It has 2 MB of memory and 256 MB of HDD space. It can only communicate with the outside world via floppy disk.

It's currently running DOS but I was wondering what (if any) Linux distros will be small enough to run in that ancient machine.

If DOS is running on it, there's a VERY good chance that Linux can run on it. Won't be a modern kernel though, be quite an old one.

for a machine from 1981 ( a guess ) ????
Maybe a very old IBM os2 , if you can find the 20 year old 5 In. floppies .
or dose this computer use the 8 In. floppy

It depends upon the CPU. IF you are running a 486 or later, there are distributions for you, though not many (most take 686 or later).
If you have a 386 it brings you down to only a handful of choices. If it is running a 286 or the original crippled 386 chips then you may be out of luck. There was a distro at one time for those (command line only, no gui), but I believe that it has not been maintained in 4 or 5 years and may no longer be available. My link to it has gone missing long since, or I would post it here.

If you can provide more detail on the hardware, esp the CPU, we may be able to make some targeted suggestions.
I hope this helps.

Thank you for the suggestions.

I think ELKS would work for me.


have happy holidays

I'd try the qnx floppy.

Try lubuntu, or xubuntu. You can install by server way also for old and slow pc's.

Some time back installed Puppy Linux on what to self seemed a very old pc, the owner was happy, it enabled them do what they wanted to.

Will not work on something this old. Oldest anything *buntu will work on is 686. 586 and earlier unsupported.