Tiny Linux distributions

• Alfalinux

A Slackware-like Linux distribution on two floppy disks. It doesn't have any restrictive/reduced/remade system parts and contains all the required applications for disk operations, recovering, and networking.
• ArmedLINUX

More closely related to a full distribution than a mini-distribution but is aimed at Win9x/NT/DOS users with a FAT file system. Currently this distro is boasting Workstation configuration, Glibc2.1, optimizations for use with cable modems and network access, features kernel modules for most 3Com, SMC, Tulip and Intel NICs and more. It supports Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3, TNT, and most popular soundcards as well.
• Build Your Linux Disk (BYLD)

A package that helps you to build a Linux distribution on a single floppy disk to use as you want (net client, rescue disk...). This is not a complete distribution: it was made only to build a mini distribution on a floppy. You can use it as is (follow quick installation instructions below) or you can configure it and build your own floppy distribution.
• CClinux

A single floppy linux distribution that is based on the 2.2.x kernels, has mostly GNU tools, and allows you to change something on your floppy very easily. A sample kernel is supplied but you are encouraged to compile one that is suited for the NICs that this will run on.
• Coyote

A single floppy distribution for people who have an Internet connection that they wish to share with other computers on a LAN. In addition to connection sharing, it also provides firewall services to help protect the internal network. The goal of the Coyote project is to make it as quick and easy as possible to share an Internet connection.
• deepLINUX

Primary focus is to bring embedded Linux to the masses. It provides everything you need to embed Linux into a very small bit of silicon (deepLINUX with a Web server is under 4MB).
• Dialup Router Mini

Dialup router-MINI is a miniature version of Linux that fits onto a 1.44MB floppy diskette. With the assistance of Diald and IP-Masquerade, it gives you the possibility to surf the Web, play games, etc. from any machine in your LAN. It also has a built-in "caching name server" which makes DNS queries execute faster. The router also has a firewall function which protects your whole network from intrusion.
• DLX

A linux system running on Intel PC's. DLX comes on only one 3,5" floppydisk. DLX boots with a kernel >= 1.3.89 and starts a ramdisk image. DLX also has a writeable ext2 filesystem of about 130 kb on the floppy to store configuration scripts. DLX supports paralell-port ZIP-Drive.
• DragonLinux

Linux can co-exist with Windows 95 on the same partition and take up less space than your word processor! DragonLinux: IronWing is a tiny Internet-ready distribution of Linux. Weighting in at only 25MB installed, it sports a functional Linux UMSDOS installation complete with various TCP/IP tools and man pages.
• Emblin

Emblin (EMbedded Linux) Design goals are: Minimum Linux OS for embedded systems (or other mini systems),Modular build, easy to strip down, build up, Easy to configure , All fits one 1 bootable Floppy, Contains HTTP + CGI, FTP, TELNET, TFTP server, Include inet clients, lynx, snarf
• Finnix

A self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution, based on Red Hat Linux 6.1. It was created as a system maintenence distribution. You can mount hard drives, set up network devices, repair filesystems, and pretty much do anything you can do with a regular distribution.
• Floppix

A teaching tool; it is a very small subset of Debian/ GNU Linux that fits on two 3.5" 1.4Mb diskettes. It provides a platform to practice linux commands and experiment with simple system administration. Floppix has no hard drive support.
• Floppyfw

A static router with the firewall-capabilities in Linux. Although it is called a firewall it does not have all the functionality one expects from a firewall of today. It is basically a Screening router or Package filtering firewall.
• FrazierWall

Frazier Wall Linux is a single floppy distribution Linux firewall that is based on the Linux Router Project. It is designed for use with ethernet base internet connections (such as cable modems or xDSL lines). FrazierWall allows you to share such a connection with several other computers on a LAN. Frazierwall is also based on the Coyote Linux and is very easy to setup and maintain. It is available in a Linux configurable software version.
• Freesco

An easy way to connect a small network to internet through one modem and give to all users of this network transparent access to internet. Administration is available via console or telnet. Freesco is designed to be quick and easy to setup and requires at least a 386 with 8mb of ram, and, of course, a 1.44mb floppy drive, ethernet card, and modem.
• giotto

An extendable modular Linux floppy distribution. Among the available add on packages are an ethernet masquerader, a collection of some application-level proxies, and a giotto development kit.
• Green Frog

