• • • • • • •    
 • Home Page, Headlines
 • DW Weekly, Comments
 • Packages, Package Management
 • Glossary, FAQ, Mobile Site 		 • Search, Sitemap
 • Major Distributions
 • Submit Distribution
 • Upcoming Releases
  • About DistroWatch
 • Beginner's Guide
 • Torrents, Page Hit Ranking
 • Advertise

Tiny Core Linux RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Linux


Last Update: 2026-02-22 19:59 UTC

Tiny Core Linux is a 16 MB graphical Linux desktop. It is based on a recent Linux kernel, BusyBox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Flwm. The core runs entirely in memory and boots very quickly. The user has complete control over which applications and/or additional hardware to have supported, be it for a desktop, a nettop, an appliance or server; selectable from the project's online repository.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 72 (192), 6 months: 59 (230), 3 months: 61 (250), 4 weeks: 34 (413), 1 week: 105 (210)

Average visitor rating: 7.4/10 from 14 review(s).

Tiny Core Summary
Distribution Tiny Core Linux
Home Page http://www.tinycorelinux.net/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/
Alternative User Forums
Documentation --
Screenshots http://www.tinycorelinux.net/screenshots.html • DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html • DistroWatch Torrent Archive
Bug Tracker --
Related Websites Wikipedia
Reviews 17.x: DistroWatch
7.x: FOSS Force • LWN
5.x: DistroWatch
4.x: DistroWatch
3.x: Blogspot
1.x: DistroWatch
Where To Donate, Buy or Try The Linux Shop

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2026-02-11: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 17.0
 • 2024-02-25: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 15.0
 • 2023-04-12: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 14.0
 • 2022-01-31: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 13.0
 • 2021-02-17: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 12.0
 • 2020-02-09: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 11.0
 • 2017-09-04: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 8.1
 • 2017-04-10: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 8.0
 • 2016-05-23: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 7.1
 • 2016-02-24: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 7.0
 • 2015-05-31: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 6.3
 • 2015-05-05: Distribution Release: Tiny Core Linux 6.2
 • More Tiny Core releases...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view:
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
TUXEDO
TUXEDO Computers

TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!

Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.

Star Labs

Star Labs Systems | Laptops designed for Linux

Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.

Advertisement


Feature 17.0 16.2 15.0 14.0 13.1 12.0 11.1 10.1 9.0 8.2 7.2 6.4.1 5.4 4.7.7 3.8.4 2.11 1.4.3 Feature
Release Date 2026-02-11 2025-09-30 2024-02-22 2023-04-12 2022-05-08 2021-02-17 2020-04-01 2019-06-19 2018-02-26 2017-09-23 2016-07-05 2015-11-04 2014-09-10 2013-05-10 2011-09-01 2010-05-02 2009-05-25 Release Date
End Of Life                                   End Of Life
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Price (US$)
Image Size (MB) 18-280 18-280 17-250 17-250 16-160 15-160 14-210 13-230 12-180 11-140 10-110 9-90 8-80         Image Size (MB)
Free Download ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO Free Download
Installation Graphical Graphical Graphical Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Installation
Default Desktop flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm flwm JWM Default Desktop
Default Browser                                   Default Browser
Package Format tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz tar.xz Package Format
Package Management tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce tce Package Management
Release Model Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Release Model
Office Suite -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Office Suite
Processor Architecture i686, x86_64 aarch64, armhf, i486, x86_64 aarch64, armv6, armv7, armv7l, i486, x86_64 aarch64, armv6, armv7, armv7l, i486, x86_64 aarch64, armv6, armv7, armv7l, i486, x86_64 armv6, armv7, armv7l, i486, x86_64 armv6, armv7, i486, x86_64 armv6, armv7, i486, x86_64 armv6, armv7, i486, x86_64 armv6, armv7, mips, i486, x86_64 armv6, armv7, mips, i486, x86_64 armv6, armv7, i486, x86_64 i486 armhf, i486 i486 i486 i386 Processor Architecture
Init Software BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox BusyBox Init Software
Journaled File Systems                                   Journaled File Systems
Multilingual en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en Multilingual
Full Package List 17.0 16.2 15.0 14.0 13.1 12.0 11.1   9.0 8.2 7.2 6.4.1 5.4         Full Package List

