I love minimal distros but I have not yet found a site with a well populated and searchable database and instead I have to rely on personal knowledge.
So I want to make a list of distros that I know of that fall into this category, and I hope you'll let me know about others.
I'm looking for the perfect distro for my taste but I haven't found it yet, the features I prefer are:
- modularity: a system that cannot be customized is a dead system
- live: i love systems that start in ram because they are 1) faster 2) safer since you can avoid writing to disk (if you put the distro on a write-protected sd in practice even the command "sudo rm -rf /" does not scare you) 3) portable because you can use them on multiple pc's at the same time (even with the same memory, possible with tinycore and alpine inofficially) 4) robust because you minimize writes to disk
- rolling release: it would be nice to have a system to install multiple versions of the same package like gobolinux and to be able to downgrade packages like nyxos. But at least having up-to-date packages is important to me.
- backup: A good selective backup, is necessary to avoid saving things you don't want to save like firefox cache
- Good development organization: very useful to have scripted packages (like aur), building bots, collaborative platform...
- responsive community: How else do you solve problems?
- standard package format: so you have more packages
- light: a system that has only what is essential, once customized is much more responsive and reliable and I feel like I have more control of it.


I try to sort the list by the average size of the images.

Mil 10-20 MB
An educational distro that is both distributed in iso format and created through scripts.
You can try it out by running it in an emulator in your browser.
Pros ?
Cons ?

Tinycore 16-160 MB
Really nice distro, I've been using it for years. There are several versions and it is a very modular distro. The system they have built tends to simplicity and is really a pleasure.
Pros:
- really minimalist
- modular
- You can make selective backups that are simple archives
- simple mind and kiss
Cons:
- don't have a standard script system for creating packages
- it is not rolling
- because of the two previous cons, a lot of packages are lost with each new major release
- few developers (but very good ones)
- small community
- the official gui tools are not bad but to change their font size you have to recompile them (if they haven't changed...)


Alpine 3-550 MB
My current distro, it is magnificent, it only has a couple of flaws but that are quite annoying.
Pros
- As modular as and more than tinycore, you can even uninstall packages at runtime without problems
- rolling releases with releases
- packages have a standard scripting system, in this case the distro resembles arch which is only a good thing
- selective backup similar to tinycore (but with a bug of owner possible to bypass)
- very professional organization
Cons
- musl instead of glibc, it should be an improvement but at the end of the day many programs don't work and the ones that work have to be compiled autonomously
- distro not too user friendly, it's made for competent people and the community doesn't help much (they don't have a forum, they answer little to the newsletter, they give little attention to tickets on gitlab, the chat is populated but it's more difficult to ask for help in a chat)


Slitaz 45-85 MB
I dont know this distro but I want to try it, so I'm going by what I read.
Pros
- a favorable ratio between space occupied and software included
- support for many different types of packages
Cons
- i understand they don't have a custom backup system so you have to be satisfied with persistence, but i'm not sure


Slax 270 MB
Another distro that I don't know.
Based on debian with which it shares packages.
Pros
- Modular
- seems to support backups in the form of packages but I don't know if you can discriminate what to save as tinycore or alpine
Cons
- ? outdated?


Porteus 330-410 MB
I don't know this distro either
Pros
- Modular
- many desktop managers provided
Cons
- ?


Fatdog 440 MB
Puppy derivative with more software
Pros ?
Cons ?


EasyOs 490 MB
This distro is promising but development is slow. It is made by the same creator of puppy linux but has many interesting features.
Pros
- Containerization, it contains a program isolation system made by the same author
- modular
- it seems to support backups that are versioned (but if I understand it you can't discriminate what to save)
- debian packages, several ways to repackage them
Cons
- experimental, I wanted to try it out but it didn't work
- the community is small, the forum has been closed and reopened in a section of puppylinux
- few developers


Crowz 660 MB
A devuan derivative with a few software


MIYO 700 MB
A minimal distro based on devuan that aims to include as little software as possible so you can choose what you like without having to uninstall things.
Pros
- rolling
Cons ?



honorable mentions
distros that I exclude because they don't seem interesting to me for constant use but that deserve mention.
puppylinux: i don't know why but this distro has never attracted me, it has always seemed to me too messy and too little customizable
damnsmall: please no, in the past it was a historical distro but now it's outdated as death. The moral successor is tinycore which among other things shares the same (real) developer.
Kolibri: but it is not linux

What things do you want to run?
Just a web browser? Any particular one?

I like playing in just CLI, but unfortunately need a browser to web search (and copy and paste). I play with the tiny distros in virtualbox

My favorite is http://distrowatch.com/mll
I love that it doesn't even have a /etc/passwd file

It worked! And mll has a primitive dpkg BusyBox applet.

You should make your own custom distro! I look forward to trying it out!

(Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to copy and paste in the Linux console in vbox [?])

Here's an example distrowatch search that does pretty much the same. Adjust to your desires.

Also maybe: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=submit
Plus OP's custom distro that hasn't been submitted (nor built) yet!!!

Plus the obvious duck duck goo: smallest linux distribution
(Lots of interesting opinions & ideas to read)

@ondoho (my fav LQguru): why doesn't Oracle make a way to: paste the clipboard into a VM (like MLL) **running in single user mode? (Like if you had an MLL v-box and wanted to try my above code without manually typing it in)

And what is distro you run virtual box on?

Fatdog64 - great distro

Slitaz - always been a favourite

Tiny Core - different!

MIYO - good starter distro (Devuan)

Crowz - another small Devuan distro

Depends on your useage of a distro, but the above are lightweight & work.

(I've probably forgotten some I've used..)

@!!!
I use minimal distro for desktop things, so i like to have everything is possible :P
For example in Alpine linux i feel the lack of vscode and virtualbox. You will tell me that in this way the distro is not more minimal, but in alpine programs can be installed and uninstalled on the fly (they are added and removed from ram) so there is no real compromise, but at startup I have only geany and firefox.

For the browser there are some alternatives for the terminal, obviously less compatible than a normal browser but anyway it's possible to copy and paste also from terminal (I don't remember the combinations) and it seems to me that it's possible to install the cursor support also without x.

thanks for the advice of minimal linux (mil), I want to see it and I will add it to the initial list

For "duck duck goo: smallest linux distribution" you mean a generic research on duckduckgo?


@ondoho
But as you can see it is incomplete. This search is also a bit better but there is always something missing. It is a pity because I would like the results to be better and that was why I was asking your personal knowledge instead of consult it.


@fatmac
thanks for the additions MIYO and Crowz, I obviously didn't know them.
If you know the distro and also want to add a little description with pros and cons, I'll update the first post.

Here are links to their descriptions - definitely worth taking a look at.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/miyolinux/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/crowz/

Linux From Scratch has been known to contort into installations small enough for a 3.5 floppy disk, it requires time and some dedication but it's a good learning experience for those with the itch, and there's also a version that gives you the D; should you so choose. :P And that's what linux has always been about for me and i'm certain many others, freedom of choice. Nothing that isn't absolutely necessary is bundled or crutched in without your explicit consent via some classic configure scripts, m4 macros, and possibly a banana'd keyboard by the time you get your personal sparkle on it (depends on your keyboarding ability and wpm average).