SLAX small Linux OS Server version

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 13:30:14 Post Subject:

If you want a linux OS that is will last you a long time without being outdated and needin to upgrade with downloading ISOs and garbage and don't want to put up with having to reinstall after you try and fail to do something that ruins the system (we all have those days...), then I suggest Gentoo. I live by it. I love it. Works great on both a P-D 3.2GHz and a P-II 350MHz Crazy

. Download the 2006.0 minimal installation CD to do the install the real guru way from command line or get the new LiveCD with GUI installer.

EDIT: And installed with KDE and minimal apps, Gentoo installed in about 1.1GB of HDD space on the 350MHz PC.

knight0334 · Posted: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 13:57:19 Post Subject:

I'm just tinkering again with this.. not intending to get serious. I'd like to setup a small FTP server for relaying appz and stuff.

I've got about a dozen 512mb to 2gb hardrives laying around and enuff PCI IDE controllers to hook them all up.

..this is just pretty much something to do in my free time.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 14:09:43 Post Subject:

I think you can pretty much make any distro small. It all depends on the options you install.

Any time you install a GUI (Like KDE, Gnome, etc..) you're going to add a lot of space to the install.

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 14:27:32 Post Subject:

I don't know about other distros but Gentoo now has modular xorg 7.0 in portage which can save some space if you install X. KDE has also been split up (by Gentoo devs) so you only need to install what you want and not waste so much space. Another plus about compiling is not having all the extra libs you don't need installed by RPMs which is why BSD or Gentoo or Slackware is good. I'm guessing SLAX is based off slackware?

And with a bunch of small drives, use LVM (Linux Volume Management). That way it acts as one big root (/) partition instead of seperate mountpoints.