KolibriOS – An OS on a Floppy!

KolibriOS is a piece of programming marvel. An entire Linux distribution Operating system, and not just a blinking cursor on a terminal, but with a graphical environment complete with text editors, system utilities, games, browser, media players and lots of other stuff. All neatly and impossibly stuffed inside a meager 1.44 MB floppy disk.

I tried KolibriOS on Virtual Box. The system boots in 2 to 3 seconds and shuts down instantly, like turning off a light bulb. The graphical UI is dated, reminds me of Windows 3.1 era, but I won’t be too critical. After all they have squeezed an entire distribution under one and a half Megabyte, for god’s sake. All I want to say is the graphics is non too bad and pretty usable if you don’t mind compromising.




Kolibri is coded in assembly language, which explains it’s small size to some extent, and forked off MenuetO – another tiny assembly language coded Linux distribution OS. 


The distribution comes in two version – a floppy image and a disk image. The disk image is slightly larger than the floppy version at 3MB, but still incredibly small. There is no mention of hardware requirement anywhere on the site, but I guess it would run any antique piece you can find.


- View Screenshot 1
- View Screenshot 2


Visit Official Site

Downloads

Floppy image to be used for various virtual machines, writing on diskette or putting to hard disk to boot from.
http://www.kolibrios.org/load.cgi?f/releases/kolibri_0.7.7.0_img_en.7z

Compact disk (LiveCD) image to be used for various virtual machines or burning to CDs to boot from.
http://www.kolibrios.org/load.cgi?f/releases/kolibri_0.7.7.0_iso_en.7z

Kernel, applications and libraries source code at the time of release.
http://www.kolibrios.org/load.cgi?f/releases/kolibri_0.7.7.0_src.7z

Software development kit (SDK) for people interested in developing applications for Kolibri.
http://www.kolibrios.org/load.cgi?f/releases/kolibri_0.7.7.0_sdk.7z





By: Ramkrishna Guchhait

Tiny Core Linux – 10 MB Linux

Tiny Core Linux is a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux GUI Desktop. It is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, and Fltk. The core runs entirely in ram and boots very quickly. Also offered is Micro Core a 6 MB image that is the console based engine of Tiny Core. CLI versions of Tiny Core's program allows the same functionality of Tiny Core's extensions only starting with a console based system.

It is not a complete desktop nor is all hardware completely supported. It represents only the core needed to boot into a very minimal X desktop typically with wired internet access.

The user has complete control over which applications and/or additional hardware to have supported, be it for a desktop, a netbook, an appliance, or server, selectable by the user by installing additional applications from online repositories, or easily compiling most anything you desire using tools provided.

Tiny Core Linux can be run as a Live CD from an optical disk or pen drive. It can also be installed to the hard disk like any regular OS.

- View Screenshots
- How to Install Tiny Core Linux
- Frequently Asked Questions

Download
For download Tiny Core Linux visit here


By: Ramkrishna Guchhait

Damn Small Linux - 50 MB OS!

Damn Small Linux is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution.


Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:
- Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD)
- Boot from a USB pen drive
- Boot from within a host operating system (that's right, it can run *inside* Windows)
- Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install"
- Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install
- Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram
- Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!)
- Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize


DSL was originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD. It was at first just a personal tool/toy. But over time Damn Small Linux grew into a community project with hundreds of development hours put into refinements including a fully automated remote and local application installation system and a very versatile backup and restore system which may be used with any writable media including a hard drive, a floppy drive, or a USB device.

DSL has a nearly complete desktop, and a tiny core of command line tools. All applications are chosen with the best balance of functionality, size and speed. Damn Small also has the ability to act as an SSH/FTP/HTTPD server right off of a live CD. In our quest to save space and have a fully functional desktop we've made many GUI administration tools which are fast yet still easy to use. What does DSL have?

XMMS (MP3, CD Music, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, Netrik web browser, FireFox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor (Ted), three editors (Beaver, Vim, and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf (PDF Viewer), emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox and JWM window managers, games, system monitoring apps, a host of command line tools, USB support, and pcmcia support, some wireless support.

Official Website 
Changelog (current version is 4.4)


Download
Current Full Mirror List:
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/
http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/
ftp://ftp.is.co.za/linux/distributions/damnsmall/ (South Africa)
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/damnsmall/ (Austria) also rsync and FTP
http://gulus.USherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/DamnSmallLinux/ Location: (Quebec, Canada)
http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/damnsmalllinux/ (Belgian)
ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/damnsmalllinux/ (Belgian)
http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalllinux.org/
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalllinux.org/


By: Ramkrishna Guchhait

gNewSens - Free as in freedom!

gNewSense is a fully free software GNU/Linux distribution.Free software is software that respects your freedom. You can use it without restrictive licenses, make copies for your friends, school or business. To use free software is to make a political and ethical choice asserting your rights to learn and to share what you learn with others. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community.


gNewSense is derived from Ubuntu, and thus has most of the same functionality. There are a number of differences though.
- Non-free firmware removed from kernel in main
- Non-free firmware removed from linux-ubuntu-modules
- Builder, a tool to produce a distribution 
- Restricted removed 
- Multiverse removed 
- Ubuntu logos replaced 
- Universe enabled by default 
- Emacs, bsdgames, nethack and build-essential part of the default install

Official Website
View More Screenshots
FAQ 
Documentation 


Download
614 MB, ISO format, 1 CD-ROM disc image for Intel-compatible PCs 
This is the latest version of the gNewSense GNU/Linux operating system featuring the GNOME desktop. It's everything you need to try out gNewSense and if you like it, install it right from the desktop!


Download Version 2.3 Now!
Use Torrent
Use Mirrors


By: Ramkrishna Guchhait

KNOPPIX - Bootable Live OS!

