By using advanced compression algorithms like or LZMA , developers can squeeze a desktop environment, a browser, and basic utilities into a file size that seems impossible by modern Windows or macOS standards. Top Linux Distributions Under 500MB
If you use the toram feature, the compressed file occupies RAM, and the decompressed version occupies more RAM. On a system with 1 GB of RAM, booting a 500 MB compressed OS might leave you with only 200 MB for applications.
And in that instant, you realize:
sudo mksquashfs /path/to/your/root/filesystem /output/my_custom_os.squashfs -comp zstd -Xcompression-level 19
Used with Gzip or XZ to bundle entire directories into one "tarball". 4. Practical Applications Emergency Recovery: Linux Operating System Highly Compressed
You have no systemd . You have init and a shell script. You have no Python. You have ash and sed . You have no Wi-Fi wizard. You have iwconfig and the patience of a monk. You have no "App Store." You have wget , make , and a C compiler the size of a haiku.
This is not a limitation. This is liberation . By using advanced compression algorithms like or LZMA
Several tools are available to help compress a Linux operating system:
tar -czvf linux.tar.gz /vmlinuz