Trying to make my own Debian-based distro - by Maira

A GNU-less, low resource, 32-bit distro chungus thing

Why?

One of the main reasons why I wanted to make this distro is because I wanted to build a distro that is much more optimised for older tech (i.e. early 2000s ThinkPads, hence the 32-bit CPU requirement). Most mainstream Linux distros have unfortunately dropped support for 32-bit CPUs so I also kind of wanted to fill in that gap at the same time.

Could I have justed used Puppy Linux that's also based mainly on Debian? Possibly, it's definitely one of the best and most reliable distros out there, but where's the learning experience and fun in that? With this project, I'll also be able to learn a lot about optimising software in a way that is still very usable to the average user whilst also gaining a deeper knowledge on lesser known FOSS, Linux and UNIX-like systems in general.

My ideas and goals

• Have a boot time to the desktop of 10 seconds or less
• Low memory usage (100MB or less)
• Be able to update via official Debian servers
• Absolutely no GNU software or systemd (replace with busybox for performance)
• Have basic internet access with a very low resource browser (so no Firefox or Chrome)
• No bluetooth, it's a waste of resources that's 99% of the time only used for headphones that sound horrible
• Very user friendly w/easy installer, good documentation, etc.
• Minimal SSE and MMX, although will have to be a separate version as SSE and MMX support is important
• WindowMaker window manager, mainly for the look but its also lightweight
• Custom compiled Linux kernel(??) for maximum performance
• Low disk space usage
• Pre-configured apps
• GUI package manager for apt (like 'Discover' is for flatpak on Fedora)

(updates on project coming soon)