muLinux is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

-language

lightweight Linux distribution A light-weight Linux distribution is one that uses lower memory and/or has less processor-speed requirements than a more "feature-rich" Linux distribution. The lower demands on hardware ideally result in a more responsive machine, and/or all ...

maintained by mathematics and physics professor Michele Andreoli, meant to allow very old and obsolete computers (

80386 The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors 80486 The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the Intel 386. The i486 was introduced in 1989. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the ...

and

Pentium Pro The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel and introduced on November 1, 1995. It introduced the P6 microarchitecture (sometimes termed i686) and was originally intended to replace the original ...

hardware dating from 1986 through 1998) to be used as basic intranet/Internet servers or text-based workstations with a

UNIX Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...

like In English, the word ''like'' has a very flexible range of uses, ranging from conventional to non-standard. It can be used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, particle, conjunction, hedge, filler, and quotative. Uses Comparison ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

. It was also designed for quickly turning any 80386 or later computer into a temporary, powerful Linux machine, along with system repair, education,

forensic analysis Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

and what the developer called ''proselytizing''. In 2004 reviewer Paul Zimmer wrote, "Although there are several other single-floppy Linux distributions, none can match muLinux's extensive and unique combination of useful features."Zimmer, Paul,
muLinux: A Brief Introduction
', The Linux Information Project, 2004, retrieved 16 August 2008 The last version update was in 2004, when further development of this "linux-on-a-floppy" distribution ended.

Name

The name ''muLinux'' comes from the

Greek letter The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...

'' mu'' which is the SI symbol meaning ''one millionth'', harking to the very small size of this OS.mulinux.sunsite.dk,
muLinux official web page
'', retrieved 16 August 2008

Minimalist design

muLinux was based on the Linux 2.0.36 kernel.Saunders, Mike,
Roundup: MiniDistros
", ''Linux Format'', July 2005, retrieved 16 August 2008 Development was frozen in 2004 at version 14r0, with some of the code and packages taken from software releases going back to 1998 (owing only to their smaller sizes). An experimental, unstable version called Lepton had the 2.4 kernel. muLinux could be both booted or installed to a hard drive on an obsolete machine from

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined ...

s. A highly functional UNIX-like, network-enabled server with a

Unix shell A Unix shell is a command-line interpreter or shell that provides a command line user interface for Unix-like operating systems. The shell is both an interactive command language and a scripting language, and is used by the operating system t ...

could be had from but one floppy disk. Another floppy disk added workstation functionality and a legacy

X Window The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems. X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wit ...

VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the Personal computer, PC industry within three years ...

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

came with a third floppy. One reviewer noted, "It's not gorgeous, but the whole X subsystem fits onto a single floppy. Egad." muLinux could also be unpacked and installed by a self-executable archive, or extracted directly, onto an old

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

Windows 9x Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in sub ...

( umsdos) partition without harming the current OS. If the machine had a floppy disk drive muLinux also would run on an otherwise diskless computer and no CD-ROM drive was needed. Owing to its minimalist design muLinux was a single-user OS, with all operations performed by the

root user In computing, the superuser is a special user account used for system administration. Depending on the operating system (OS), the actual name of this account might be root, administrator, admin or supervisor. In some cases, the actual name of t ...

. It used the

ext2 The ext2 or second extended file system is a file system for the Linux kernel. It was initially designed by French software developer Rémy Card as a replacement for the extended file system (ext). Having been designed according to the same p ...

Linux native file system (rather than the slower Minix file system seen in other single-floppy takes on Linux). The OS was robust when used for text-based tasks along with basic file, light web page or email serving. It could also be adapted as a very tiny, stand-alone

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' ...

