Debian is one of the original distros, dating back to 1993. The Debian package management system is generally considered superior to the RPM systems, although they have closed the gap (mainly by incorporating features from Debian’s system).

Before Ubuntu there was Mepis. At that time it was one of the most user-friendly Linux distribution available. Despite being overshadowed by the popularity of Ubuntu in recent years, SimplyMepis is still one of the most friendly desktop distributions in the Linux landscape.

Damn Small Linux is really a damn small linux distribution till date. Amazingly the entire ISO image could fit in a pen drive or in a small compact disk because the total size of the ISO is only 50 mb.

I just recently downloaded and installed Mepis again. I’ll have to say, it has really improved from previous installs I’ve tried. Before it was based on Ubuntu and had the blot inherited from such a blotted upstream distro.

One of the more popular Linux distributions, but not one that’s offering much of a threat to Ubuntu in terms of popularity, Simply MEPIS nonetheless has much to commend it. It’s the community version of the MEPIS distribution, and right from the start it glistens with commercial gloss.

The latest release of Debian 5 comes with an extensive list of software packages and support for 12 different architectures

Damn Small Linux (DSL) is another small, minimal-requirement distro, which aims to deliver solid functionality and ultra-fast performance on very-low-end machines, with as little as just a handful of MB of RAM. Alongside Puppy, it’s one of the flagships of small Linux distros.

Depressed, and almost giving up, I came across MEPIS and since I didn’t yet know how to burn an iso image to a CD, I simply mailed off $10 and MEPIS sent me a Live CD. Certainly, this cheap ten buck distro couldn’t out perform the hundred dollar super distros.

So it has been a while since I have posted ScreenShots of any distribution lately. So I decided to start it off with the new and improved Debian 5.0.

Ok it’s time for another distro review and I’m a bit overdue with this one but I’m a big fan of Debian and the dedicated community who develop it I make no secret of that.

Last month Knoppix 6.0 was released, and it’s even faster and prettier than earlier versions. But it’s still designed to run well on older and slower computers. Among the changes in version 6.0 is the switch from the KDE desktop environment to the LXDE graphical environment.

Since I already had the CD of Mepis 8, I decided to see what it would do on the old laptop. It booted just fine and everything looked great, so I made the decision to install it on the drive.

I’ve had the pleasure of taking a special Debian 5.0 distribution (Debian 5.0 i386 XFCE LXDE) for a recent test drive as a virtual machine in Citrix XenServer 5.0.

This time around I tried the daddy of many desktops, Debian Lenny, and compared it with Mepis 8.0 on my notebook. I am pleased how Debian has made itself easy to install and use – booting from netinstall.iso to a full-blown Debian Desktop was easier than ever.

Finally, after months of betas and release candidates, the wait is over. In my opinion, the finest Linux distribution a person could possibly use is ready for download and use.

I AM a little conflicted about Mepis. It is part of the family of Debian-based Linux distributions which I tend to favour, and it is a distribution I used for quite a lengthy period in the past.

This post contains a bunch of media reviews of Debian 5.0 “Lenny”: The Register, Distrowatch.com, The H open Source, Ars Technica, datamation, Techiemoe, LinuxPlanet, eWeek.com and screenshots at ZDNet

While the bigger and better-known Linux distributions tend to get more than their fair share of publicity, there are other bright stars that light up the FOSS firmament and rarely get a mention.

For the first time this week I finally had the pleasure of taking Damn Small Linux (hereafter, DSL) for a test drive. One of the companies that I work for required an easy, lightweight and quick solution to salvage an older project. The