Do you have an old PC lying around gathering dust? How about a small-capacity USB flash drive sitting, unloved in a drawer? You can reuse your old computer and a USB flash drive by installing a tiny Linux distribution.
Mini Linux distros are great as they require fewer system resources than other options yet still deliver a whole operating system experience, and we have nine of the smallest Linux distros for you to choose from.
I think Tinycore is more like a learning tool than a daily driver. If you want to know the basics of how a Linux system boots you should read the book.
I especially like how the entire system is basically one big shell script.
tiny core is for small embeded systems, like car ignitions, modems, little robotics modules/arduinos etc.