Floppinux - An Embedded 
Linux on a Single 
Floppy
https://bits.p1x.in/floppinux-an-embedded-linux-on-a-single-floppy/
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Nice. I wouldn’t have thought this was still possible!
Back in 1992/1993, as a student, I knocked together my own Linux floppy for use on the University’s PCs. I learned a lot in the process. Of course, back then it was a lot easier. The entire kernel source code was still small enough to fit on a single floppy and a fairly full-featured kernel can only have been a few hundred kB. That said, I remember a kernel compilation on my 386 tended to take around 10 hours.
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It certainly is surprising to see this done with a modern linux kernel.
I did in the past use Tom’s Root Boot disk - that’s a linux on a floppy. It was around in '99, not sure how much earlier. Edit: it does seem we can go back to 1995 for some floppy rescue systems:
https://web.archive.org/web/19990219224726/http://ftp.cs.umn.edu:80/pub/Linux/sunsite/system/recovery/!INDEX.html
And I’m always reminded of QNX which also fit on a floppy, and is still an active product. Several pages on that:
- QNX Demo Disk
- QNX DEMO disk screen shots and downloads
- QNX DEMO disk Extending possibilities and adding undocumented features
via
Edit: here’s another single floppy OS:
and with with vimeo video:
https://bits.p1x.in/freedos-with-qbasic-on-single-floppy/
Edit: more bits in the HN discussion on the original link.
Edit: and see also this other HN discussion:
x window system on a floppy
with links to other small or minimal OS on a floppy, including QNX, squeak,
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Somehow I was expecting a modern floppy disc format, but the floppy discs themselves were physically too tiny - like MicroSD cards. I mean, I guess I’m glad MicroSD cards exist, but they’re just too tiny.
Well I like SD cards to give that 70’s BIG DIRIVE feel.
While not a floppy, a RK05 disc is about the same SIZE as one.
Computing from 1975 – PDP 11 with a time shared BASIC
http://woffordwitch.com/
In the nineties I kept a full linux-on-a-floppy around, so that I could easily back up various computers over the network (the system included tcp/ip). It wasn’t hard to do at the time. And compiling a Linux kernel on my 486/66 took just five minutes in the early days. Anyway, that floppy was immensely useful. Later this was replaced with a CD (and even later with a DVD), typically an off-the-shelf Knoppix setup. But somehow the earlier floppy was easier.
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