[kjs3]

I think you could run 2.0 + X11 in 4MB in a pinch. I know I ran 2.2 + X11 in 5MB on a cast-off i386SX; tight but useable. If I recall right, 2.0 & 2.2 would run in 2MB without X11 (but a GUI like MGR might fit). 8MB was pretty good and 16MB was positively spacious.

Edit: Add: 2MB/4MB boot with a stripped down kernel, not generic.

[queenkjuul]

I got 2.2 with BusyBox to consume ~2200K at boot after a lot of fiddling. Left me plenty of user space for doing command line work on my 4MB 386; i mentioned in another comment though, X was only really useful as a remote terminal in 4MB, to run a local program via X pretty much required 8MB. But pretty sure i got Doom running in X on 8MB...

I did all these experiments a year or two ago. I lost most of my work due to a hard drive failure (the one in my workstation, not the 386 lol) but all the surviving work is on my github:

https://github.com/queenkjuul/basiclinux-lcars