When comparing Tails vs TinyCore, the Slant community recommends Tails for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for desktops?” Tails is ranked 33rd while TinyCore is ranked 42nd.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Privacy focused
Pro Has TOR built-in
Use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship; all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network.
Pro Easy to use with an USB key
Pro VERY small
Can be as small as about 9MB, and with even X, wireless modules, and more, it takes up only 72MB.
Pro Surprisingly customizable
Fluxbox window manager is especially slick looking all considered, and the options one gets with it's toolbar, app bar, and wallpaper are surprisingly complex for such a small distro.
Pro Use of tcz packages stored on media outside of MyData
Cons
Con Not for daily use
Tails is a privacy focused Linux distro. The updates that you will receive are only for improving privacy and not for improving user experience.
Con You can't install it to a hard drive
Con Saved states are not present for security
For security reasons, saved states are not supported in Tails. Files can be stored in a separate, persistent volume which must be accessed with a root password. Personal settings (e.g. -- keyboard layout, window settings, etc.) are not saved persistently across reboots. This can be a hindrance for anyone not using English as their language, or not using a QWERTY keyboard layout.
Con Only GNOME desktop environment
Con Slow internet
Tails uses the TOR network and as a result the internet on your computer will be very slow.
Con Not visually appealing
The operating system is not very pretty.
Con Can be somewhat slow to turn on
Once it is up and going it is unrivaled in speed, but it can be sluggish when it comes to turning on, restarting, or turning off.
