An almost absolutely basic operating system for writing

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Da Rossa

Da Rossa

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Dec 17, 2015
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I need a very basic, desktop environment-free operating system to suit a single purpose: writing hastly. I thought of a 'Minimal' CentOS version, all-text based, but actually that is a modern and solid operating system which is likely to use a lot of resources. What I need, exactly, is:

* Boot almost instantly
* No desktop environment
* Ability to be installed and used in a over-10-year-old machine, including portables
* A text-based writing app like Nano or Vi, only with one difference: that it can save automatically so I can type worry-free
* If possible, to autoload the text editor upon startup
* No need for anything beyond the OS's core funcionalities
* Networking to allow the typed documents to be exported

Any thoughts?
 
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Da Rossa

Da Rossa

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Dec 17, 2015
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Win98 is out of question, since I don't have access to it anymore. It also has a GUI that I don't need. So the DOS option could be good, except that I don't know where to get it anymore and I'm not sure whether there is a text-based editor with the features I pointed above... :(

 
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Da Rossa

Da Rossa

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Dec 17, 2015
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Humm, this is formidable... I've just given a try on VirtualBox and, at first glance, FreeDOS seems to meet my expectations. I played around for about half an hour. BUT, I guess that's so far old school for me. I don't know where do I begin, for instance, change the keyboard layout, or speedup the repeated key presses, which is going to be a crucial aspect. So so far CentOS is leading the race :D

Any other suggestions?
 
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A

Alabalcho

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Jan 13, 2011
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If you can manage CentOS, you can manage (Free)DOS, config.sys and autoexec.
"MODE CON" is your friend for key repeat. "KEYB" is for keyboard layouts. There used to be tons of TSRs (terminate-and-stay-resident) utilities for almost everything under DOS.

Note: Above commands are from my MS-DOS memories. I don't know how whell they are emulated under FreeDOS.
 
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Da Rossa

Da Rossa

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Dec 17, 2015
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Thanks Alabalcho, I'll take a look. :)
 
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Alpha90

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May 9, 2012
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If you could find a copy of ttylinux i486 (it runs on 8mb )that would fit your requirement completely but the project ended last year and the website is gone but a mirror might exist somewhere. Tiny core linux is slightly more bloated at 10mb but that also would work well and is still up and running
 
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randomizer

randomizer

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Jul 24, 2006
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Arch Linux net insall would allow you to pick and choose exactly what you want and how to configure it. Actually pretty much any distro that offers a net install should allow installing without a DE. You can also simply uninstall the DE from any distro too.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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This boots instantly, can be used anywhere, text based, automatic save soon as you write, load the writing environment soon as you open it.

pen-notebook.jpg


If that is too advanced, this is a bit more basic

flintstone_4.jpg
 
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Solution
hang-the-9

hang-the-9

Titan
Mar 25, 2010
60,387
1,081
152,940


I did find it very funny that everything you were looking for aside from networking the thing is describing a simple piece of paper LOL And we got so far away from just writing things down that everything has to be in a computer even when all you need is a notebook and a pen.

* Boot almost instantly
* No desktop environment
* Ability to be installed and used in a over-10-year-old machine, including portables
* A text-based writing app like Nano or Vi, only with one difference: that it can save automatically so I can type worry-free
* If possible, to autoload the text editor upon startup
* No need for anything beyond the OS's core funcionalities
* Networking to allow the typed documents to be exported
Click to expand...
 
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