When was that? I started using Linux in mid 90's and never recall a useful installation of that size. Single floppy rescue disc distros did not have room for C compiler and standard development libs IIRC.
MuLinux could boot a Linux to a prompt, with minimal command line utilities. Extra floppies provided X11, GCC, Tcl, Perl, et. al. MuLinux formatted 3.5" floppies to 1.7mb and replaced many utilities with "rustic" versions written in /bin/sh. Fun stuff! Disclosure: I contributed the Tcl floppy and lpr/lpq/lprm utilities.
