{"slug": "tiny-core-linux", "name": "Tiny Core Linux", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "Extremely small, modular Linux distribution that loads into RAM and boots quickly.", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 5.578, "rising": 0.36, "first": "2025-11-02", "latest": "2026-10-11", "why": "Loved for its tiny footprint and for making old, low-RAM machines usable again, with fast RAM-based booting and an OS that is easy to hand-tailor.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Old hardware", "Tiny footprint"], "caveat": "Assembly required", "short_quote": "I really really love TCL so much, the smallest version is 17mb, I highly recommend giving it a try", "icon": true, "domain": "tinycorelinux.net", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "http://tinycorelinux.net/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Tiny Core Linux"], "verdict": [{"text": "Loved for its tiny footprint and for making old, low-RAM machines usable again,", "cites": [{"id": 800644752, "item_id": 50040297, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040297", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really really love TCL so much, the smallest version is 17mb, I highly recommend giving it a try", "excerpt": "I also recommend tinycorelinux (TCL) if you want even more minimalism: http://tinycorelinux.net/ I personally once used this where it simply only had pdf ability and not a browser or anything else and I have used TCL to resurrect one of my older pc's into making it just work and I can even install many applications. This is a 12-15 year old Dell inspiron mini with 1gb ram. I also love its aesthetics so much and it is", "context": "", "use_case": "reviving old PC", "switched_from": "", "story": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC"}, {"id": 743003505, "item_id": 46437719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437719", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Everyone should try out tinycore just once imo.", "excerpt": "Alpine is really good for servers. Man I love alpine even though I don't use it so much but alpine does hold a special place in my heart for some reason (and i think the reasons are good) Tinycore is another one which holds a special place in my heart, partially because its the most no BS simple alpine-like os that I have seen which is rather focused on the consumer side, so you can get GUI systems super quickly and ", "context": "", "use_case": "minimalist GUI OS on old laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "FediMeteo: A \u20ac4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service"}, {"id": 738825345, "item_id": 46176584, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176584", "by": "girvo", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Made it actually usable!", "excerpt": "I used to run Puppy Linux and then TCL (and its predecessor DSL) on a super old Pentium 3 laptop with like 700mb of RAM or something. Made it actually usable!", "context": "", "use_case": "old laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 738824640, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years", "excerpt": "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 fil", "context": "likes old hardware", "use_case": "daily driver on old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}]}, {"text": " with fast RAM-based booting and an OS that is easy to hand-tailor.", "cites": [{"id": 738824640, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years", "excerpt": "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 fil", "context": "likes old hardware", "use_case": "daily driver on old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 738801584, "item_id": 46175099, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46175099", "by": "oso2k", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources.", "excerpt": "I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources. Testing old PCs, Pi Zero and Pi Zero 2W are great use cases.", "context": "", "use_case": "testing old PCs, Pi Zero", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}]}, {"text": " The main caveat is that it takes more do-it-yourself assembly than a typical distro.", "cites": [{"id": 779211568, "item_id": 48700723, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48700723", "by": "initramfs", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll recommend two distros(one isn't really a distro, but a toolkit) for your cr-48 : Tiny Core Linux, and NanoLinux.", "excerpt": "That's great information. I had no idea Chromebook prototypes started as early as N455, but since you're skilled with Arch, I'll recommend two distros(one isn't really a distro, but a toolkit) for your cr-48 : Tiny Core Linux, and NanoLinux. The latter is built on TCL and a distro was released on Sourcefourge around 2015- no releases since.. One could really optimize an N450 using a very light package manager over TC", "context": "", "use_case": "lightweight Linux on old Chromebook", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Old hardware", "summary": "Commenters use it to bring very old laptops and PCs back into everyday use.", "quotes": [{"id": 738825345, "item_id": 46176584, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176584", "by": "girvo", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Made it actually usable!", "excerpt": "I used to run Puppy Linux and then TCL (and its predecessor DSL) on a super old Pentium 3 laptop with like 700mb of RAM or something. Made it actually usable!", "context": "", "use_case": "old laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 738824640, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years", "excerpt": "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 fil", "context": "likes old hardware", "use_case": "daily driver on old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 800644752, "item_id": 50040297, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040297", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really really love TCL so much, the smallest version is 17mb, I highly recommend giving it a try", "excerpt": "I also recommend tinycorelinux (TCL) if you want even more minimalism: http://tinycorelinux.net/ I personally once used this where it simply only had pdf ability and not a browser or anything else and I have used TCL to resurrect one of my older pc's into making it just work and I can even install many applications. This is a 12-15 year old Dell inspiron mini with 1gb ram. I also love its aesthetics so much and it is", "context": "", "use_case": "reviving old PC", "switched_from": "", "story": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC"}]}, {"label": "Tiny footprint", "summary": "The ISO and RAM use are measured in tens of megabytes, with the smallest version at 17 MB.", "quotes": [{"id": 800644752, "item_id": 