Do you have an old PC lying around gathering dust? How about a small-capacity USB flash drive sitting, unloved in a drawer? You can reuse your old computer and a USB flash drive by installing a tiny Linux distribution.

Mini Linux distros are great as they require fewer system resources than other options yet still deliver a whole operating system experience, and we have nine of the smallest Linux distros for you to choose from.

  • @spittingimage
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    1211 months ago

    Don’t use Tiny Core Linux. The wiki is a mess of articles for two different versions, neither of which is the current one. Sign-up to the forum has been broken for years and the owner seems to like it that way because the same happened when he created Damn Small Linux.

    • Possibly linux
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      211 months ago

      I think Tinycore is more like a learning tool than a daily driver. If you want to know the basics of how a Linux system boots you should read the book.

      I especially like how the entire system is basically one big shell script.

      • @spittingimage
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        111 months ago

        You’re far better off with the Arch wiki.

        • Possibly linux
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          111 months ago

          Don’t use it for anything important as its not well maintained. You should either use buildroot, openwrt or Debian.

        • @[email protected]
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          111 months ago

          I’ve programmed Arduinos and microcontrollers, including one with an ARM Cortex M4 CPU. In all cases, I just write C code on my computer and download it onto the board with a USB cable. No OS needed.

    • yianiris
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      111 months ago

      It still works though, doesn’t it?
      At that size to boot and work is an achievement that has many of us scratching our heads about what we have gotten wrong.

      @spittingimage @Ninjazzon