When comparing TinyCore vs Knoppix, the Slant community recommends Knoppix for most people. In the question“What are the best lightweight Linux distributions?” Knoppix is ranked 2nd while TinyCore is ranked 11th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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
Pro Powerful and lightweight
Cons
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.
Con Runs off of optical disk by default
You have to enter a special boot option to run Knoppix entirely in RAM.
Con DVD version requires a lot of RAM
Many computers are incapable of loading the whole 4 gigabyte DVD into RAM. There is an older CD version, however.