DSL to Zenwalk and back to Xubuntu

I had been running Damn Small Linux on my old Thinkpad for the last few months. It generally worked well, but I’ve had a few stumbling points with my somewhat goofy hard drive install of it. I never did manage to get sound going and I hadn’t really stumbled over a way to ensure that I was staying current. It was time for a change.

And really, that paragraph is a bit of a load. The real story is I like to experiment, and I had stumbled over a “new” linux distribution I wanted to try: Zenwalk.

Zenwalk is a GNU/Linux operating system, designed to provide the following characteristics :

• Modern (latest stable software)
• Fast (optimized for performance capabilities)
• Rational (one mainstream application for each task)
• Complete (full development/desktop/multimedia environment)
• Evolutionary (simple network package management tool – netpkg)

The screen shots looked sparkly and shiny too. How could I resist?

The install was easy enough. In general, it ran well enough. But… my old laptop struggled with it a bit. The built-in “pencil eraser” mouse worked great, but the USB mouse was a lot like mousing through syrup. Awful, really. I tried a post at the support forums, but got no love. My initial run at getting sound going didn’t go well (but really, does it ever on a Thinkpad?) After poking around a bit, I decided that if I was going to stick with the Xfce world, I’d go back to Xubuntu where I’m more comfy.

So I did. I haven’t got sound working yet… but maybe this weekend I’ll have time to try some more. Might be related to the fact that I’m running “pre-beta Fiesty Fawn” — which I’m really liking so far.

Possibly Related posts:

1. My Xubuntu Laptop Has Sound!
2. Another Play with Puppy Linux
3. Old Machine? Try antiX Linux
4. More Options for the Old Machine