Tiny Core Linux
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 23 of 63 Linux distributions by recommenders
Runs fast on old, low-powered PCs by loading into RAM; critics say the interface looks unpolished and downloads lack proper hash security.
Runs fast on old, low-powered PCs by loading into RAM; critics say the interface looks unpolished and downloads lack proper hash security.
43 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 30
- criticize it
- 13
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 13 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 30 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast on old, low-powered hardware
“they unpack the rootfs to ram so overall interaction with the system feels insanely quick on very underpowered systems with HDDs”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Porting the ThinkPad X61 to Coreboot” “I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “RAM-booting makes the system fast and quiet on that 15+ years old iron”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” - Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC”
- Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Chuwi Minibook X: the netbook we deserve”
- Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “200 MB RAM FreeBSD Desktop”
Minimalist design with small footprint
“I feel as if people can really appreciate the intentional minimalism within the project”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “50MB operating system can resurrect your old PC” “The amount of functionality they fit into such a small footprint”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “It's truly the most minimalist gui option just out there.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “200 MB RAM FreeBSD Desktop” - Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “Linux on Older Hardware: The Complete Revival Guide”
- Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “FediMeteo: A €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service”
- Comment from 18 Jul 2026 in “Reviving a 15-year-old netbook with Arch Linux”
Runs full apps in tiny memory
“Tiny Core ran surprisingly well and I could actually use it to browse the web and use IRC.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “All of the minilaguages exposed there will run on TC even with 32MB of RAM.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “Yes. 486 with 26MB for MicroCore (cli) or 46MB for TinyCore (gui).”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” Easy package system, many packages
“TinyCoreLinux runs well on it. It has its own package manager that was easy to learn.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “how tinycore packages work are really fascinating as well”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Understanding the bin, sbin, usr/bin, usr/sbin split (2010)” “With tinycore, you can install many packages.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” - Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Understanding the bin, sbin, usr/bin, usr/sbin split (2010)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Interface needs design polish
“But can they please empower a user interface designer to simply improve the margins and paddings of their interface?”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “The spacing between elements is all over the place and it simply looks like shit”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “If you look at the screenshots it immediately jumps out that it is unpolished”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” - Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop”
- Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop”
Download hash delivered insecurely
“No, sending the hash on a mailing list and delivering downloads over https is the bare minimum of security in this day and age.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “the hash should be delivered OOB like on a mailing list but it isn't”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “it makes MITM attacks trivial for anyone on the network path”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” Limited software, steep learning curve
“If you don't mind a very limited set of software, the way tinycorelinux is setup can also allow multiple different tcz installed”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Why I love NixOS” “It worked ok, but had a bit of a learning curve.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “200 MB RAM FreeBSD Desktop” “I gained nothing from using smaller distros but lost a lot of time dealing with little issues and incompatibilities.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” Project seems ad-hoc or abandoned
“TC seems much more ad-hoc, but I assume this, too, is intentional, by design.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop” “This speaks to me of a project that's 'good enough', or abandoned, for/by those who made it.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop”
Other Linux distributions people recommend
The four most recommended other Linux distributions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 560 | 493 | 53% | 12 | 10 yrs116 owners | — |
| Debian | 552 | 191 | 74% | 13 | 10 yrs62 owners | Approved |
| NixOS | 454 | 112 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs69 owners | Approved |
| Fedora Linux | 437 | 131 | 77% | 12 | 2 yrs72 owners | Approved |
| Tiny Core LinuxThis page | 30 | 13 | 70% | 8 | 13 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 62 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I feel as if people can really appreciate the intentional minimalism within the project”
“Tiny Core Linux is made exactly to run on old and low-powered PCs”
“Alpine, or TinyCore. Much smaller”
“you can go even smaller with TinyCore Linux”
“I have something more like Tiny Core Linux in mind, except polished”
“they unpack the rootfs to ram so overall interaction with the system feels insanely quick on very underpowered systems with HDDs”
“it puts the rootfs in ram so things run insanely fast”
“TinyCore all achieve the same goal with tooling that is about 1% of the size or complexity”
“TinyCore's design sensibilities had garnered more attention”
“TinyCoreLinux has had a special place in my heart for years.”
“If you don't mind a very limited set of software, the way tinycorelinux is setup can also allow multiple different tcz installed”
“It worked ok, but had a bit of a learning curve.”
“I used it to revive my 15 year old laptop”
“It's truly the most minimalist gui option just out there.”
“I did find its tcz package format fascinating”
“how tinycore packages work are really fascinating as well”
“tinycore which was truly super minimalist”
“Both Fatdog & Porteus(x) have much more flexible initrd systems than tiny core/puppy”
“the spiritual (and actual) successor to DSL is http://tinycorelinux.net”
“Tiny Core ran surprisingly well and I could actually use it to browse the web and use IRC.”
“it makes MITM attacks trivial for anyone on the network path”
“Yes. 486 with 26MB for MicroCore (cli) or 46MB for TinyCore (gui).”
“The amount of functionality they fit into such a small footprint”
“TC seems much more ad-hoc, but I assume this, too, is intentional, by design.”
“Reading the history of the project is a bit of a bummer, but still love the project ethos.”
“RAM-booting makes the system fast and quiet on that 15+ years old iron”
“With tinycore, you can install many packages.”
“I gained nothing from using smaller distros but lost a lot of time dealing with little issues and incompatibilities.”
“No, sending the hash on a mailing list and delivering downloads over https is the bare minimum of security in this day and age.”
“All of the minilaguages exposed there will run on TC even with 32MB of RAM.”
“I love Tiny Core Linux for use cases where I need fast boot times or have few resources.”
“This speaks to me of a project that's 'good enough', or abandoned, for/by those who made it.”
“the Tiny Core Linux GUI could use some more refinement”
“This would be perfect if it had an old Mac OS 7 Platinum-like look and window shading.”
“the hash should be delivered OOB like on a mailing list but it isn't”
“there are so many quick wins in the design it hurts me a bit to see it.”
“If you look at the screenshots it immediately jumps out that it is unpolished”
“The spacing between elements is all over the place and it simply looks like shit”
“TinyCoreLinux runs well on it. It has its own package manager that was easy to learn.”
“But can they please empower a user interface designer to simply improve the margins and paddings of their interface?”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.