I've tried Xandros and Linspire, although I really understand very little about Linux, but was wondering a few things about this Damn Small distro. Can I install it to my hard drive, just like any other distro? Can I change the look of the desktop like the desktop icons and wallpaper and mouse cursors? Does it have a taskbar with a start button on it?

And importantly will it detect my internet connection so when I install it and boot to the desktop I can access the web? I have a broadband wireless connection with a CNet Pro 200 PCI Network Adapter.

quite likely it will detect your internet connection automatically (my DSL connection worked instantly) but if not, it will have the tools to detect. You can install to your harddrive, but unless you do (or save files to a usb keychain) your changes to the desktop and other preferences will not be saved past a reboot. If your interested in "live cd" distros, you may also want to check out knoppix - it is a bit slower than DSL linux but has several more apps avail as well.

You can change the look quite a bit. It will come with a few different themes but you can manually make your own or use the whitebox.dsl extension. The most current release contains two window managers fluxbox and jwm (joes window manager). jwm contains a more window's like appearance with a similar start button if you wish. As far as the internet connection a wired connection should be picked up automatically, but if you are speaking about a wireless connection, those can sometimes require some attention. You should probably run it from a live cd and play with the window managers, try customizing the desktop and try setting up your wireless connection, if everything goes well than do a hard drive install.

Well after I've made a bunch of changes that I like I would not want to lose them after a reboot, so how would I tell the distro to save them?

This is one thing that I hate about Linux. When you go to a link that is supposedly set up for you to download the distro, it greets you with a whole bunch of confusing entries...

this .......
that .......
and on ......
MD5 ......
rpm 1.2.3....

I need someone to tell me exactly which link to click on so I'm downloading the correct thing.

To download it go to the following link
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...small/current/
and download the dsl-2.1.iso file.

As far as keeping your settings from a live cd you can make a backup through the menu. I dont remember off hand as I am on a school computer at the moment but there is an option to make a backup in the right click menu.

Well I mean how would I save my settings after I've made some changes after the distro is installed to my hard drive. I'm not interested in saving anything if I'm just trying the distro out from the Live CD.

Problem. I tried downloading the file but my download manager said "Error.... something...". I can't download it from the link you gave me. Are there any others?

"Error looking up the IP address for the server."

Possible reasons include:
1. The server is not running...
2.
3.

That's what the error message says. I have not found a link that allows me to download this distro.

The link that adssse provided works for me. Be sure to right-click the file and Save as.. if you are doing so out of Win.

Well I've tried left-clicking it, and right-clicking it and I get the same error message. I don't know.

Okay, I shut off my download manager, and now it seems to be working. Don't know why it didn't work with my GetRight Download Manager.

If I am understanding you correctly you are talking about changes made to the desktop environment in dsl? If this is the case and we are considering a hd install they will be saved for you automatically.