simple linux os

[ted_chou12]

Hi, I am looking for some simple linux OS system that can be installed onto xp, I don't want it to be too big and user friendly interface, just simple command lines like dos would be good enough for me, because I want to execute some files with linux. I am not very familiar with linux, please give me some names of freewares that may be ones that I am looking for,

Thanks!

Ted C.

[trq]

You are aware that Linux doesn't get installed into XP? It is its own operating system, well, once its combined with the GNU tools.

[cliffdodger]

Well one thing is you could download cygwin. It's not "linux" but it's a unix/*nix like command line environment for windows.

 

Alternatively you could download Sun's virtual box and install a copy of a Linux distro onto it. If you want something lightweight but still want the easy options for a GUI try Slackware (assuming it'll run in virtualbox) - it's installer (might've been updated since I last tried) is even reminiscent of the ascii graphics you'd see in old installers from dos programs It used to be a great distro - haven't used it in years though. Not sure how it's doing.

 

There are Linux distros that are made to run on top of windows without a virtual environment like virtual box or xen or vmware. I used to use one called Dragon Linux but it is no longer maintained. Dragon Linux (and others) would install themselves in windows on what they call a "loopback" file system. That also means they're very slow because they run in a virtual file system on top of a windows file system. Better to go with one's that run in a virtual environment (like virtual box) then one's that run directly on windows IMO. Unless as you said you want something really light weight - but you might find it sluggish. Virtual environments are a lot faster.

 

Ubuntu is more on the graphical side but you can run it off the cd (provided you boot from the cd, then reboot into windows when you're done)

 

Otherwise, do some research over at linux.org

http://www.linux.org/dist/  - there's a great search here that narrows down what distributions apply to what you're looking for.

Note - if you new to linux I highly recommend NOT trying the minimalist or power user distro's just yet. That means there's a lot of conveniences you'd have to do for yourself that will take a lot of time if you don't know Linux inside out.

 

You might also want to look at FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD and their varients. BSD is "Unix" and uses most of the same underlying operating system software as Linux from GNU the free software foundation which is kind of silly because GNU stands for "Gnu's not unix".

 

FreeBSD is the easiest of those. OpenBSD is the most secure (and world renowned for it's security) and NetBSD is the most portable. At one time you could run it on a Sega Dreamcast or Playstation 2 but those ports likely aren't maintained anymore. (usually those ports aren't practical either as no one has time or money or need to update/port all the software packages to that platform)

 

Have fun.