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Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

tinycorelinux.net

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Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#141

Post by marttt »

dayeye2006 wrote: post #76
ifh-hn wrote: post #43

I've used many of these small Linux distros. I used to have Tiny Core in a VM for different things. I also like SliTaz: http://slitaz.org/en , and Slax too: https://www.slax.org/ Oh and puppy Linux, which I could never get into but was good for live CDs: https://puppylinux-woof-ce.github.io/ And there's also Alpine too.

wondering what's your typical usage for those small distros?

I like using old hardware, and Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years on a Thinkpad T42 (died recently) and Dell Mini 9 (still working). I tried other distros on those machines, but eventually always came back to TC. RAM-booting makes the system fast and quiet on that 15+ years old iron, and I loved how easy it was to hand-tailor the OS - e.g. the packages loaded during boot are simply listed in a single flat file (onboot.lst).

I used both the FLTK desktop (including my all-time favorite web browser, Dillo, which was fine for most sites up to about 2018 or so) and the text-only mode. TC repos are not bad at all, but building your own TC/squashfs packages will probably become second nature over time.

I can also confirm that a handful of lenghty, long-form radio programs (a somewhat "landmark" show) for my Tiny Country's public broadcasting are produced -- and, in some cases, even recorded -- on either a Dell Mini 9 or a Thinkpad T42 and Tiny Core Linux, using the (now obsolete?) Non DAW or Reaper via Wine. It was always fun to think about this: here I am, producing/recording audio for Public Broadcasting on a 13+ year old T42 or a 10 year old Dell Mini netbook bought for 20€ and 5€ (!) respectively, whereas other folks accomplish the exact same thing with a 2000€ MacBook Pro.

It's a nice distro for weirdos and fringe "because I can" people, I guess. Well thought out. Not very far from "a Linux that fits inside a single person's head". Full respect to the devs for their quiet consistency - no "revolutionary" updates or paradigm shifts, just keeping the system working, year after year. (FLTK in 2025? Why not? It does have its charm!) This looks to be quite similar to the maintenance philosophy of the BSDs. And, next to TC, even NetBSD feels "bloated" :) -- even though it would obviously be nice to have BSD Handbook level documentation for TC; then again, the scope/goal of the two projects is maybe too different, so no big deal. The Corebook [1] is still a good overview of the system -- no idea how up-to-date it is, though.

All in all, an interesting distro that may "grow on you".

1: http://www.tinycorelinux.net/book.html

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#142

Post by krige »

mrits wrote: post #137
beagle3 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Amiga 500 had high res graphics (or high color graphics … but not on the same scanline), multitasking, 15 bit sound (with a lot of work - the hardware had 4 channels of 8 bit DACs but a 6-bit volume, so …) In 1985, and with 512K of RAM. It was very usable for work.

a 320x200 6bit color depth wasn't exactly a pleasure to use. I think the games could double the res in certain mode (was it called 13h?)

For OCS/ECS hardware 2bit HiRes - 640x256 or 640x200 depending on region - was default resolution for OS, and you could add interlacing or up color depth to 3 and 4 bit at cost of response lag; starting with OS2.0 the resolution setting was basically limited by chip memory and what your output device could actually display. I got my 1200 to display crisp 1440x550 on my LCD by just sliding screen parameters to max on default display driver.

Games used either 320h or 640h resolutions, 4 bit or fake 5 bit known as HalfBrite, because it was basically 4 bit with the other 16 colors being same but half brightness. The fabled 12-bit HAM mode was also used, even in some games, even for interactive content, but it wasn't too often.

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#145

Post by Joel_Mckay »

rzerowan wrote: post #126
api wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This also underscores my explanation for the “worse is better” phenomenon: worse is free. Stuff that is better designed and implemented usually costs money and comes with more restrictive licenses. It’s written by serious professionals later in their careers working full time on the project, and these are people who need to earn a living. Their employers also have to win them in a competitive market for talent. So th…

There is also the option by well written professional wherer the startergy is to grab as much market share as they can by allowing the proliferation of their product to lockup market/mindshare and rleaget the $ enforcement for later - successfully used by MSWindows for the longest time and Photoshop . Conversly i remenber Maya or Autodesk used to have a bounty program for whoever would turn in people using unlicensed…

As a business, dealing with Microsoft and Oracle is not a clean transactional sale.

They turned into legal-service-firms along the way, and stopped real software development/risk at some point in 2004.

These firms have been selling the same product for decades. Yet once they get their hooks into a business, few survive the incurred variable costs of the 3000lb mosquito. =3

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#148

Post by ifh-hn »

dayeye2006 wrote: post #76
ifh-hn wrote: post #43

I've used many of these small Linux distros. I used to have Tiny Core in a VM for different things. I also like SliTaz: http://slitaz.org/en , and Slax too: https://www.slax.org/ Oh and puppy Linux, which I could never get into but was good for live CDs: https://puppylinux-woof-ce.github.io/ And there's also Alpine too.

wondering what's your typical usage for those small distros?

All sorts. Having a full bootable OS on a CD or USB was always cool. When I left the military and was a security I used to use them to boot computers in the buildings I worked in so I could browse the internet.

Before encryption by default, get files from windows for family when they messed up their computers. Or change the passwords.

Before browser profiles and containers I used them in VMs for different things like banning, shopping, etc.

Down to your imagination really.

Not too mention just to play around with them too.

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#149

Post by ifh-hn »

sundarurfriend wrote: post #105
ifh-hn wrote: post #43

I've used many of these small Linux distros. I used to have Tiny Core in a VM for different things. I also like SliTaz: http://slitaz.org/en , and Slax too: https://www.slax.org/ Oh and puppy Linux, which I could never get into but was good for live CDs: https://puppylinux-woof-ce.github.io/ And there's also Alpine too.

> puppy Linux, which I could never get into In what way? Do you mean you didn't get the chance to use it much, or something about it you couldn't abide?

No I tried to use it but it didn't click with me. I had it on cd but I'd normally reach for something else.

Re: Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop

#150

Post by crackernews1 »

wild_egg wrote: post #6
bflesch wrote: post #2

Looks really nice, I like the idea. But can they please empower a user interface designer to simply improve the margins and paddings of their interface? With a bunch of small improvements it would look significantly better. Just fix the spacing between buttons and borders and other UI elements.

Modern UX trends are a scourge of excessive whitespace and low information density that get in the way of actually accomplishing tasks. Any project that rejects those trends gets bonus points in my book.

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