A small compact Linux Distribution. It is intended to be used as a starting point for people who want to home brew most or all of their Linux system. Basically it is a bare minimum Linux system that will allow you to boot, compile stuff, and use networking. It will also excell at small servers due to it's minimal nature with some minor adjustments, or alternatively with the addition of X and a desktop envoirment of your choice will make a great custom tweaked desktop (Client) OS.
• HVLinux

A project to make a secure Linux distribution oriented to servers. It runs only in RAM memory for now, but it comes with smtp, wu-ftpd, nfs, and other tools for network security.
• IGEL JNT

An embedded Linux OS with a read-only filesystem, allowing OEMs to develop embedded Linux Network Devices and Appliances. It's compression technology allows to store a miximum of embedded code in a minimum amount of Flash Memory.
• JAILBAIT

Another Interesting Linux But Also Intimidating Too: a fully-functional Linux distribution that fits into 16 MB. Many modern net-appliance-type products such as the Netpliance iOpener have an internal SanDisk device that is 16 MB in size.
• Laonux

A relatively small Linux distribution that contains most of the basics that you would expect in a Linux system, but nothing more. It features gcc-2.95.2, glibc 2.1.2, and kernel 2.2.14. It is not easy to install, but it provides a complete system. It is great for hobbyists who wish build up their own personalized Linux distribution from a basic core.
• Linux In A Pillbox (LIAP)

A set of specialized, easily-configurable Linux floppies.
• Linux Router Project (LRP)

A networking-centric micro-distribution of Linux. LRP is small enough to fit on a single 1.44MB floppy disk, and makes building and maintaining routers, access servers, thin servers, thin clients, network appliances, and typically embedded systems next to trivial. LRP is the premier 'single floppy' linux, with a very large and growing user base. It uses a modular packaging system, and has the the distinct feel of its much bigger cousin, Debian GNU/Linux.
• Live CD

A project to create a CD that runs Linux. The CD is bootable, and runs Debian Linux without needing a hard drive. The scripts are pretty basic, and the setup has not been optimized for any particular application.
• Linux for Windows 9X

A small Linux distribution meant to run on any Windows 9X system. You launch Linux directly from the Start button. Installation is managed using the Control Panel Add/Remove Software applet.
• Linux On A Floppy (LOAF)

A tiny linux distribution that fits on a single floppy. Its intended goal is to be a quick and dirty networking client. It includes your basic networking stuff like ifconfig, route, ping, traceroute, telnet, ssh and lynx.
• LoopLinux

A small distribution of the linux operating system that can be installed on and run from a dos system (msdos (etc) and win95/98 in dos mode). It uses the standard linux ext2 filesystem, it can also use a ext3 or reiserfs filesystem if the kernel supports it. There's no need to repartition, the linux system will just be a file on your dos system and act like it was on it's own partition.
• Linux and Squid on a Diskette (LSD)

A single floppy distribution with the Squid http proxy.
• Linux Appliance Construction Set (LxA)

A collection of documentation, tools, and sample components put together to assist in assembling useful Linux-based 'appliances' which boot from and are entirely contained on one floppy disk. The packages include complete, bootable configurations for an Internet-connection-sharing router, a PostScript-ready network print server, and a standalone firewall. All configurations boot and run directly from either a single floppy disk or CD-ROM.
• Minux

A single-floppy Linux system which was derived from the Trinux project. It first boots from the local drive and then mounts the rest of the file system from an NFS server.
• Monkey Linux

Can be extracted to the DOS filesystem (to the FAT32 too). This is complete small ELF distribution with latest kernel on 5 diskettes. Monkey can run on this minimal HW: 386SX, 4MB RAM, 30MB on IDE HDD.
• muLinux

A minimalistic, but mostly complete, script-based Linux distribution that fits on a single 1722k floppy. X11, GCC, VNC, and TCL addons are supported on additional floppies. It includes many basic system functions, such as PPP and Ethernet support, mail processing, NFS, Samba, FTP, IRC Finger, ipfw, etc.
• Nuclinux

A single-floppy Linux distribution. It's designed primarily to connect to internet and use Internet programs (lynx, irc, ftp, telnet, finger, etc.) from a networked machine.
• Peanut

