Can anyone recommend a Linux distribution that meets the following conditions?

1. compact (preferably under 300MB)
2. available with Firefox (or possibly Pale Moon) pre-installed
3. suitable for virtualization on a Mac, probably in VirtualBox

I've spent quite a while looking for this combination of points in general web search engines, but without success.

Puppy Linux and them like that, and firefox, most distros main line ones you might get as low as ~3 > 5 min GB install.

Thanks for reply, BW-userx. Anyone else?

http://www.slitaz.org

Overview quoted from their website:
I've used it years ago and found it quite nice.

2 almost identical threads in 2 days - how bizarre. Maybe follow this thread.

N/M N/A

I'm trying SliTaz at the moment and it looks quite promising in some ways. The main problem, as usual with Linux, is that installing or updating software is fantastically difficult, if not actually impossible. Anyone know a way to make this at least a little bit easier?

From your initial post- Puppy, Slitaz, TinyCore, Slax, Porteus and others are your best bet unless you want to build from scratch.
Maybe try ChromiumOS which is based on Chromium browser?
Part of being a Linux user is being able to convert the system to your needs and do the manual labor yourself or find a distro that does it for you.
You must become familiar with Linux to remaster or make your own brew bro.
This aint Windows, you have no idea how hard it was in the past lol.
Roll your own distro might be the way to go, albeit the remastering programs of today I think are not as good as past ones; remastersys, live-kit, etc.
Distros have dependencies so if you want a distro that just has a browser thats gonna be hard to find.

1 members found this post helpful.

My apologies for butting in slightly off-topic, but this simply isn't true. If you're experiencing that with SliTaz then you need to be looking at a different distro, or at least explaining why you believe this to be the case with SliTaz.

1 members found this post helpful.

yeah, slitaz definitely isn't the easiest there.
have you looked for answers on their web pages / wiki etc.?

hydrurga, perhaps it's not so difficult to install software (within narrow limits) when there's a package manager, but there isn't one in SliTaz.

ondoho, I've searched for information about installing software on SliTaz but found nothing useful. You say it 'definitely isn't the easiest'. Can you suggest a compact version of Linux where it's not so difficult to install applications as it is in SliTaz — probably one with a package manager? It doesn't necessarily have to be quite as small as SliTaz, but preferably not more than about 300MB.

@ doomitmayconcern:-

FWIW, I honestly think you can't beat Puppy Linux for small footprint and ease of use. But then, hey!...I'm a convert, and have been for years.

I started my Linux 'journey' back in 2014, at EOL for XP. Used Ubuntu 'Trusty Tahr' (14.04 LTS) for about a year, at which point Canonical, in their wisdom, and in the pursuit of 'modernization', decided it was time to drop support for my elderly ATI graphics adapter. An acquaintance on the Ubuntu Forums recommended I try 'Puppy' Linux; the Puppy 'take' on 'Trusty' had just been released.

Absolutely everything worked, OOTB. Canonical customize their kernels, y'see; the Puppy 'Woof-CE' team make use of bog-standard kernels, so.....all drivers still in residence. The guys on the Puppy Forum couldn't have been more helpful or friendly.....which certainly made the transition a wee bit easier, since Puppy is considered 'odd' even by Linux standards.

I won't pretend it's a distro for beginners; if you're used to the standard way of doing things under Linux, you need to 're-learn' a few things.....but it honestly doesn't take long to master. (If a dunderhead like me can get the hang of it it, I think anybody can! ) 'Wizards' and tooltips abound (it was designed to be easy for Windoze 'refugees'), and the package manager (most make use of Ubuntu or Slackware repositories) is very simple to use.

Right from the word go, back in 2003, Puppy was designed to be run, complete, from a USB drive. Not a 'LiveUSB'; a complete, 'frugal' install.....this merely means Puppy is careful with space; the entire thing loads into, and runs from RAM.....which accounts for Puppy's blazing speed, since RAM is the fastest component of your hardware.

One word here; although the majority of Pups are built using Ubuntu or Slackware 'binaries', etc, they are not the same as their 'parents'. The Puppy way of doing things is definitely unique!

For those so inclined, you can 're-master' your own custom version of Puppy; re-mastering tools are included with every release, and the process is positively encouraged by the community. Absolutely every browser you can think of is available, too (within limits). A 'portable' version of Firefox Quantum is available currently, put together by one of our forum members; most Puppy software is built by community members, not a team of devs (packaging tools are also included with every Puppy). I've even been known to create the odd package myself.

If you're interested, the Puppy 'home page' is here:-

http://puppylinux.com/

Take a look; what have you got to lose? Maybe see you over there.....

Up to you, of course.


Mike.

Thanks, Mike, but I've just tried Xenialpup and found it pretty useless. Leaving aside problems that may be the fault of VirtualBox, Firefox was not pre-installed (Pale Moon is not so bad but I prefer Firefox) and the package manager didn't have the latest version of Firefox — nothing newer than v57 (latest is 65).

Why does getting the software you want in Linux have to be like trying to play the piano in a straitjacket?

@ doomitmayconcern:-

Don't give up on Puppy so quickly! Here's the thing; because of the way the Puppy community works, there is actually more software available on the Puppy Forum (under the 'Additional Software' section) than there is via the PPM. This is because most Ubuntu/Slackware apps/programs are set up for a multi-user system.....which Puppy is not; it's a single-user, hobbyist system, and is set up so that the single user has full admin access to the machine. This is why Puppy runs as 'root'.

Consequently, Ubuntu/Slackware-packaged stuff often changes permissions/ownerships in certain critical areas, which 'breaks' Puppy, and stops it from working correctly. Which is why we prefer to re-package things 'correctly' for Puppy wherever possible; it avoids this scenario from the get-go, since permissons/ownerships, etc., are set properly.

PaleMoon has become the favoured default browser-of-choice in recent years, because of its lightweight nature, and the fact that it's still compatible with the 'legacy' add-on system. Firefox always used to be the default browser for so many Linux systems; personally, I've only recently begun using it again, having been a Chrome user since the very first release, over 10 years ago; Quantum is what FF should have been so long ago, were it not for the constant 'in-fighting' and back-stabbing amongst the Mozilla dev team.....

If you want the latest version of the 'portable' FF-Quantum I mentioned above (you can run this from anywhere, just like a portable Windoze app), here's the thread:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=112376

Don't worry about the title saying it's an older version; Fred only publishes new versions when he's had to make 'major' changes to correct stuff Mozilla have 'broken'. The rest of the time, it auto-updates as you would expect (the attachment just shows my own, current copy of it).

This is in 'Slacko' 5.6.0, one of the older, 32-bit, 5-series Pups. I run around a dozen of these in total.....including Xenialpup64 7.5.

-------------------------------------

Many Puppians have reported excellent results from running Puppy within a VM, though I believe VirtualBox seems to work better than VMWare, for some reason. It's not something I've ever felt the need to try, so I can't speak from personal experience.

-------------------------------------

This is, of course, the beauty of Linux; there's a distro out there for just about everybody. The trick is finding it.....we all have different needs/wants/requirements from a system, and we all like to do different things with 'em.


Mike.

Attached Thumbnails

 

build your own linux distro Links to a few

https://www.maketecheasier.com/6-too...-linux-distro/

https://www.linuxjournal.com/content...ibution-source

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=byo

https://www.wikihow.com/Build-Your-O...x-Distribution

this way you can whittle it down to just what you want/need