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DSL is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution. DSL has a nearly complete desktop, and many command line tools. All applications are chosen with functionality, size and speed in mind. Damn Small also has the ability to act as an SSH/FTP/HTTPD server right off of a live CD. In our quest to save space and have a fully functional desktop we've made many GUI administration tools which are fast yet still easy to use. Because all the applications are small and light it makes a very good choice for older hardware.

DeLi Linux stands for "Desktop Light" Linux. It is a Linux Distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium MMX 166 or so. It's focused on desktop usage. It includes email clients, graphical web browser, an office package with word processor and spreadsheet, and so on. A full install, including XFree and development tools, needs not more than 300 MB of harddisk space.

Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite fully featured. Puppy boots into a 48 - 54M ramdisk, and that's it, the whole caboodle runs in RAM. Unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, Puppy in his entirety loads into RAM. This means that most applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy can boot off different media: flash-Puppy (Puppy booting off a flash card or any USB memory device), live-Puppy (Puppy booting off a CDROM), zippy-Puppy (Puppy booting off a Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk), floppy-Puppy (Puppy booting off a set of floppy disks), hard-Puppy (Puppy booting off an internal hard drive).

SaxenOS is a lightweight Slackware and Zenwalk-based distribution with the Xfce desktop. It is designed for older, low-specification computers.

STX Linux is a desktop Linux distribution especially targeted to older hardware. It also works quite well on new PC's. Overview: Complete Linux Desktop. Lightweight (about 1.25 GB installed, 421 MB ISO). Slackware based. Works nicely on old Hardware. Harddisk Installer from Pocketlinux. The desktop looks very much like Windows 98/ME/2000.

VectorLinux is a small, fast, Intel Linux operating system based on one of the original Linux distributions, Slackware. Vectorlinux provides a variety of features for the casual computer user. The power user will be pleased that all the tools are there to compile their own programs. Administrators will be equally as pleased due to the small size and memory requirements of the operating system.

Xubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. Unlike its parent, however, Xubuntu uses the light-weight XFce desktop environment and is optimised for lower-end machines. The distribution includes only GTK+ applications where possible.