How are you using TCL?

[shr]

In the Distro Watch interview, Robert mentioned using TCL on his netbook.  It also looks promising for repurposing older hardware and internet appliances.  Any interesting use cases that anyone would like to share?

[curaga]

Well, I've put TC to a thin client with only a 32mb flash disk (the SSDs of the nineties, heh ) with Opera, OSS, aria2, and mpg123 to serve as a very low-power browsing / music-playing / downloading box. It is usually attached to a 1tb external disk.

The comp uses max 25W power.

[softwaregurl]

use mencoder to record live 640x480 30fps video and stereo PCM audio raw to ide hard drive.
350mhz PII <80% cpu usage.
Who would'a thunk it 

[Jason W]

Besides my normal desktop use, I also use TC for my file server through NFS which has seen several distros in the past.  I had a few hours on my hands the other day so I ditched floppyfw on my router/firewall box and I installed TC on it.  Wasn't too difficult with the  iptables and firewall-2.6.26 extensions and an online firewall script builder.  I was going to tweak the script that is in the iptables extension or write my own but I was short on time.  Basically I was upgrading my hardware to the 400mhz range as the previous boxes were junkers so I figured why not migrate to TC while I have everything apart.

[alu]

i use tc on all my machines as a desktop distro, e.g.:

1. via tiny box (two years old) with 256 MB ram, 500 Mghz cpu, 8 watt consumption; booting either with cf-card (32MB) or with a usb-dongle (1.1 16MB), 3g wireless connection, laser printer (hp 3052); it is my main desktop;

2. AAO netbook (a 6 months old 110L) with same apps; i boot tc from the ssd drive of the AAO where tc lives together with ubuntu, but the extensions and my backup are on an external usb drive;

3. hp pavilion dv6000 laptop (2 y.o.); i boot tc from a usb dongle, and the extensions as well as my backup are on an external usb drive

4. ibm thinkpad X31 (5 y.o.); same as 3.

everything which I have to use in my day-to-day computing life works without a problem (office apps, web & terminal-server services, and extra services for the free time such as skype with webcam, attym, youtube, webradio, tv, etc.).

i was a fan of the modular approach of Robert who provides a new and an original way in computing (IMHO), and I found other small distro too heavy for my needs, and sometimes with apps which i have never used. Slitaz was the right step in the right direction. Tc is the achievement: small, current kernel, Robert's philosophy. It gives me what i am looking for for years now: a small core system with lots of useful apps that you can install or, better, mount at conveniance regarding your needs. 

my current needs regard extensions which are not available at the moment, and which i'd like to see in the repositories (i prefer tcz ext. over tce ones because of the 'mount concept' which has my preference): unmount/uninstall tool for tcz apps, w3m, bc, bash history functionality, alpine mail client, mc, adduser functionality. 

[cli_user]

I just found this from DistroWatch.  What fun!  I've been looking for a system like this for ages.

Puppy Linux is great (I'm building upup right now), but gtkdialog is embedded into most of the scripts.
    Wouldn't run on my new laptop for two months due to Intel video issues (not unique to them).
GoboLinux has a fully-developed FS-based versioning and symlinks setup.  (I messed with something similar years ago on Sun/HP/Dec.)  However, it's a regular (large) distro.
Jaunty for video drivers and the big apps.
But all of them have loads of software I never use.

TCL looks like it's the modular distro core I won't have to develop.
I like just installing tarballs (probably one reason cygwin always works for me on Windows).
And TCL gave my eee 900A netbook tons of available flash memory.

P.S.:  Boy, does floppyfw take me back...

[netzen]

Old Dell XPS P3-550MHz... live again...

I reactivate an old P3 500Mhz... I'm testing TC on it.

The OS work just fine and Opera is relative good enough.
The machine cannot boot from USB, so I'm using a LiveCD as boot method.

This is the CDBoot time comparing TC with Xubuntu8.10...

Wait for 3 mins and 49 secs is too much time...

Not only because of the size (there are others small Linux around...), but the modular architecture, the simplicity and potential of the TC, suddenly make this old Dell "becomes" a Desktop Machine again!

I believe that small is beautiful, but size is NOT the only factor here...

...there is something alive in the TC Architecture that makes it almost COMPLETELY new in the Unix/Linux scenarious...

As the ancients chinese sages used to say, "the life is within the seed".
I think that TC contains the "seeds of life"... and if it is correct, life tends to grow!

[cli_user]

Wow!  I knew it was fast, but that fast   Were any of the 5 second boot hacks from last year applied?

[curaga]

Well, actually there was nothing special in that. Yes, they did present a system booting in five seconds; but the philosophy and tricks behind were known before that. One might say we do use some of the same things.

[nickispeaki]

just testing. cuz, a lot of apps doesn't work! keyboard (ua, ru), video (mplayer) with bugs... graphic viewers doesn't work...  without text editor..... 

but i hope, some of this problems will  solved in future!

Opera for inet, emelfm for file browsing, mplayernodep for video.

[tobiaus]

a lot of apps doesn't work! keyboard (ua, ru), video (mplayer) with bugs... graphic viewers doesn't work...  without text editor..... 

it will help if you install the deps properly, or allow appbrowser to install them automatically. instead of using "install local" use "connect, tce" and "install now."

the keyboard works for the maps it supports. the support for new layouts (ua, ru) are being added all the time (tc is only a few months old.)

which graphic viewer are you using? one was just added this week, but the olders ones should work (if you install the viewer properly.)

[nickispeaki]

it will help if you install the deps properly, or allow appbrowser to install them automatically. instead of using "install local" use "connect, tce" and "install now."

the keyboard works for the maps it supports. the support for new layouts (ua, ru) are being added all the time (tc is only a few months old.)

which graphic viewer are you using? one was just added this week, but the olders ones should work (if you install the viewer properly.)

giv, gqview
xpdf,
what does mean install properly? why i can't install locall? Is there magic bug in it? 

[tobiaus]

why i can't install locall? Is there magic bug in it? 

you can install local.

you didn't "install local" every needed file. you only install localed some of the needed files.

if you must install local, you must download the .dep file.

then it will tell you all the needed files. then "install local" them. (then the apps should be ok.)

[nickispeaki]

what is it .dep file?

[tobiaus]

what is it .dep file?

it's the file you get if the file needs other files. it will be very easy to see the dep file in the next version.

for now you need to put ".dep" on the end of the file you download, to see the dep file.

if you have any more trouble installing a tce today, tell me the name of the tce - i'll tell you the deps.

usually installing apps in tc is very easy, you're having trouble with it because you didn't download everything you needed (you could have used appbrowser instead.)