Full Package List:   Tiny Core Linux 15.0
  Number of packages: 38 (download as TXT)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  •  bash-5.2.21.tar.gz
  •  bc-6.7.3.tar.xz
  •  binutils-2.41.tar.xz
  •  bison-3.8.2.tar.xz
  •  busybox-1.36.1.tar.bz2
  •  compile_tc15_x86
  •  config-6.6.8-tinycore
  •  coreutils-9.4-i18n-1.patch
  •  coreutils-9.4.tar.xz
  •  diffutils-3.10.tar.xz
  •  e2fsprogs-1.47.0.tar.gz
  •  file-5.45.tar.gz
  •  gawk-5.3.0.tar.xz
  •  gcc-13.2.0.tar.xz
  •  gettext-0.22.4.tar.xz
  •  glibc-2.38-fhs-1.patch
  •  glibc-2.38.tar.xz
  •  glibc-2.38-upstream_fixes-3.patch
  •  gmp-6.3.0.tar.xz
  •  grep-3.11.tar.xz
  •  groff-1.23.0.tar.gz
  •  gzip-1.13.tar.xz
  •  intltool-0.51.0.tar.gz
  •  linux-6.6.5.tar.xz
  •  linux-6.6.8-patched.txz
  •  make-4.4.1.tar.gz
  •  Module.symvers-6.6.8-tinycore.gz
  •  mpc-1.3.1.tar.gz
  •  mpfr-4.2.1.tar.xz
  •  ncurses-6.4.tar.gz
  •  readline-8.2-upstream_fixes-2.patch
  •  sed-4.9.tar.xz
  •  System.map-6.6.8-tinycore.gz
  •  texinfo-7.1.tar.xz
  •  uname_hack.so
  •  util-linux-2.39.2.tar.xz
  •  xz-5.4.5.tar.xz
  •  zlib-1.3.tar.gz


Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Tiny Core Linux

Average rating
7.4
from 14 review(s)
Please select a rating in the range of 1-10.
Please write at least a few sentences about the distribution while limiting your review to 4080 characters.


What are your thoughts on Tiny Core Linux?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review.

Version:

Rating:    out of 10

Your review (minimum 250 words):



Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 17.0
Rating: 8
Date: 2026-02-12
Country: Australia
Votes: 2


 Very lightweight and fast. Of course the "lightweight" part of this comes with the trade off that there's a very minimal collection of apps.

I ran it in a KVM/QEMU virtual machine and its installer (which I only found present in the CorePlus ISO image) didn't recognize my virtual hard disk. ls /dev/sd* listed some partitions but it didn't list my unformatted virtual hard disk. So I couldn't install it to my virtual hard disk. Hence why I deducted two points.

If all you want is a lightweight live session, it provides this without issue. But due to the aforementioned issues with installing to a virtual machine, I cannot comment on its utility outside this context.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 15.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-02-04
Votes: 15


 Really great OS, helped revived one of my old Toshiba laptops with a pentium 4 mobile and bring it back to be somewhat usable to browse the web. Truly is impressive how the entire OS can fit under 12 MB with the minimum installation. It's amazing how little disk space it takes up. In my opinion, Tiny Core looks a lot better as eye candy than compared to something like Windows 11, and of course is very lightweight. I recommend Tiny Core if you have a very old PC you want to repurpose or bring into the modern day.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 15.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2025-01-07
Votes: 18


 Small (smaller than nearly EVERYTHING else), faster, live system. Even the install to hard drive does a FRUGAL install so you are loop loading the ISO. Compared to antiX: Core is a live-cd image and is not intended to run from hard drive (although there IS that provision for FRUGAL as mentioned), while antiX does nicely installed to hard drive.

TinyCore/CorePlus GUI is more likely to run correctly on very old (pentium/686) systems and laptops.

I recommend running TinyCore or CorePlus form a pen drive.


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 14 reader reviews of Tiny Core Linux...


Copyright © 2001 - 2026 Atea Ataroa Limited. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Privacy policy. Change privacy settings.
DistroWatch.com is hosted at Copenhagen.

Contact, corrections and suggestions: Jesse Smith

Tips: bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx
lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr
86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le
PayPal.me/distrow • Patreon.com/distrowatch