I’ve scaled down my Linux experiment just a bit.  Before I try installing from a downloaded image, I figured I’d better get a bit more experience with Linux so I’m not totally lost at the beginning.  So I’m installing a minimum system from my SuSE 7.0 package.  This will give me the kernel, all the utilities, and the tools I need to compile programs.  From there I’ll download, build, and install everything else that I need.  That’s the theory, at least.

There’s a surprising lack of information on how exactly to create a minimal Linux system without getting a “distribution.”  The linux.org site has some good information on selecting and installing a distribution, and a comprehensive list of available distributions, but nothing on creating an absolute minimal Linux system.  At least, I couldn’t find it.  Perhaps the way to go is to grab one of the systems that’s described as very small (ZipHam, for example) and build from there.  I’ll probably try that next, after I’ve played around with my minimal SuSE distribution for a while.