just about anywhere these days, but even on older and even archaic machines, 50MB is not too large of a space. SLAX (a MiniLinux distribution) is a Linux Live CD operating system based on Slackware, which doesn't even need to be installed on a computer system's hard drive. It can be booted and run from either a CD or even a USB drive. There is also an option to run SLAX from RAM. SLAX comes in five official versions: SLAX Standard, SLAX KillBill, SLAX Server, SLAX Popcorn and SLAX Frodo.
SLAX Standard is obviously a standard distribution for normal personal use. The remaining four versions of SLAX can be seperated into two separate subgroups: specialized and minimalistic. SLAX KillBill and SLAX Server fall under the "specialized" subgroup. SLAX Popcorn and SLAX Frodo fall under the "minimalistic" subgroup. SLAX KillBill (aka SLAX KB) has the ability to run many Microsoft Windows applications in Linux without having to make any modifications to those applications. SLAX KillBill includes applications such as Qemu (a fast processor emulator) and Wine (short for Wine Is Not an Emulator), which is an application which aims to allow Unix-like computer operating systems on the x86 architecture to execute programs that were originally written for Microsoft Windows. SLAX Server supplies additional Internet functionality and comes with pre-configured DNS, DHCP, SAMBA, HTTP, FTP, MySQL, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, SSH as well as other server applications. The two remaining versions have minimalistic qualities for further optimization of weaker hardware. SLAX Popcorn uses lightweight Xfce as a desktop environment instead of KDE. SLAX Frodo is specifically designed for hardware with a low amount of RAM and does not contain the X Window System (commonly X11 or X), a display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays and the basic framework, or primitives, for building GUI (graphical user interface) environments: drawing and moving windows on the screen and interacting with a mouse and/or keyboard. All versions of SLAX, with the exception of SLAX Frodo, include Fluxbox as an option. Fluxbox is a lightweight and customizable X window manager based on Blackbox, another minimalist window manager for the X Window System ideal for those seeking a fast, clean and light environment.
The main feature of SLAX is easy customization. All editions of SLAX and some of the distributions based on SLAX can be modified directly or using the MySLAX Creator program with modules from the official SLAX website and other sources. MySLAX creator allows you to create your own customised Slax live cd in Windows XP/2000/NT by adding modules to the /modules or /optional directory (.mo or .img), adding general files to the /extra directory, removing modules from the original ISO image, adding some permanent boot options (For example start SLAX in GUI mode), creating and burning your own MySLAX ISO image and preparing a bootable USB stick and copy all the SLAX files to it.
SLAX is a popular base for a number of interesting live CD projects. SLAMPP, for example, is a SLAX-Based live distribution that comes with preconfigured tools and applications that allow a personal computer to function as an instant home server which provides support for common protocols, such as: HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, POP, IMAP, SMTP, SSH, DHCP, Squid, features a firewall as well antivirus and content scanner software and can boot directly from a CD-ROM, or optionally can be installed on a local hard drive and, like other Linux LiveCDs, gives a user new to Linux the chance to experiment with a non-Windows operating system, without the risk of changing or re-configuring the user's existing system.
Currently there are two editions of SLAMPP available: SLAMPP and SLAMPP Lite. SLAMPP, discribed above, contains a full server environment, uses Webmin as server administration and has some office and multimedia applications. SLAMPP Lite, is a small version of SLAMPP and is powered by XAMPP, an easy-to-use cross-platform (currently available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris and Mac OS X) web server released under the GNU General Public License capable of serving dynamic pages, which consists mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.
When choosing a distribution, one should understand that many of today's Linux distributions are based on something. SLAX is a Slackware-based distro that has several of it's own SLAX-based distros. Knoppix and Ubuntu are both Debian-based distributions that have their own Knoppix-and Ubuntu-based distros. Slackware was based on Softlanding Linux System,(SLS) which is one of the earliest linux distributions, dating back to 1992. SLS was the most popular Linux distribution in the early 90s. It dominated the market until it was modified, renamed " Slackware" and release in the Summer of 93. A decision was made that SLS needed to be optimized and cleaned up a bit and that the executable file format should be changed from a.out to ELF (Executable and Linking Format - formerly "Extensible Linking Format" - the common standard file format in today's Linux). Incidently, Debian was also concieved from such ideas. Debian was also released in 93.