50040297, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040297", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really really love TCL so much, the smallest version is 17mb, I highly recommend giving it a try", "excerpt": "I also recommend tinycorelinux (TCL) if you want even more minimalism: http://tinycorelinux.net/ I personally once used this where it simply only had pdf ability and not a browser or anything else and I have used TCL to resurrect one of my older pc's into making it just work and I can even install many applications. This is a 12-15 year old Dell inspiron mini with 1gb ram. I also love its aesthetics so much and it is", "context": "", "use_case": "reviving old PC", "switched_from": "", "story": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC"}, {"id": 800619744, "item_id": 50038734, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50038734", "by": "iamnothere", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you have a use case for an extremely light Linux system I recommend it.", "excerpt": "Tiny Core requires less than 50 MB of RAM and a 486. I like DSL but I\u2019ve come to appreciate Tiny Core more. If you have a use case for an extremely light Linux system I recommend it. (I like it for single app GUI VMs.)", "context": "", "use_case": "single app GUI VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC"}, {"id": 743003505, "item_id": 46437719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437719", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Everyone should try out tinycore just once imo.", "excerpt": "Alpine is really good for servers. Man I love alpine even though I don't use it so much but alpine does hold a special place in my heart for some reason (and i think the reasons are good) Tinycore is another one which holds a special place in my heart, partially because its the most no BS simple alpine-like os that I have seen which is rather focused on the consumer side, so you can get GUI systems super quickly and ", "context": "", "use_case": "minimalist GUI OS on old laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "FediMeteo: A \u20ac4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service"}]}, {"label": "Fast boot", "summary": "Booting into RAM makes it quick to start and fast and quiet on old machines.", "quotes": [{"id": 738801584, "item_id": 46175099, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46175099", "by": "oso2k", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources.", "excerpt": "I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources. Testing old PCs, Pi Zero and Pi Zero 2W are great use cases.", "context": "", "use_case": "testing old PCs, Pi Zero", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 738824640, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years", "excerpt": "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 fil", "context": "likes old hardware", "use_case": "daily driver on old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}]}, {"label": "Easy customization", "summary": "It is simple to hand-tailor; boot packages are listed in one flat file.", "quotes": [{"id": 738824640, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years", "excerpt": "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 fil", "context": "likes old hardware", "use_case": "daily driver on old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 743003505, "item_id": 46437719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437719", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Everyone should try out tinycore just once imo.", "excerpt": "Alpine is really good for servers. Man I love alpine even though I don't use it so much but alpine does hold a special place in my heart for some reason (and i think the reasons are good) Tinycore is another one which holds a special place in my heart, partially because its the most no BS simple alpine-like os that I have seen which is rather focused on the consumer side, so you can get GUI systems super quickly and ", "context": "", "use_case": "minimalist GUI OS on old laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "FediMeteo: A \u20ac4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service"}]}, {"label": "Lightweight VMs", "summary": "Some commenters run it in VMs, including single-app GUI VMs.", "quotes": [{"id": 800619744, "item_id": 50038734, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50038734", "by": "iamnothere", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you have a use case for an extremely light Linux system I recommend it.", "excerpt": "Tiny Core requires less than 50 MB of RAM and a 486. I like DSL but I\u2019ve come to appreciate Tiny Core more. If you have a use case for an extremely light Linux system I recommend it. (I like it for single app GUI VMs.)", "context": "", "use_case": "single app GUI VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC"}, {"id": 738789424, "item_id": 46174339, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46174339", "by": "ifh-hn", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to have Tiny Core in a VM for different things.", "excerpt": "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.", "context": "", "use_case": "small VM", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Assembly required", "summary": "It needs more manual setup and assembly than other options.", "quotes": [{"id": 779211568, "item_id": 48700723, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48700723", "by": "initramfs", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll recommend two distros(one isn't really a distro, but a toolkit) for your cr-48 : Tiny Core Linux, and NanoLinux.", "excerpt": "That's great information. I had no idea Chromebook prototypes started as early as N455, but since you're skilled with Arch, I'll recommend two distros(one isn't really a distro, but a toolkit) for your cr-48 : Tiny Core Linux, and NanoLinux. The latter is built on TCL and a distro was released on Sourcefourge around 2015- no releases since.. One could really optimize an N450 using a very light package manager over TC", "context": "", "use_case": "lightweight Linux on old Chromebook", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide"}]}], "who": [{"by": "marttt", "context": "likes old hardware", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "date": "2025-12-06"}], "tags": ["for old hardware", "for minimalists", "for lightweight VMs", "for Raspberry Pi Zero"], "use_cases": ["reviving old pc", "single app gui vms", "lightweight linux on old chromebook", "minimalist gui os on old laptop", "os on old laptop", "old laptop os"], "compared": [{"slug": "damn-small-linux", "name": "Damn Small Linux", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "alpine-linux", "name": "Alpine Linux", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "puppy-linux", "name": "Puppy