distro recommendation?

RE*AC*TOR

I occasionally use linux. Generally its for a few specific programs that run on the commandline - that I use for some of my research. I currently have dual-boot with windows2k and kubuntu. The thing is 99% of my work is done in windows and despite my best efforts - i still prefer and feel most comfortable and productive in windows.

Therefore - I've decided I'd prefer to run a very lightweight linux distro in vmware. Something like damn small linux - except it has to be installable to the HD (or virtual hd as the case may be).

So, I don't need anything running KDE or Gnome. I don't need openoffice, amarok, or 500 other applications I'll never use. Just somehting with a low memory and HD footprint to run a few commandline programs now and again.

Suggestions?

lexeme

go with Gentoo or a Debian.

you may want to consider removing linux altogether and using a bootable linux when the need arises, such as knoppix or even a Gentoo install cd. you will be able to mount your hard disk and read/write to/from it. you may have write problems if you are using NTFS (stock kernel has limited write support. you could create a small FAT partition.

have fun.

Edit: what about cygwin or cygwin/X? i'm guessing that you won't want X, but it's handy, if you ever want to get some X forwarding action going on and run graphical linux apps from other boxes on your local-windows-host.

declan_lgs

I'd go with Slackware, but I've never given Gentoo or Debian much of a chance (I'll be installing Debian soon, again).

It might be worth giving coLinux a shot. I've never used it before, but it looks pretty damn cool.

coLinux homepage wrote:

Cooperative Linux is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. More generally, Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows 2000/XP, without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software. In its current condition, it allows us to run the KNOPPIX Japanese Edition on Windows (see Screenshots).

Fenster

Gentoo is a bit heavy on the installation side, in truth. Maybe try Suse?

niallb

Damn Small linux is available as an image to run within windows.
It uses the free qemu (similar to vmware) to boot a virtual
linux from the desktop in a window.
This gives you windows and linux simultaneously
which is I think whatyou're looking for.

NiallB

ishnid

What applications are you running? It's quite possible that they're available for Cygwin - if so, I'd say there's no point messing with virtual machines and a secondary OS.

voxpop

colinux is great - i've it running smoothly in XP, got a fedora core1 root image and used apt-get to upgrade to fedora core3 without any problems. Ive got stock subversion,apache,mysql,perl running without hassle.

vigos

well if you've used ubuntu already, why not try this:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Installation/LowMemorySystems

you just install ubuntu using the "server" option which gives a cutdown 300mb install, with no x-windows or window managers installed. You can then install whatever packages you need on top of it then.

kyper

Seen as you feel more comfortable in windows and the linux apps you need are command line - why not install cygwin. It will give you a windows shell environment in windows. It works pretty well and you can get a lot of programs precompiled for cygwin.

RE*AC*TOR

I'm running cygwin now. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. One problem I have is that I require the command line to keep a huge scroll back buffer (50k lines). The windows command line, as far as I can see, can't do this. So at the moment I setup a ssh server on cygwin and I'm accessing it with putty.

Is there a way for the windows commandline to be adjusted?