DSL Talk

Recently I was experimenting around with some other very small Linux systems. I was given an opportunity to 'play' with an old Toshiba T4700ct notebook, which is a 486 running from a 320 megabyte hard drive and a whopping 8 megs or ram! THere is no Cdrom, thus all things needed to come from floppy, so I downloaded Basic Linux BL3 and proceeded. Now, I am not superbly adept at Linux and every new experience is both troublesome and rewarding. Uusally, I run into a stump or two right off the bat, and this time was no different. Firstly, I could not get 'x' to work. Apparently, dos 6.22 'interferes' with BL3 being able to read rom, so the Toshiba has to be started by pressing the alt-f5 buttons to bypass the autoexe.bat and config.sys files at boot. After doing that I got 'x' to work. Then I needed to edit some files. I had never had any luck editing files and the reason is something I think ALL NEWBIES need to be told. In fact, I think the designers of the Pico Editor need to revamp the format or at least make things CLEAR. In order to use the commands in Pico the help files say to press ^x or ^XY or so on. I had tried pressing ^ANYTHING for several months before this--all to no avail. Secondly the ^ sign is a CAPITAL 6 on the keyboard and pressing ^ and any other key is almost impossible , much less TWO keys as the Pico help guide instructs. I just so happened to be checking how to edit pppsetup and a Slackware guide mentioned that the ^ sign meant to push the CONTROL button!! Well, for crying out loud!! Why,, WHY isn't that the CLEAR instructions in the Pico editor??!! Sure enough, I pressed CONTROL x and VIOLA--I got Pico to WORK for the VERY FIRST time EVER! I can honestly say that the Linux fanatics that holler about how 'easy' Linux is to use could stand to learn from this lesson. This was one of the most confusing issues I have faced in the Linux world yet. And ,it is WAAAy to simple to have been overcome in the beginning by responsible programming. The ^ sign is NOT the CONTROL button. So, I hope this might help other users who read this.
Well, I did have success with BL3, but my storyline indicated the 'comfort zone' of Damn Small Linux and I can safely say that after the tough trials and errors of BL3 that coming back to this computer and firing up my DSL system and being able to just WHATEVER I want, at almost lightning SPEED, is almost to the point of incredible. Having the choice of two small but quick browsers is fantastic, everything works, and this distro is just great. I have yet had to do anything except USE Damn Small Linux and that speaks for itself about its value. And, the instructions for doing things are very CLEAR, at least as far as I have progressed with this system. I still give thumbs up to this one and enjoy the 'comfort zone' it provides me.