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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Smallest Security/Privacy Focused Distro Help? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by ErrantRoleplayer@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I've been doing some scouring and my search results are coming back confusing. Usually either incomplete information, or some kind of sales spam, so I'm reaching out in the hopes of recommendations for actual linux users and fans. I am looking for a very small, tiny even, security/privacy focused distro. I don't mind doing some work to set it up (though LFS may kill me!)

Here is what I have.

RAM: 2GB (yep. Seriously. None-upgradable).
HDD: 20GB (say 19GB)
Processor: Intel Celeron N3350 (2334Mhz average)
GPU (hah): Intel HD Graphics 500 (Integrated)

Wishlist

Graphical user interface (I appreciate it's going to be very basic)
Arch based (I love the AUR and pacman)
Base runs on less than 512MB of RAM, Arch Linux is a minimum of 512MB.

The software I plan to run on said device, so to give some kind of guidance of how much RAM we're working with.

Tor Expert and Tor Browser bundles or Mull.
Virtual machine (of some kind) with Whonix
MariaDB
RClone
VLC/Smplayer (which ever is smaller)
VPN client
Rustdesk (I can't find anything smaller than actually works)
ZSnes
SimpleX
Deluge (DelugeD with thin-client)
LibreOffice (until I can find a lighter alternative, but I need the BASIC capabilities).

Solution

https://lemmy.world/comment/10289862

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[–] oo1@kbin.social 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There's always tinycorelinux for hardcore minimalists.
I can't say about package support either - i've not used it enough, but theres a "dcore" extension that lets you acess debian repos.

I've installed it on a potato easily enough - and I did find it to be astonishing for how small it is.

But I don't use it day to day, or much at all, so i'm not going to endorse it.
It's not necessarily the most user friendly. and some people might cal the gui slightly dated - persnally i did like that.

So this is just make you aware of one of the lightest distros I know of (that is sort of usable out of the box)
Recommended: spec is 128mb ram and pentium2. min spec 46mb ram (maybe thats without the gui desktop environment)

It's possibly a bit lighter than antix - for some reason i never quite got on with either antix or mx - not sure why.

[–] ErrantRoleplayer@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

It most definitely is lighter than AntiX, it's also on my list like Alpine should AntiX not work out. I don't mind dated GUIs as long as it works. Many thanks.