Hi,

Has anybody come across a fairly cutting edge distro with no X whatsoever?

Most distros are fairly X oriented these days, as my frequent visits to distrowatch reveal. I've looked among the light distros like Damn Small, Feather etc. but haven't found one that drops X, and concentrates on Commadn line utilities instead.

Most concentrate on both. Just don't install any X packages during the install.

OK, it would be interesting to see how many installation scripts give you that option.

However, I was also thinking of a kernel compiled without thought for X.

I'm checking out a LWN link at the mo', has a good listing of distros:

http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/

Any distro that gives you and "advanced" install option would. That includes most of them. If you want to be sure, install ROCK, Gentoo, LFS, or something of the like. If X is compiled in, it'll be your own fault then.

Thanks for the replies.
Yep, I found ROCK, interesting and novel.
Sure, the source based distros would be a way to go.

But I was thinking of a branded, binary distro with an automated install ...

I'm slightly surprised there is none ... I'll keep looking though. If I don't come up trumps, well then .. DIY .. but the porblem would be .. what to call it :-)

Debian doesn't istall X if you don't want (especially if you do a network install). That's one of the reasons it was a favorite of mine when I was on dialup and didn't know about the cd vendors around the globe that would burn for you for a buck or two.

Red Hat will install without X (although it won't install on my machine, as I have no real use for it (others make it so much nicer). Mandrake can install without X for sure. Slackware, no X. Although not Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD both will install without X.

All of this is out of the box. Granted, I think you are reffering to a "put in the cd and let it go" deal. That's a market that I doubt would be there. I think you'd be the only one But, seriously, installing without X is merely a checkbox you don't fill out or uncheck, whichever.

There are a few that are without a GUI. I have one called Astrumi. Its a diagnostic cd. No GUI on it (and it can be used to recover or change material on Microsofts products.....)

SuSE's install asks if you want to install X or not, and that's on the first screen.

Thanks for replies ... all helpful.

Vector, your point about there bring a market ..., I thought the principle about doing your own distro in this multidistro age was entirely based on only you being in the market. If its useful for others, well that's an unexpected bonus. Wonderfully egotistical, in a way.

I really wonder how many of the small distros do market research (do polls, ask friends, ask LQ:-))) and setup the distro based on the results ... maybe the big boys do (well, I hope they do).

On the other hand, maybe you want to do a distro for another person ... like special ... Say girlfriend. Maybe someone has, or will do a distro on that basis.
Ultra cool present, it would be :-)

Reverting to my question, I discovered I already had an out-of.date SystemRescue CD, the one by Francois Dupoux et al, which is very commadnline oriented, but is able to invoke a GUI in a clever way I don't understand yet.

Also thanks for aUstrumi tip .... Hope to see you around again, cheers.

"I really wonder how many of the small distros do market research (do polls, ask friends, ask LQ:-))) and setup the distro based on the results ... maybe the big boys do (well, I hope they do)."

I seriously think that there is probably another reason why someone makes their own distro - they don't like the way things are done, so they do it themselves or they just want the challenge of doing it. I don't think there is as much consideration as to whether a lot of others will want it, but it's encouraged, as the collaboration is great and sometimes necessary to finish the job, right? I know I'd get stale fast without someone keeping it fresh.

Sounds like you're gonna try making your own distro.......go for it! I love trying new distros (I said so in my profile!)



PS: Sorry, e. I keep forgetting about Suse. The slight was not intentional