Micro Distros: The Tiniest Linux You Can Get
Micro Distros: The Tiniest Linux You Can Get
Most desktop distros are full of features – but they're pretty bloated, too. Discover super-slim Linux versions that can run on (almost) anything.
Regular listeners to the Linux Voice podcast [1] know that we like to reminisce about the glory days of the Commodore Amiga. A lot of this is simply nostalgia and wistfully looking back on the past with rose-tinted glasses; after all, AmigaOS didn't even have memory protection, so it was very easy for one misbehaving program to take down the whole system, leading to the infamous Guru Meditation error messages.
Nonetheless, AmigaOS was incredibly impressive at the time: You had a full graphical user interface (GUI) and multitasking operating system, supplied with various utilities, libraries, fonts, and other bits and pieces – all in a couple of megabytes. Compare that to today's desktop Linux distros, which eat up several gigabytes in a standard installation. Sure, openSUSE, Fedora, X/K/Ubuntu, and the like do so much out of the box, so it's not a really fair comparison, but sometimes you do wonder what's munching up all the hard drive space.
Thanks to their open source and free software underpinnings, desktop Linux distributions aren't inevitably chunky beasts. Many super-lightweight distros squeeze an enormous amount of functionality into a relatively tiny ISO image. These distros are ideal if you want to install Linux on older or low-spec hardware, or just set up a Linux installation where you control every single piece of software on the system. In this article, I'll look at some of these distros, show you what's cool about them, and give you some tips for using them.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
United Nations Open Source Portal Goes Live
A new open source portal seeks to coordinate and scale open source efforts across the United Nations system.
-
KDE Linux Drops AUR
KDE Linux developers have dropped the Arch User Repository from the build pipeline due to security concerns; other distributions should consider doing the same.
-
California May Exempt Linux from Its Age-Verification Law
After backlash from the Linux community, California may be backing off on its promise to force all operating systems to verify age, but one platform may still have to comply.
-
Another Logic Bug Found in Linux Kernel
Qualys has discovered a vulnerability in the Linux kernel that can be used to elevate standard user privileges.
-
Ubuntu Core 26 Offers Game-Changing Enterprise Features
Ubuntu Core 26 could be a game-changer for organizations looking for increased security and reliability.
-
AI Flooding the Linux Kernel Security Mailing List
AI is giving Linus Torvalds a headache, but not in the way you might think.
-
Top Priorities for Open Source Pros Seeking a New Job
Professional fulfillment tops the list, according to LPI report.
-
Container-Based Fedora Hummingbird Designed for Agent-First Builders
Fedora Hummingbird brings the same approach to the host OS as it does to containers to level up security.
-
Linux kernel Developers Considering a Kill Switch
With the rise of Linux vulnerabilities, the kernel developers are now considering adding a component that could help temporarily mitigate against them… in the form of a kill switch.
-
Fedora 44 Now Gaming Ready
The latest version of Fedora has been released with gaming support.