FLOPPINUX - An Embedded Linux on a Single Floppy - 2025 Edition

2000 ish I discovered Linux from Scratch and the whole idea of having a linux router.

For a few years after that I enjoyed the game of how small could I get a linux kernel compiled for the two nics in the Pentium 2 I had at the time. It lived next to my RoadRunner cable modem in the closet and from time to time upset my family as I'd "broken the internet" if I booted from a floppy I made a mistake on.

This ended up in a series of floppy disks each coming in at smaller and smaller sizes. At one point I also had apache2 working from a floppy for a lightweight webserver on the router. I consider this to be among the most valuable of skills I ended up acquiring life-long. I likely have made more money to-date from what I learned doing this than any knowledge I acquired during the subsequent college years.

This article really brought me back. Thanks!

Looks like it does not work on real 486 machines: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873814

Used Tomsrtbt quite a bit on my own Am5x86, but it's nice that this one doesn't require a non-standard format.

This raises the question: what is the most exciting thing you can fit into the 253 KB of free space?