KNOPPIX is a bootable Live system on CD or DVD, consisting of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it (over 8GB on the DVD "Maxi" edition).


Included Softwares
Depending on your choice of CD or DVD, a variety of software packages from the Debian software repositories (www.debian.org) is installed.


The CD version contains at least: 
- LXDE as the standard desktop, 
- Open Office, 
- the Firefox WWW browser, 
- GNU Image Manipulation Program GIMP, 
- MPlayer Multimedia System, 
- Internet-access software for (W)LAN, modem, isdn, umts/gprs, 
- Tools for data rescue, network analysis and system repair.


The DVD version contains additional software packages for office productivity as well as software development and engineering (various programming languages and development environments), education and gaming. Most Knoppix Mirrors also have a list of included software called packages.txt or packages-dvd.txt.

System Requirements- Intel/AMD-compatible CPU (i486 and up),
- RAM: at least 120 MB for the graphical desktop. Recommended for working with various office applications: 500MB RAM,
- a bootable CD-ROM/DVD drive (IDE/ATAPI/SATA, Firewire, USB), or USB flash disk,
- a standard SVGA-compatible graphics chipset,
- PS/2 or USB Mouse.


Starting KNOPPIX
In order to start from CD, DVD or USB flash disk, adjust the boot selection menu or your computers BIOS setup in order to start from the desired device. Everything else works (almost) automatically!


Download
Please make sure to download version 6.2 from 11/18/2009.
Earlier versions from 15th and 17th November start with a wrongly set keyboard layout!

Current Version: 6.2.1


Download KNOPPIX from here!
Direct link  (ISO file, 688 MB)


By: Ramkrishna Guchhait

Sabayon Linux - The Cutest, Free OS

The best, refined blend of GNU/Linux, coming with bleeding edge edges is eventually here! Say hello to Sabayon Five-point-Fourhh, available in both GNOME and KDE editions!


Dedicated to those who like cutting edge stability, out of the box experience, outstanding Desktop performance, clean and beauty. Sabayon 5.4 will catch you, anything that could have been compiled, has been compiled, anything cool that could have been implemented or updated, it's there: you will find outstanding amount of new applications and features, like XBMC, KDE 4.5, GNOME 2.30, Linux Kernel 2.6.35, and so forth.


Sabayon 5.4 will catch you, anything that could have been compiled, has been compiled, anything cool that could have been implemented or updated, it's there: you will find outstanding amount of new applications and features, like XBMC, KDE 4.5, GNOME 2.30, Linux Kernel 2.6.35, and so forth.

New features of Sabayon Linux 5.4 Operating System:1. Over 1000 updated packages and more than 100 bug fixes after Sabayon 5.3
2. Packed with Desktop-Optimized Linux Kernel 2.6.35
3. Installing capability in 10 minutes
4. Providing extra Server-optimized, Open VZ-enabled, Vserver-enabled kernels in repositories
5. Fast boot time and lightweight default system
6. Default, Ext 4 filesystem
7. Btrfs file system support
8. Encrypted file system support
9. Featuring X.Org 7.5 and up-to-date Open Source, NVIDIA, AMD video drivers
10. Contains GNOME 2.30 and KDE 4.5.1
11. 3D Desktop applications
12. Entropy Framework 0.99.50.2
13. Shipped with OpenOffice 3.2 productivity suite
14. Transform Sabayon into an full featured HTPC Operating System
15. Shipped with World of Goo Demo- best 2D game
16. Update Skin


Minimum System Requirements:
1. i686-compatible processor
2. Intel Pentium II/III, Celeron, AMD Athlon
3. 512 MB of RAM for GNOME or 768MB for KDE
4. 8GB Hard Disk
5. 2D Video Card
6. DVD Reader


Sabayon Linux Homepage 

Visual Tours:
Take a Tour - Booting (GNOME)
Take a Tour - Installer (GNOME)
Take a Tour - Booting (KDE)
Take a Tour - Installer (KDE)
 

Download Sabayon Linuxhttp://www.sabayon.org/download

Bittorrent:
http://tracker.sabayon.org/

By: Ramkrishna Guchhait

VectorLinux - Discover the Difference

Speed, performance, stability -- these are attributes that set VectorLinux apart in the crowded field of Linux distributions.The creators of VectorLinux had a single credo: keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be. What has evolved from this concept is perhaps the best little Linux operating system available anywhere. For the casual computer user you have a lightning fast desktop with graphical programs to handle your daily activities from web surfing, sending and receiving email, chatting on ICQ or IRC to running an ftp server.

Power users will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile their own programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for their home or office computer network. Administrators will be equally as pleased because the small size and memory requirements of the operating system can be deployed on older machines maybe long forgotten.

For extra information visit official website. 
VectorLinux Homepage
View More Screenshots 

Download VectorLinux
http://vectorlinux.com/downloads

VectorLinux 6.0 Soho Family
VL 6.0 SOHO Edition CD1 (692 MB)
VL 6.0 SOHO Edition CD2 (653 MB)

VectorLinux 6.0 Standard Family 
VL 6.0 Standard Edition Gold (699 MB)
VL 6.0 Kde-Classic Edition (685 MB)
VL 6.0 Kde-Classic Live Edition (682 MB)

VectorLinux 6.0 Light Family
VL 6.0 Light Edition (617 MB)
VL 6.0 Light Live Edition (644 MB)

VL 6.0 SOHO Deluxe 2-CD Set
Price: $27.99
The Deluxe version includes KDE 4.5, Xfce, GNUCash and more. You can order it as a high speed download or get the two CD set in your mailbox from store.
 
You can download older versions from vectorlinux.osuosl.org.



By: Ramkrishna Guchhait