Tiny Core review by linuxinsider.com

[Misalf]

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/84465.html

Use the package manager to download applications. It will include needed dependencies automatically. Finding what you need is your first problem -- everything is in alphabetical order.

Indeed, the Apps GUI can be scary at first. I wish I could type some letters and it would automagically adjust the list of extensions displayed, without need to parse the hole list of extensions each time. Like dmenu. That'd be handy. Well, to be honest, I'm actually using dmenu for this, but dmenu is has other limitations.

The software tool lacks even basic category groupings of application titles.

It's "Provides" and "Tags" features are not that obvious. Probably makes people not noticing it's actual potential like not only searching for categories like web browsers, text editors, etc. but even for specific files.
Are there package managers on other distros that can provide a list of packages that contain a specific file?

[PDP-8]

The reviews I'd like to see about TC / piCore would come from such legendaries like Doug McIlroy, Brian Kernighan, Rob Pike and nearly all the members of the TUHS mailing list and early crew of Unix.

I have a feeling they would approve wholeheartedly with TC, not just for size, but for not just doing the same 'ol thing, but maximizing resources, yet still be as meager or as bloated as you want.

TinyCore Linux really does solve Rob Pike's "What's wrong with Unix" question posed decades ago.

I don't know how large the TC dev team is, but ATT stuffed 15 guys or so in the terminal room in the attic, and magic happened.  That and of course the Berkeley and other Uni's contributions.   I believe the same magic is going on here, and is why I'm slowly converting my hardware to it, despite all the other pretty choices out there.

[polikuo]

With the Openbox desktop, a panel bar stretches across the top of the screen

... That's JWM (Joe's Window Manager) in the picture 

However, the other lightweight desktops barely have anything other than the Dock Bar.

Wbar is an "Icon Quick Launch Bar", it's not a part of any window manager ...

I prefer openbox myself and I hardly load the wbar extension cause the openbox menu is enough for my need.

[Misalf]

Confusing the Window Managers names is not a big deal I think.
What stood out for me when I read the review was that they seemed to have understood what Core is about, or what the welcome page says, but not that it's actually not that hard to adopt it to ones own needs. And that is where TinyCore falls a little short.
I wouldn't stick with TinyCore if I wouldn't want to mess around with the system, so my view might be biased as I may be in the targeted group of users. But for potential new users, reviews such as the above might scare them off because the reviews do not reflect reality where it's indicated that you can't do much with Core and it would just be a tiny little distro. But it's not just a proof of concept, it's my daily driver on several machines and I keep installing it on my friends computers (without letting them read any misleading reviews ).