I'm looking for a small distro for a project, and there are just so many. I just need a distro that I can run Python 3.7 on, and I'd prefer it to be Ubuntu based, but I don't even need a GUI as long as I can SSH to it. But I am working with some cannibalized thing-clients with only 512MB of HD, and just 1GB or RAM, but it does handle 64-bit. Can anyone suggest a good choice to start with?

You might consider something that loads small and runs from memory or usb thumbdrive like Puppy or TinyCore. There is a project that uses a disk image of TinyCore with Python 2.7+ pre-installed, but I would go the frugal install route instead.

I keep intending to try the uck option: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tweak-...ro-four-tools/

Here's some more options, and note that both sites list LFS as an option: https://www.maketecheasier.com/6-too...-linux-distro/

Welcome to LinuxQuestions!

First question, have you considered using the thin clients as... thin clients? Would that work for your project?

Second question, do they have the capability to boot from USB, SD, etc.? You could get a 16gb thumb drive or flash card for under $10 and solve your storage problem.

If you are looking for a lightweight Ubuntu-based distro, I personally recommend Linux Mint in MATE or Xfce edition. But even that might be too heavy for your hardware.

My favorite super-duper-lightweight distro for old/weak hardware is the Debian-based AntiX. Highly recommended!

+1 for AntiX - comes in 4 different forms - net & core => command line - base & full => L/W GUI

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I am checking out AntiX, these thin-clients were originally purposed for a Windows environment, and they never worked right with the head-end, so they were doomed to become scrap, but now I hope to at least get a Linux OS on them so I can use them for a basic project. Thanks for your help.

You could also create a boot server in Linux to let them download their OS from, if you still want to use them as thin clients.

With 512MB of HD, you aren't going to get very far — AntiX requires 3GB with a GUI or 1GB with no GUI and no software! The solution will be to run live from USB or load into RAM. Puppy is actually designed to load into RAM and IGB will be ample if you stick to the 32-bit version.

AntiX can load to ram, too.

(So used from a pendrive, no worries about disk size. )

Edit: Tiny Core Linux & SliTaz are two more small distros that load to ram.

I'd be temped to use a JEOS of some major distro if my project needed to have some ongoing ability. I'd think a mainstream minimal distro would help support your work better. However not sure you will get much use out of any major Python project on such limited ram.

Also, if you are not going to be tied to Linux, maybe take a look at the BSDs, (OpenBSD/NetBSD/FreeBSD).

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