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Thread ID: 92699 2008-08-19 05:48:00 Linux distro that will install to small hard drive Agent_24 (57) Press F1
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698565 2008-08-19 05:48:00 Does anyone know of one? I notice that the well known (ubuntu etc) seem to need more space than windows XP

Yet there are live CDs (like DSL) that will run from 50MB easily

I'm trying to find something that is designed to install to hard drive but will fit on an 850MB hard drive. Web browsing, instant messaging, and media player is about all I want. Desktop doesn't need to be anything fancy either
Agent_24 (57)
698566 2008-08-19 05:56:00 Debian will do this just fine - just make sure you don't install everything that's selected by default.

I've also heard very good things about Puppy Linux for this kind of thing, although I've never used it myself.

Ubuntu will also happily install to something this small as long as you manually bootstrap it and don't use the installer.
Erayd (23)
698567 2008-08-19 07:10:00 DSL, how about?

(Damn Small Linux)
Renmoo (66)
698568 2008-08-19 07:35:00 Dsl easy install to hard drive beama (111)
698569 2008-08-19 07:57:00 DSL, how about?

(Damn Small Linux)
Oops, you did mention that in your post :o
Renmoo (66)
698570 2008-08-19 11:13:00 Just been doing some reading of the latest Aust PC Authority - they have a few reviews on small Linux distro's -- try looking at This new one, Slitaz (distrowatch.com) - whopping 25Mb OR another one they have reviewed called Slax (http://www.slax.org/) - coming in at 200mb. wainuitech (129)
698571 2008-08-19 19:59:00 Both of those look ok and sound good going by the reviews beama (111)
698572 2008-08-19 20:43:00 I don't know about some of those mentioned above but I use Puppy cause the live cd can be updated with yr current data and settings so long as a RW CD or DVD is used.. kjaada (253)
698573 2008-08-19 23:09:00 The problem is that all the small good ones are only live CDs and not designed to install as far as I know

The other thing that gets me is that these CDs are small eg 250MB so it seems it would fit well onto the hard drive.

I tried Debian with the netinstall and managed to get xorg and icewm running but after that the drive free space was only 80MB and I had almost no other applications installed. Yet NimbleX with a load of apps and KDE consumes only 250MB ISO on CD.

I'm sure there's something here I don't understand, I'm not so knowledgeable with Linux as I am with Windows...
Agent_24 (57)
698574 2008-08-19 23:41:00 Puppy will install but you haveto follow the instructions on their site and know a wee bit about dos. kjaada (253)
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