I was doing something else while I waited for DSL to run (which is more convenient than Knoppix, as DSL apparently started the desktop without waiting for me to answer some stupid prompts about video modes or whatnot), so I wasn't looking when it came on; but when I finally looked at the desktop, I said, "What the hell is this?" I think all my distros have had KDE, so I don't know much, but this was the strangest-looking Linux desktop I'd seen. Also, it had already windows open in two different desktops, for unknown reasons (and had started in desktop 4 instead of 1); they appeared to be welcome-to-DSL windows, but I couldn't understand the window controls, couldn't even figure out how to close them. There was nothing I recognized as a start or launch menu on the desktop, either. It had wallpaper of a purple planet. What would this have been--Gnome? Uh, I wouldn't say it was displeasing, but it wasn't as obvious as the other distros I've tried.

Not sure what the default WM is on DSL but it wouldn't be KDE or GNOME. They are both monster desktop environments and DSL is aiming at being small...

There are a lot of different window managers out there, most of which look nothing like KDE or GNOME or Windows. Check some of the screenshots at lynucs.org to see for yourself, here are some of the more minimal ones:

http://www.lynucs.org/?fvwm
http://www.lynucs.org/?evilwm
http://www.lynucs.org/?blackbox
http://www.lynucs.org/?wmii
http://www.lynucs.org/?waimea

DSL uses Fluxbox. I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and thought if I could get the hang of it, I'd prolly throw rocks at KDE.

I think is uses Flux by default, but also I think it has IceWM in there as well as a second choice.

It also uses JWM I use it, kinda KDE like...

See this and look under "Window Manager." It is indeed Fluxbox if you are using a recent version of DSL.

~Justin

DSL uses Fluxbox by default. It also has JWM but you have to select that one to boot up instead of fluxbox. JWM is almost like a really ugly KDE.

Fluxbox is extremely small, and I find it not to be very friendly to customizing. There is not start bar or anything like that. You right click anywhere on the desktop, and that will bring up your program menus. You can change the icons on the desktop, but thats kinda a pain in the butt to do.

After you get use to Fluxbox, its not that bad. I would not recomend using it though. Its not as useable as Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, XFce, etc...

DSL is a very small distro, for old machines. I run DSL on a P2 running 266MHz with 128MB ram...and a 1gb hard drive. But if you have a few gigs of hard drive space, I would recomend Ubuntu or Xubuntu. They both seem to work good.

Hmm. In theory, if I had known about DSL, I could perhaps have kept using my old 486.

the one thing you fail to mention about dsl is that it is one of the fastest minimalist distros around, you can run the whole thing from memory by using the "toram" option at boot time. Programs open instantly, you can switch between fluxbox, icewm & jwm window managers from the desktop. dsl is not meant to compete with the likes of ubuntu or xubuntu, although in terms of pure speed it makes both of those distros look slower than a postal worker on valium. dsl is fast, sleek with minimum bloatware.