Peanut Linux is a preconfigured Linux distribution that's geared towards Linux newbies. It features Linux 2.2.14, XFree86, KDE, support for 3dfx chipsets, and many other GUI/console networking, multimedia, and miscellaneous tools in a 50M package.
• PeeWeeLinux

PeeWeeLinux is a small Linux distribution for embedded applications and floppy-based systems. It is based on a RedHat 6.1 development platform, and features a graphical configuration tool, minimized XFree86 for embedded use, and tiny packages for floppy-based systems.
• Phat Linux

A mini-distribution for UMSDOS based on ZipSlack.
• PingOO

A Linux distribution based on Debian destined to be a communication server. Its users don't have to maintain the server and don't need Linux knowledge. The PingOO distribution was initially created within the framework of Linux Edu, a project dedicated to connection of schools in France (Haute-Savoie area). It uses a Client/Server interface for administration (Java Interface/LDAP-Perl server), and the servers are maintained from a central site with packages. PingOO supports both French and English.
• Pocket Linux

An almost minimal, one floppy linux system designed to quickly convert PC workstation into secure linux-based workstation using ssh to connect to remote host (other networking clients are also supported). It supports bootp for determining host IP and other network parameters (there's also manual configuration possible, but bootp is recommended). In addition to workstations equipped with a network card (ethernet or arcnet), you can also use Pocket Linux on a PC equipped with a modem. Modem is automatically detected and then PPP connection is made.
• Serial Terminal Linux

Serial Terminal Linux simply contains a custom init script that runs minicom, turning an otherwise unusable computer into a dumb terminal.
• ShareTheNet

For building gateways.
• Small Linux

Web page for small kernel projects that run in 2, 4, or 8 Mb of RAM. Also home site of the Small Linux distribution. Small Linux is is a micro distribution of Linux for Intel machines that will run on a system with as little as 3 megs of RAM. It comes on 2 or 3 diskettes, can be installed on small hard drives, and is designed to work with tinyX, slip, and plip.
• spyLinux (small Python Linux)

A mini Linux distribution which has the usual utilities, networking, vi, and a full (except for Tk & interactive mode) Python intrepreter, useful for deploying small network apps across a bunch of diskless machines.
• Subliminal

Dexdyne has developed it for use on its SC410 based embeddable systems and is now releasing it for general use. Subliminal comprises an SC4xx-compatible Linux kernel, an NE2000 compatible Ethernet driver, the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP), a low-overhead Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) daemon, a VNC client, thesvgalib Super VGA driver library, telnetd remote terminal protocol, an ftpd remote upload protocol, the thttpd and the netpipes package, the bash and ash shells, a System V compatible INIT script system, the 'chat' program and serial port drivers.
• ThinLinux

Thinlinux is a small and configurable linux distribution suitable for embedded applications. The edge router is a free demonstration firewall product utilizing thinlinux.
• Tiny

TINY is a small Linux distribution designed especially for reusing old computers. It has very low demands in terms of hardware capacity, and even a Linux beginner can install it easily. No CD driver is required for installation, even for standalone machines. TINY is GUI capable . As long as your machine can bear it, you can run all available Linux applications on it.
• Tomsrtbt

Boot/root rescue/emergency floppy image with more stuff than can fit. Bzip2, 1722Mb formatting, and tight compilation options helped jam a lot on. It is useful for "learn unix on a floppy" as it runs from ramdisk, includes the man-pages for everything, and behaves in a generally predictable way.
• Trinux

A Linux distribution that boots from two floppies (right now) and runs solely from two ramdisks-one for the root partition and the other for /usr partition.
• VectorLinux

A small, fast, x86-based Linux distribution. It requires only 160M disk space and 16M RAM, and retains full functionality with a GUI desktop, full development environment, FTP server, networking utilities, and a full range of desktop and console applications.
• Xdenu

Small Linux distribution kit. The guiding principles have been the ease of use, the ease of installation and small size. Main goal has been to compile an X terminal environment to Helsinki University of Technology campus area.
• ZipSpeak

A talking mini-distribution of Linux for blind and visually impaired people, based on version 7.0 of the Slackware distribution and version 0.08 of the Speakup screen reader. Like ZipSlack, ZipSpeak is designed to be installed on an existing MS-DOS or Windows system, so that the user can try out a talking Linux system with a minimum of difficulty, and without assistance from someone who can see.