hello unix people! i was wondering if there is a super-small command-line based unix out there for download? you know, something like dos. you see, i just got an old laptop computer (166mhz, 500mb, 12mb ram) so i could do some work out in the sun on an older system. why? there's a whole explaination in another post in the programming section, but skip looking for it cause it's not important. what i mean is: what is one of the basic flavors of unix i could fit on this thing and still get some work out of it? i really want something command-line based and under 100mb (less then 50 if it's possible, less then 20 even) that would work with my hardware, and would give me a foundation for understanding more modern unix stuff. feel free to post as many different ones as you know of: maybe i'll try them all and see what i like the best. i took a look into freeBSD, but from what i heard a super-small install was 100mb, and you need 16mb ram just to run the setup program (even though after its installed you can run it with 4) (i'm trying too kill a couple birds with one stone here: 1. be able to write my programs outside for the summer, with no $ spending. 2. take a look at unix. 3. i miss the command line! have tons of other computers, just not notebooks, so i want one that's OLD and pure commandline too, just for the h*ll of it. 4. learn new things [or old things, same thing]. ) thanks.

I saw a webpage once for something called the Linux Router Project. It was a small implementation of Linux designed to enable people to setup a Linux box to use as a router. I could be configured to fit on a 1.4M floppy. Tho I'm sure that you could run it off of a HD also. Search for Linux Router Project.

If you ask me, your laptop is quite good compared to mine. You can install nearly anything on it. Why would you want to install something in less than 100 mb when you hv a 500 mb hardisk? For 500 Mb, install Linux Slackware. Uncheck the X window system For 300 Mb, go to the distribution section of linux.org and search for minimalist distros. Same for 100 Mb If you want something smaller, you can try MINIX. It is command line and has everything needed to write programs. I forgot the url of the minix homepage, but you can search on google. If you want something that fits on a floppy, there are hundreds of floppy based linux distros. Have a nice time with *nix

How about PicoBSD? You can't do as much as FreeBSD, but you can mount partitions from the hard drive, so you could save files, still not much use without an installation. Does it have a CD ROM drive? If so, you might want to try the NetBSD live CD. I haven't tried it, but if I could download 260MB I would. You boot NetBSD off of the CD. No need to install it. You can even run X Windows and have the K desktop and K office. Although the setup menus at boot are in German. It's nice to know there are other people that haven't been brainwashed about GUI's. Command line rocks! A book on my to read list: In the Beginning was the Command Line. Mr. A