http://www.osnews.com/story/25363/Tiny_Core_Linux_4_1_Released Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Fri, 24 May 2013 01:59:23 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://www.osnews.com/thread?498025 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498025 Seems like there's only a 32 bit version. Makes me think this is better for a VM target than for real use.

Hopefully they come to offer a full 64bit environment in the future. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bnolsen) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498027 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498027 Sadly Menuetos is only being developed now in 64 bit. If you want small that is the way to go.

Tinycore is being worked on and a lot of useful apps are available.

Both are worth a look. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jefro) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498029 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498029 IIRC there's a 32-bit fork of MenuetOS called Kolibri.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KolibriOS Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (KLU9) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498049 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498049 Why is that sad? All of my systems have been 64-bit since 2006. Does anyone run 32-bit Intel anymore? And if so, why? Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (zlynx) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498052 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498052 We still run 486 computers with 32meg ram up to supercomputers.

We buy a system and run it usually forever. Still have DEC stuff. Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (jefro) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498053 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498053 Old hardware, perhaps?

You know, old & slow computers where a minimal OS might actually make a bit of sense? Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (f0dder) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498077 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498077 You mean you want to run software that needs multiple gigabytes of memory on a 11MB OS? Seriously? Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Nico57) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498087 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498087 I don't think a multi-core, 64-bit machine with multiple GBs of RAM is the target environment for TCL. The team has created a useable, stable Linux based OS that is small enough to boot from the embedded Flash drive of an Intel-based NAS or thin client, yet scales up to a full fledged home computer quite nicely.

There are several projects out there that may interest you more, like BareMetalOS and MenuetOS.

Meanwhile, I'm quite happy with running TCL on my Wyse thin client as a fanless media server that also makes for a capable emergency nettop in a pinch. Plenty of "real use" right there. Edited 2011-11-24 05:52 UTC Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Morgan) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498090 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498090 See my post above. 32-bit minimal OSes certainly have their place, just not necessarily on one's main desktop.

For example, I have a Wyse x86-based thin client that is quite efficient and useable with Tiny Core Linux installed to the 32MB internal Flash chip, and a USB drive for storage. It's a great media server but it would also do well as a general purpose second machine or as a fallback when the main rig dies. It's portable enough to take to someone else's house and attach an existing keyboard, mouse and monitor for a nice web browsing machine without the risks involved in borrowing their machine for the duration.

Apart from CPU-intensive tasks, there really are very few things it can't do compared to a modern 64-bit system. Yet if I had the "nothing but 64 bits" mentality it would have ended up in the trash heap a long time ago. Thanks to TCL it continues to serve a purpose. Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:51:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Morgan) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498147 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498147 Why ? Well, 32-bit software uses less memory.

Obviously something like Tiny Core is meant to be as memory efficient as possible. Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Lennie) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498163 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498163 It only takes more memory if the software is written in the standard way which uses 64-bit pointers.

It's quite possible to write software which uses 32 bits or even 16 bit offset pointers. There is even a Linux kernel and a GCC build model that uses 32-bit pointers while running in 64-bit mode on x86_64 CPUs. It's called x32. Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (zlynx) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498187 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498187 Considering a single stick of 4GB costs less than 15USD and any non-atom processor manufactured since 2003-2004 has 64bit support I'd say 32bit only has bcome a niche platform.

Also I personally have need for a 64bit system this size, even if it would only be for a VM. Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bnolsen) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?498277 http://www.osnews.com/thread?498277 But want to install PPAs in it. Ideas? Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (crhylove) Comments