A graphical distro in just 16MB!

Tiny Core Linux is designed for people who will go to great lengths to build a customised streamlined distro that only does what they want it to do. With an ISO weighing just 16MB, Tiny Core is the minutest of distros to boot into a graphical desktop. It isn’t derived from one of the mainstream distros and owes its slim stature to its lightweight components.

Besides the recommended 16MB Tiny Core release, there’s an even smaller 11MB Core release that ships without a desktop and a 106MB CorePlus variant that includes multiple desktops and additional functionality, such as support for wireless network hardware.

The distro is quick off the blocks and drops you to a plain desktop running the FLWM window manager. There’s an icon-based application launcher at the bottom. By default it contains icons to access settings, add packages to the system, mount disks, launch the terminal, and more. When you add applications to the distro, their icons are automatically placed on the launcher. Tiny Core uses its own package format and its repository is flush with several popular programs, such as Firefox, Abiword, VLC and even LibreOffice.

Despite the availability of programs and conveniences like automated installers, it still takes some doing to transform Tiny Core into a regular desktop. The distro is designed for users who can’t spare the resources required by a regular desktop distro. The recommended Tiny Core edition doesn’t even ship with an installer, though it offers many options for making data survive between reboots.

The distro does have an official installer that’s available in the repos and is also preinstalled in the CorePlus edition. This installer has a very useful option that enables you to install the distro on a USB disk that you can boot from even on older machines that don’t support USB booting