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tiny core computer

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thane:
Brainstorming. Thinking about building a computer "from scratch" for running tiny core. Based on something roberts said, maybe just with USB stick(s) for booting and storage (no hard disk, no CD or DVD drives).

Alternatively, just getting a hold of a box (hopefully free) that can boot off USB and going from there.

Dumb idea? Worth trying out? Anybody done anything similar?

4-stroke:
Not a dumb idea at all. I've been thinking the same thing. I'd like to have something really small with passive cooling. More desk space and complete silence.

Guy:
I prefer to use hard drives.

USB drives have a limited life, maybe several years.

It is not the cost of the USB drive that is of concern. It is the fact that when it fails, you lose all of your personal files.

I know others have different opinions.


I have actually been running Tiny Core, and previously other Linux distros, on computers which did not cost me anything for several years. Computers which other people discarded because they are a little slow to run Windows XP. Thousands are being thrown away every year. These computers have hard drives. Some have been working, others have needed to be repaired.

For example, one of the better free computers is 800 mHz with a 40 gb hard drive.  This one had a power supply not working. I replaced this with a power supply from another free computer.
It came with 256 mb of ram. I added another 512 from another computer in which the motherboard failed.

Thousands of computers like this are being thrown out every year. It may be difficult for most people to get hold of them.

Some people are selling used computers like this at excessively high prices to people who don't understand.

vinnie:
I inserted a motherboard in a wooden box built by me. I put on it only cpu and ram (4 gb).
I use a flash memory but if you want you can also use a usb hd or SATA/e-sata.
For ide hd i reccomend you a converter like this for example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-TO-IDE-SATA-S-SATA-Converter-CABLE-Adaptor-w-POWER_W0QQitemZ180402670408QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2a00d64b48

thane:
Currently I have an old Compaq Deskpro EN with 512M of memory. I boot off read-only CD (USB boot not supported) and save to a USB stick. Still has Windows 2000 on the hard drive which I haven't bothered to reformat. Basically just using the box as a web surfer and media player.

Even now I don't use a swap file, but a gig or 2 of memory would be nice. I have a couple of CDs, one with the basic current version of TCL and the other customized slightly (e.g. with waitusb=5 coded in isolinux.cfg). Also a few USB sticks with different sets of extensions. I'm sure there's a way to duplicate all this with hard disk partitioning or something but it just seems handier to plug in whatever I want and go. At the rate TCL is changing I'm usually burning new CDs every month, which I have to do on my wife's Windows PC or at work. Hence my interest in an all-USB setup.

None if this requires a built-from-scratch box of course, but it might be fun to try sometime...

Not sure USB's write limitations are really an issue. Even if there were 10 writes/day to a 10,000 write USB stick that's still 3 years of usage. Plenty of time to backup!

vinnie, I admire your creativity.

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