There are a number of Slackware-based distributions that are really small. Austrumi, for example, is a business card size (50MB) bootable live CD Linux distribution (developed by Latvian programmers). 50MB can fit just about anywhere these days, but even on older and even archaic machines, 50MB is not too large of a space. SLAX (a MiniLinux distribution) is a Linux Live CD operating system based on Slackware, which doesn't even need to be installed on a computer system's hard drive. It can be booted and run from either a CD or even a USB drive. There is also an option to run SLAX from RAM. SLAX comes in five official versions: SLAX Standard, SLAX KillBill, SLAX Server, SLAX Popcorn and SLAX Frodo.
SLAX Standard is obviously a standard distribution for normal personal use. The remaining four versions of SLAX can be seperated into two separate subgroups: specialized and minimalistic. SLAX KillBill and SLAX Server fall under the "specialized" subgroup. SLAX Popcorn and SLAX Frodo fall under the "minimalistic" subgroup. SLAX KillBill (aka SLAX KB) has the ability to run many Microsoft Windows applications in Linux without having to make any modifications to those applications. SLAX KillBill includes applications such as Qemu (a fast processor emulator) and Wine (short for Wine Is Not an Emulator), which is an application which aims to allow Unix-like computer operating systems on the x86 architecture to execute programs that were originally written for Microsoft Windows. SLAX Server supplies additional Internet functionality and comes with pre-configured DNS, DHCP, SAMBA, HTTP, FTP, MySQL, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, SSH as well as other server applications. The two remaining versions have minimalistic qualities for further optimization of weaker hardware. SLAX Popcorn uses lightweight Xfce as a desktop environment instead of KDE. SLAX Frodo is specifically designed for hardware with a low amount of RAM and does not contain the X Window System (commonly X11 or X), a display protocol which provides windowing on bitmap displays and the basic framework, or primitives, for building GUI (graphical user interface) environments: drawing and moving windows on the screen and interacting with a mouse and/or keyboard. All versions of SLAX, with the exception of SLAX Frodo, include Fluxbox as an option. Fluxbox is a lightweight and customizable X window manager based on Blackbox, another minimalist window manager for the X Window System ideal for those seeking a fast, clean and light environment.
The main feature of SLAX is easy customization. All editions of SLAX and some of the distributions based on SLAX can be modified directly or using the MySLAX Creator program with modules from the official SLAX website and other sources. MySLAX creator allows you to create your own customised Slax live cd in Windows XP/2000/NT by adding modules to the /modules or /optional directory (.mo or .img), adding general files to the /extra directory, removing modules from the original ISO image, adding some permanent boot options (For example start SLAX in GUI mode), creating and burning your own MySLAX ISO image and preparing a bootable USB stick and copy all the SLAX files to it.
SLAX is a popular base for a number of interesting live CD projects. SLAMPP, for example, is a SLAX-Based live distribution that comes with preconfigured tools and applications that allow a personal computer to function as an instant home server which provides support for common protocols, such as: HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, POP, IMAP, SMTP, SSH, DHCP, Squid, features a firewall as well antivirus and content scanner software and can boot directly from a CD-ROM, or optionally can be installed on a local hard drive and, like other Linux LiveCDs, gives a user new to Linux the chance to experiment with a non-Windows operating system, without the risk of changing or re-configuring the user's existing system.
Currently there are two editions of SLAMPP available: SLAMPP and SLAMPP Lite. SLAMPP, discribed above, contains a full server environment, uses Webmin as server administration and has some office and multimedia applications. SLAMPP Lite, is a small version of SLAMPP and is powered by XAMPP, an easy-to-use cross-platform (currently available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris and Mac OS X) web server released under the GNU General Public License capable of serving dynamic pages, which consists mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.
When choosing a distribution, one should understand that many of today's Linux distributions are based on something. SLAX is a Slackware-based distro that has several of it's own SLAX-based distros. Knoppix and Ubuntu are both Debian-based distributions that have their own Knoppix-and Ubuntu-based distros. Slackware was based on Softlanding Linux System,(SLS) which is one of the earliest linux distributions, dating back to 1992. SLS was the most popular Linux distribution in the early 90s. It dominated the market until it was modified, renamed " Slackware" and release in the Summer of 93. A decision was made that SLS needed to be optimized and cleaned up a bit and that the executable file format should be changed from a.out to ELF (Executable and Linking Format - formerly "Extensible Linking Format" - the common standard file format in today's Linux). Incidently, Debian was also concieved from such ideas. Debian was also released in 93.