Smallest Linux Footprint: Suggest the best please
 

I need a linux distro that I can run through virtualbox. I use CentOs or Fedora project. I am not an expert with linux and need suggestion. Here are my requirement

1. Need to run on VirtualBox on Host Win 7 (I guess all linux works)
2. Need only CLI
3. Show boot very fast, no need to load anything heavy, on gets connected to Internet
4. Can run some basic networking command such as Whois, ping, traceroute, etc

Any suggestion ?

I've used both and boot time was not a problem. I have run 2 VMs on a 1Gb laptop running vista, only when I started GNOME did performance suffer. Can't you just save the virtualbox VM, and avoid rebooting?

I agree both OSes are very good, there boot time is decently okay but what I am really looking is just very basic core of linux, and with CD/DVD i had for these OS I don't know how to install just pure core. If you have method to install them with only CLI and very essential package then it will do the work for me.

Sounds like a job for http://www.tinycorelinux.com/

Cheers,

Evo2.

I tried creating a minimal distro but it wasn't worth the effort. (The purpose was to reduce the install time for repeated installation). It wasn't much smaller than the F10 installation from the live CD. Installing unwanted software will generally just use up disk space of which I assume you have plenty. If not you can share virtual disks between virtual machines).