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. Another Option for the Old Machine
2. My Xubuntu Laptop Has Sound!
3. The Quest for Noise
4. Xubuntu with LXDE Inspired by Knoppix
5. The Linux for old stuff quest: Xubuntu