The lightweight Dillo Web browser, in development for eight years, has always been a contender for the fastest browser available on GNU/Linux -- so much so that the Google's Chrome will have to be pretty nimble to outpace it.

The Dillo project has achieved an alpha release of a next-generation version of its ultra-lightweight CGI forms-capable HTML browser for embedded systems. Dillo-f15f is built against FLTK2 (fast light toolkit, aka "full tick") rather than GTK, and adds support for anti-aliased international UTF-8 text, among other new features.

Using browsers which are Web 2.0 enabled whenever you just what to Google something is like calling out the Fire Brigade when you have just burned the toast. Definitive overkill. If you are just surfing for information, then you want the little browser on the low fat, low body-mass index, skinny latte diet with a low carbon footprint. If Dillo were a catwalk model, it would be size zero.

When it comes to browsers, the Unix community is positively spoiled for choice: Firefox, Konqueror, Flock, Opera, Epiphany, Galeon, Kazehakase, Links, Elinks, Lynx, W3m and Dillo. From the minimal to the relatively bloated all life is there.

The eight-year-old Dillo project has released version 2.0 of its Linux-compatible, ultra-lightweight HTML browser for embedded systems, antiquated PCs, and other low-powered devices

The Damn Small Linux (DSL) project team on June 19 announced the availability of the first release candidate of the next version of its live CD mini-distribution based on Debian Linux. Damn Small Linux 3.4 features a 2.4.26 kernel and a lightweight Fluxbox desktop environment, the team said.

"Today, after a long period of inactivity, a new release was made. It's being a long way and this dillo-2.0 release comes with a boat load of improvements..."

I just found out about an intriguing new project out of Russia -- Damn Small Solaris. Yes, it takes the Damn Small Linux concept (which is also spreading to another nascent distro, Damn Small BSD) and uses OpenSolaris as the base for a 60 MB live CD.

The Damn Small Linux (DSL) team today released DSL 3.4, a live CD featuring a 2.4.26 kernel and lightweight Fluxbox window manager. "I took a little side trip while working on 4.0 to make a much asked-for version of DSL," chief maintainer Robert Shingledecker said.