In the quest for building a respin based on Debian that uses as little memory and resources as possible, while still providing a flexible and good-looking GUI, I have decided on using JWM (
Joe's Window Manager). It is the common denominator in low-resource distros such as
DamnSmallLinux and
PuppyLinux.
AntiX also has JWM as a desktop choice.
I have some issues with DamnSmallLinux. The installer only allows you to create the default username of "dsl". Granted, once the installation is completed, you can manually create another user and copy dsl's default settings to the new user's home directory. The installer also does not allow a full standard installation to hard drive. What you get is a copy of the iso, running as a loop-mounted image on the hard drive. You can use persistence to save user changes, but there is a limit as to what system changes will be saved. The worst part is the software that is installed.
(1) The 2.4.xxx Linux kernel is used. There is no option to upgrade. I have asked on
the forum whether there were any plans to upgrade to a newer kernel. The response was no response at all. (2) The standard GNU tool chain (GCC, make, etc.) is not used. There is an option to upgrade the toolchain, but it breaks several aspects of the installation. (I have tried it.)
I have some issues with Puppy Linux. The first is the same as DSL. You are limited by the installer to the "puppy" account. Again, you can create another user account and copy the user puppy's configuration settings to the new user's home directory. Unlike DSL, you can do a full hard drive installation. There is also the "frugal" hard drive installation which mirrors DSL's type. The iso is copied to the hard drive and mounted at boot time as a loop image. Persistence is used to save user changes. The main problem I have with Puppy is that the user account(s) are running with root privileges. In my opinion, you may as well be logging in as user root. Rebuttals to this argument are often that Puppy is meant to be run as a live CD. In that case, there should be no hard drive installation option with full root user privileges. It is also a fallacy to say that the live CD is protected from potential abuse when (a) read/write CDs can be used effectively and (b) persistent changes can be saved to a hard drive/USB partition.
I have no issues with AntiX. It is a very-well produced distro with excellent custom-built utilities specific to use in the AntiX runtime environment. However, it offers
several desktop environments all in one package. And, I am aiming for just one DE, JWM.
So far, I'm in the preliminary steps of learning JWM's working environment and creating the respin. I intend to donate this to the Linux Village "pool" as a distro for older computers with limited hardware and resources. It is pure Debian and, so far, has no packages or tools from any other repositories or distros. Wherever possible, I will use the leanest and meanest application for the job. (Midori for web browsing, etcetera.)
I am asking for your help in naming it. I named it VSLV for VerySmallLinuxVillage. That may not be fitting or appropriate. Do you have suggestions for the name or the applications to be included? The current desktop configuration is shown below.
