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.

  • db2@lemmy.world
    51·
    2 years ago

    tl;dr:

    ArchBang
    Tiny Core Linux
    Absolute Linux
    Porteus
    Puppy Linux
    SliTaz
    antiX Linux
    Bodhi Linux
    Linux Lite

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      5·
      2 years ago

      I was impressed with antiX as a light-weight system. If you are ok with a tiling window manager, ArchBang is good too.

      They are essentially stripped-down Debian and Arch respectively.

  • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    9·
    2 years ago

    Hey this is just what I need. And exactly when I needed it.

    I have an old enterprise tower I’ve been trying to set up for my bedroom tv (I believe from 2009 or so) that only has 4gb ram but 12 (!!!) usb ports, and mint with xfce is still much too heavy for it, despite it being able to run win 10 fairly well.

    All it needs to be able to do is run my vpn, torrent client, and web browser for media playback (Plex web, hosted elsewhere on my network).

  • spittingimage@lemmy.world
    9·
    2 years 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.