Today’s operating system ranking is dedicated to the most popular, minimalist operating systems from the Linux, BSD, Solaris, AROS, DOS families, and other independent operating systems that offer a minimal, ready-to-use system for various purposes. The list includes the systems that most caught your attention on Linuxiarze.pl over the past 12 months.
The ranking takes into account system page views, downloads, and comments. Systems that are no longer being developed but are still of interest to our readers are also included.
1. Puppy Linux
Puppy Linux is an independent distribution started by Barry Kauler in 2003. Currently, the Puppy Linux Community is responsible for its development.
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2. Damn Small Linux
Damn Small Linux (DSL) is a minimalist live distribution built on Knoppix. DSL takes up approximately 50MB and requires no hard drive installation. The default desktop is JWM and Fluxbox.
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3. GParted LiveCD
GParted (GNOME Partition Editor) is a tool for managing disk partitions. The program allows you to create, copy, read, delete, move, and resize partitions. It supports many file system types, such as Btrfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, FAT16, FAT32, HFS, HFS+, JFS, SWAP, NTFS, Reiser4, ReiserFS, UFS, and XFS.
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4. Porteus
Porteus is a Linux distribution based on Slackware. It is a community fork/continuation of the Slax distribution and is built on modules. The Porteus project was founded in early 2010 as “Slax Remix.” Download
5. Slax
Slax is a Linux distribution built on Slackware by Tomáš Matějíček. The system is composed of modules that can be added or removed, which affects system speed.
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6. Minimal Linux Live
Minimal Linux Live is a small and self-contained Linux distribution, built from source packages using a set of automated shell scripts.
The project is no longer being developed.
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7. Clonezilla Live
Clonezilla is a specialized Linux distribution running in live mode that allows you to back up and restore the entire system or individual directories.
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8. KolibriOS
KolibriOS is a very small and lightweight operating system with a monolithic kernel, designed for 32-bit x86 machines. KolibriOS fits on a standard 1.44MB floppy disk and requires 8MB of RAM. The larger version of KolibriOS includes additional software and is available as an ISO image of approximately 5MB.
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9. Tiny Core
Tiny Core is one of the smallest graphical Linux distributions. It is a standalone distribution, derived from the now-discontinued Damn Small Linux.
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10. TempleOS
TempleOS (formerly J Operating System, SparrowOS, and LoseThos) is a lightweight operating system designed as a Temple of Jesus Christ, developed by Terry A. Davis. The project is no longer being developed.
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A full list of minimalist operating systems can be found at: https://linuxiarze.pl/tag/mini/
Ten post jest dostępny również w języku polskim: https://linuxiarze.pl/top-10-mini-systemy-operacyjne-2025/
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