How and what is TinyCore usually used for anyway?

[Punchy71]

Hi,
 Another Newbie question. I was just wondering what the usual use of TinyCore is? Do most people use it for embedded devices or is it used just as often if not more so on PC's? I myself am wanting to use it on my PC's (both desktop PC box's and laptop), but I'm not quite sure how the usual installation, use and run method would be. Would I install it to my hard drive or install it and run it some other way or would I be better off with some other micro-small distro that is more hard-drive friendly? Personally, I think whirring hard drives and always-spinning CD/DVD optical drives use up a lot of electricity (not to mention the fact that they are moving parts susceptible to failure).

Thank you

[AbNoRMiS]

for example i use tinycore as my primary system
all other systems such as porteus, puppy, slitaz etc
i keep beside only for experimental purposes
as clear proof that they also can work
any software that may be necessary to be used
you can found in tinycore repo, compiled yourself or requested

[Rich]

Hi Punchy71
Tinycore can do pretty much anything any other Linux distro can do, it just does some things a little differently.
The biggest difference is that most distros keep their file system on persistent storage. TC builds the file system
from scratch every time it boots and it is stored in RAM. While this makes for a fast system, the downside is that
if you are editing a file and hit save, it is saved to RAM. So, unless you are running from a laptop or have a UPS,
a brief loss of power will cause you to lose all changes since your last backup. The way around that is to have a
persistent  /home  directory. Check the Wiki or search the forum on how to do that. The other thing to remember is
that if you make changes to configuration files, you need to add them to your backup for them to persist next time
you boot. Now, back to your question:

1. The machine I'm on now is used to write and compile programs written in C, browse the web, burn CDs, and
    remotely access the desktops of a pair of Windows 2008 servers. (TC4.1, persistent /home)

2. I have a 15 year old machine with original Pentium (MMX) 233Mhz and 256Mbyte RAM running Samba as a
    file server. It boots TC2.1 from a CD, applications are on a USB thumb drive, and data is on a 320Gbyte HDD.
    If the machine ever dies, I just need to move those three items to another machine.

3. I'm running TC3.8.4 on an old laptop. It's used for browsing and accessing the Windows servers mentioned above.
    I use it for writing and testing programs written in C, then I use a cross compiler for creating Windows executable files.
    I use Open Office for accessing spreadsheets from those two machines. (persistent /home)

[spence91]

Hi Punchy

I personally use Tinycore on my netbook - it's a perfect fit becuase it's small (the OS and pretty much every application I require weighs in at about 300Mb) and it boots up very quickly.

[hiro]

1) lightweight web kiosk for parents.

2) lightweight rescue environment on my usb stick

3) everyday system without all the crud that other distros tend to pull in (http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2012-August/006066.html)

4) coping with the dependency hell is less crazy on tinycore.
I only load the libraries into my root file system on demand, so when I compile something I can start with a fresh system and the autohell madness won't automatically try to link in every library lying around somewhere. If I'm done compiling I reboot and the libraries are out of my root and won't interfere with the next thing I might want to compile.
Also I learned to keep all versions of library packages in my backup so that I can go back in time, load an older library and link against that without breaking newly compiled, updated things. So-called crosscompiling also gets a bit easier when you know how to use these tricks to your advantage. This all sounds like a hack, but at least it's kinda manageable as apposed to distros like debian.

[Lee]

I use it for various purposes at work and at home:

1: A server running (primarily) ssh and samba used for network backup storage
2: A desktop used for web browsing, email, playing music, rdesktop, etc on a fairly capable box
3: A server running (primarily) ssh, ftpd, httpd
4: An oldish desktop used as a secondary PC for email, web browsing, utility work.

All boot Core from a USB stick.  Only #1 ever mounts any hard disk file systems.

[Zero]

Although it's very extensible, doing so I feel defeats the purpose of having a lean/mean OS. I would say it's intended for limited use machines.

I'm resurrecting some old machines for dedicated amateur radio services. My Dell L400 I'd like to use on Field Days. Bmarkus compiled fldigi into an extension that I have so far failed miserably at getting to work at all. If anyone has it running on TC4.x, please tell us how you did it!

I have another machine, P-III/1GHz that I want to run a dedicated managed firewall on.

My $0.02.

Z

[thane]

I think of TCL as customizable. Most distros give you a fixed set of applications, based on what someone else thinks you need or should want. TCL lets you decide. It can be as lean or fat as each of us chooses.

[curaga]

I run TC on practically everywhere, from six-core desktops to old laptops. I just like the speed and lack of bloat.