Damn Small Linux or Similar
 

I need a small Linux distro that can be embedded in a Windows host, like DSL.

"Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)"

If you visit the DSL site there is a problem. The latest stable version is 4.4.10 dated 2008.
There is a release candidate, but I need a bug free distro. Also, the DSL forum has many posts
for Viagra!

ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/d...small/current/

Electronics was a hobby that became my profession. I've been building my own Desktops for
several decades. I've use a few Linux boot apps, but now I'm trying to resolve a difficult problem.

Are there similar distros to DSL, that are frequently updated?

The usual way to run Linux inside Windows would be as a virtual machine, in which case you can use any distro you like.

Another option is Cygwin. Cygwin isn't Linux strictly speaking, instead it provides a Linux-like environment and software on Windows.

Basically, DSL only exists to keep some old machines useful, it was superceded by TinyCore.

(Another very small distro is SliTaz.)

Slitaz is mostly the one bootable tools use. I'd say puppy linux would be another choice or one good one might be Arch linux, but then again probably not for 'newbie' best choice.

Definitely Puppy.

It's able to do this because it uses something called a 'save-file'; a compressed, special file that contains an entire Linux file-system within it.

Normally, Linux would not run on top of the Windows NTFS file system. Puppy is able to, because it runs entirely within the afore-mentioned 'save-file', which contains the ext2/3/4 file system required for Puppy to run correctly.

There is even a special installer that exists for this purpose, called LICK.

http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/18/...ut-cd-usb.html

You can find the newest version of LICK over at GitHub, here:-

https://github.com/noryb009/lick

Hope that helps.


Mike. ;)