History
Prior to its first release, the closest approximation to a Linux distribution had been H J Lu's "Boot-root" floppies. These were two 5¼" diskettes consisting of the kernel and the minimum tools required to get started. So minimal were these tools that to be able to boot from a hard drive required editing its master boot record with a hex editor.
The first release of MCC Interim Linux was based on version 0.12 of the Linux kernel and made use of Theodore Ts'o's ramdisk code to copy a small root image to memory from the previously wasted space of the boot floppy, freeing the floppy drive for additional utilities disks, although the inefficient kernel ramdisk code of the time in practice led to problems on systems with only 2 MB of RAM.
He also stated his distributions were "unofficial experiments", describing the goals of his releases as being:
- To provide a simple installation procedure.
- To provide a more complete installation procedure.
- To provide a backup/recovery service.
- To back up his (then) current system.
- To compile, link, and test every binary file under the current versions of the kernel, gcc, and libraries.
- To provide a stable base system, which can be installed in a short time, and to which other software can be added with relatively little effort.
Indeed, no attempt was ever made to distribute it with a wide range of software or even the X386 windowing system.
Read more about this topic: MCC Interim Linux
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