[Novalug] Recommend a bacteria-sized server OS?

[John Atkeson]

Hi,

I would like to create a handful of Linux virtual machines to do
network experiments within one real computer.

Even one VM is pretty resource-hungry, so the ideal guest OS would be
little more than a bash shell with these features:

GCC
A persistent hard-drive install that mounts on boot (not stuck in live
CD amnesia mode)
Basic network support (could run Apache and friends if needed).
Availability to install common standard packages such as Wget, SSH etc.
Dinky RAM and HD footprint!
(Bonus) already a VHD, no install needed.

I'm trying TinyCore linux and Damn Small Linux, but both are live CDs,
and both have GUI issues that don't play well with VirtualBox.  I
don't need a GUI.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
John