.''ACM Indexed scientific database'' (abstract): "Linux Journal" Volume 2000, Issue 75es
Using Linux in Embedded and Real-Time Systems
', July 2000, retrieved 16 August 2008 muLinux was sometimes installed by Windows users who wanted to learn about the commands and configuration of a

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

before taking the step of installing a full

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

distribution or

BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Be ...

release, although on later computers this could easily be done with any one of many

live CD A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading f ...

distributions. Since the distribution was always wholly targeted at old hardware and meant to have a tiny footprint, Andreoli warned at the time that muLinux should not be used to ''evaluate'' Linux or open source software. The OS came with a lean and pithy

online help Online help is topic-oriented, procedural or reference information delivered through computer software. It is a form of user assistance. The purpose of most online help is to assist in using a software application, web application or operating syst ...

system which also happened to be an introduction to UNIX, written in an English which the developer called "fractured." The OS had "cheery dialogues" and a friendly sense of humour sprinkled throughout.

System requirements

muLinux needed only minimal hardware, hence it would run on many thoroughly obsolete but still-working computers. Some machines from the later 1980s or very early 1990s may have needed additional

SIMM A SIMM (single in-line memory module) is a type of memory module containing random-access memory used in computers from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. It differs from a dual in-line memory module (DIMM), the most predominant form of memo ...

s for enough

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch ...

but overall, the requirements were only slightly higher than those for

Windows 3.1 Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series ran as a shell on top of MS-DOS. Codenamed Janus, Window ...

so a still-working machine which when new in 1992 ran Windows 3.1 would likely be able to handle a hard drive installation of muLinux: * 4 MB

if run from a hard drive * 16 MB RAM if booted from floppies, can ''boot'' from floppy with only 8MB * about 20 MB of hard drive space * an

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

80386 The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors * SRV - basic server package with a web server, mail,

samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havi ...

and more * WKS - basic work station package with

mutt A mutt is a mongrel (a dog of unknown ancestry). Mutt may also refer to: People * Mutt, a derogatory term for mixed-race people Nickname * Larry Black (sprinter) (1951-2006), American sprinter * Mutt Carey (1886–1948), New Orleans jazz trumpe ...

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...

ssh The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution. SSH applications are based on a ...

pgp PGP or Pgp may refer to: Science and technology * P-glycoprotein, a type of protein * Pelvic girdle pain, a pregnancy discomfort * Personal Genome Project, to sequence genomes and medical records * Pretty Good Privacy, a computer program for the ...

and many other

applications * X11 - legacy

16 colour

environment (see below for

SVGA Super VGA (SVGA) is a broad term that covers a wide range of computer display standards that extended IBM's VGA specification. When used as shorthand for a resolution, as VGA and XGA often are, SVGA refers to a resolution of 800×600. History ...

) along with early versions of both

fvwm95 FVWM95 is a window manager for the X Window System based on the popular FVWM 2 window manager. It is similar to the original FVWM, but is designed to closely resemble the look of Windows 95. FVWM95 was for a while a rather popular window manager ...

and Afterstep

window manager A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunct ...

s (based on the

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufactu ...

and

NeXTSTEP NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...

respectively) * VNC - for

virtual network computing Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop-sharing system that uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB) to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse input from one computer to another, relaying the ...

* GCC - C compiler * TCL -

Tcl/Tk Tk is a free and open-source, cross-platform widget toolkit that provides a library of basic elements of GUI widgets for building a graphical user interface (GUI) in many programming languages. Tk provides a number of widgets commonly needed to ...

+ scripting language, which also brings a few more X applications and tools * TEX -

TeX Tex may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname * Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer Joseph Arrington Jr. Entertainment * ''Tex'', the Italian ...

typesetting system * PERL -

Perl Perl is a family of two High-level programming language, high-level, General-purpose programming language, general-purpose, Interpreter (computing), interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it ...

interpreter with modules * EMU -

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are ...

and Dosemu

emulator In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

s * JVM -

Kaffe Kaffe is a discontinued " clean room design" (reverse engineering) version of a Java Virtual Machine. It comes with a subset of the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE), Java API, and tools needed to provide a Java runtime environment. Like ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

virtual machine * NS1 -

X server along with part of a small but highly obsolete version of

Netscape Navigator Netscape Navigator was a web browser, and the original browser of the Netscape line, from versions 1 to 4.08, and 9.x. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corp and was the dominant web browser in terms of usage share in ...

* NS2 - second part of

Packages by other authors were also made available.

References

External links

muLinux official Web page
{{Linux Light-weight Linux distributions Floppy-based Linux distributions Linux distributions