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{{Infobox OS
| name = muLinux
| logo = [[
| website = [http://mulinux.dotsrc.org http://mulinux.dotsrc.org]
| family = [[Linux]]
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muLinux was based on the Linux 2.0.36 kernel.<ref name="Saunders">Saunders, Mike, "[http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/pdfs/LXF68.round.pdf Roundup: MiniDistros]", ''Linux Format'', July 2005, retrieved 16 August 2008</ref> Development was frozen in 2004 at version 14r0, with some of the code and packages taken from software releases going back to 1998 (owing only to their smaller sizes). An experimental, unstable version called Lepton had the 2.4 kernel.
muLinux could be both booted or installed to a hard drive on an obsolete machine from [[floppy disk]]s. A highly functional UNIX-like, network-enabled server with a [[Unix shell]] could be had from but one floppy disk. Another floppy disk added workstation functionality and a legacy [[X Window]] [[VGA]] [[GUI]] came with a third floppy. One reviewer noted, "It's not gorgeous, but the whole X subsystem fits onto a single floppy. Egad."<ref name="Saunders"/> muLinux could also be unpacked and installed by a self-executable archive, or extracted directly, onto an old [[DOS]] or [[Windows 9x]] ([[umsdos]]) partition without harming the current OS. If the machine had a floppy disk drive muLinux also would run on an otherwise diskless computer and no [[CD
Owing to its minimalist design muLinux was a single-user OS, with all operations performed by the [[root user]]. It used the [[ext2]] Linux native file system (rather than the slower [[Minix]] file system seen in other single-floppy takes on Linux).<ref name="Zimmer"/> The OS was robust when used for text-based tasks along with basic file, light web page or email serving. It could also be adapted as a very tiny, stand-alone [[embedded system]].<ref>''ACM Indexed scientific database'' (abstract): "Linux Journal" Volume 2000, Issue 75es ''[http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=349542 Using Linux in Embedded and Real-Time Systems]'', July 2000, retrieved 16 August 2008</ref>
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==System requirements==
muLinux needed only minimal hardware, hence it would run on many thoroughly obsolete but still-working computers.<ref name="mu"/> Some machines from the later 1980s or very early 1990s may have needed additional [[SIMM]]s for enough [[RAM]] but overall, the requirements were only slightly higher than those for [[Windows 3.1]] so a still-working machine which when new in 1992 ran Windows 3.1 would likely be able to handle a hard drive installation of muLinux:
* 4 MB [[Random access memory|RAM]] if run from a hard drive
* 16 MB RAM if booted from floppies, can ''boot'' from floppy with only 8MB<ref name="Zimmer"/>
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