Refactored Tiny Core Linux 4.2 released

Tiny Core 4.2 running a freshly installed Firefox 9.0 package Tiny Core Linux 4.2 has been announced, with this release focusing on refactoring Robert Shingledecker's ultracompact Linux distribution to be more modular. This has involved creating a new "Core" foundation for the platform comprising the 2.4 MB kernel and 5 MB of gzipped surrounding essential programs and utilities.

Tiny Core desktop is that "Core" with the addition of either the Xvesa or Xorg server, the Xprogs programs for X package, fltk, a user-selected window manager, and wbar, the lightweight launcher. Shingledecker says the original TinyCore is now "simply an example of what the Core Project can produce, a 12 MB GUI desktop".

Beyond Core and Tiny Core is CorePlus, an extended version of the Core which includes many community packaged extensions, with full package management, to enable the easy creation of frugal or pendrive installations. CorePlus replaces the previous MultiCore edition and includes a boot menu for selecting window managers (including flwm, jwm, icewm, fluxbox and hackedbox) and other boot options. CorePlus is delivered as a 48 MB ISO image.

The refactored Core has been updated with new versions of the X/GUI extensions reducing inter-dependencies, and minor updates to many of the utilities and scripts which Tiny Core relies on. The three editions of Tiny Core are available to download and the full change log can be found in Shingledecker's announcement.

(djwm)