Linux", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "slitaz", "name": "SliTaz", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "dillo", "name": "Dillo", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173547", "title": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50036571", "title": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48668747", "title": "Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46436889", "title": "FediMeteo: A \u20ac4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46258529", "title": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45794280", "title": "item 45794280", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 3}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 800644752, "item_id": 50040297, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50040297", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I really really love TCL so much, the smallest version is 17mb, I highly recommend giving it a try", "excerpt": "I also recommend tinycorelinux (TCL) if you want even more minimalism: http://tinycorelinux.net/ I personally once used this where it simply only had pdf ability and not a browser or anything else and I have used TCL to resurrect one of my older pc's into making it just work and I can even install many applications. This is a 12-15 year old Dell inspiron mini with 1gb ram. I also love its aesthetics so much and it is", "context": "", "use_case": "reviving old PC", "switched_from": "", "story": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC"}, {"id": 800619744, "item_id": 50038734, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50038734", "by": "iamnothere", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you have a use case for an extremely light Linux system I recommend it.", "excerpt": "Tiny Core requires less than 50 MB of RAM and a 486. I like DSL but I\u2019ve come to appreciate Tiny Core more. If you have a use case for an extremely light Linux system I recommend it. (I like it for single app GUI VMs.)", "context": "", "use_case": "single app GUI VMs", "switched_from": "", "story": "50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC"}, {"id": 779211568, "item_id": 48700723, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48700723", "by": "initramfs", "date": "2026-06-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll recommend two distros(one isn't really a distro, but a toolkit) for your cr-48 : Tiny Core Linux, and NanoLinux.", "excerpt": "That's great information. I had no idea Chromebook prototypes started as early as N455, but since you're skilled with Arch, I'll recommend two distros(one isn't really a distro, but a toolkit) for your cr-48 : Tiny Core Linux, and NanoLinux. The latter is built on TCL and a distro was released on Sourcefourge around 2015- no releases since.. One could really optimize an N450 using a very light package manager over TC", "context": "", "use_case": "lightweight Linux on old Chromebook", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide"}, {"id": 743003505, "item_id": 46437719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437719", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2025-12-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Everyone should try out tinycore just once imo.", "excerpt": "Alpine is really good for servers. Man I love alpine even though I don't use it so much but alpine does hold a special place in my heart for some reason (and i think the reasons are good) Tinycore is another one which holds a special place in my heart, partially because its the most no BS simple alpine-like os that I have seen which is rather focused on the consumer side, so you can get GUI systems super quickly and ", "context": "", "use_case": "minimalist GUI OS on old laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "FediMeteo: A \u20ac4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service"}, {"id": 740188001, "item_id": 46261750, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261750", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2025-12-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used it on my really old dell laptop with tinycore 32 bit and dillo", "excerpt": "I used it on my really old dell laptop with tinycore 32 bit and dillo Awesome stuff. I was able to run modern firefox on that 1 gb puny laptop too but it took 800 megabits of ram but I was able to run https://pomodorokitty.com/ on it.", "context": "", "use_case": "OS on old laptop", "switched_from": "", "story": "Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo"}, {"id": 738825345, "item_id": 46176584, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176584", "by": "girvo", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Made it actually usable!", "excerpt": "I used to run Puppy Linux and then TCL (and its predecessor DSL) on a super old Pentium 3 laptop with like 700mb of RAM or something. Made it actually usable!", "context": "", "use_case": "old laptop OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 738824640, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years", "excerpt": "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 fil", "context": "likes old hardware", "use_case": "daily driver on old hardware", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 738801584, "item_id": 46175099, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46175099", "by": "oso2k", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources.", "excerpt": "I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources. Testing old PCs, Pi Zero and Pi Zero 2W are great use cases.", "context": "", "use_case": "testing old PCs, Pi Zero", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 738789424, "item_id": 46174339, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46174339", "by": "ifh-hn", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to have Tiny Core in a VM for different things.", "excerpt": "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.", "context": "", "use_case": "small VM", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}, {"id": 732727106, "item_id": 45795444, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45795444", "by": "Imustaskforhelp", "date": "2025-11-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "tiny core linux which is an absolute pleasure", "excerpt": "My thoughts on systemd are complicated but I wasn't around at the time of systemd Personally it is my opinion that Linux really split in two due to systemd partially because of the idea of the sheer size of systemd code There are things like https://github.com/Sweets/hummingbird which, I, not even a C person can understand and appreciate its simplicity. I am not saying that we always need such simplicity, but that I ", "context": "", "use_case": "smallest functional system", "switched_from": "", "story": null}]}