Salvare

Salvare, a Linux distribution with a name derived from the Latin "to rescue," is a small distribution that has been designed to take up relatively little space, fitting comfortably on small, credit-card sized CDs of around 34MB. It's a step up from Tom's Root Boot (tomsrtbt), but not quite as hefty as Knoppix. The aim of Salvare is to serve as both a practical workstation and also as a rescue disk.

One of the key features of Salvare is its versatile booting options. Salvare can be booted in four ways: via bootable CD-ROM (BIOS permitting), a simple boot floppy (in progress), a network boot using a Salvare boot floppy (in progress), and a network boot using PXE and another machine running Salvare (planned).

Salvare comes with various appealing features, including everything that tomsrtbt has to offer and more. There's OpenSSH (clients & server), Links 2 text & graphical web browser which supports JavaScript, HTTPS, and mouse control. It has security tools such as chkrootkit, nmap and tcpdump, and you can also use apt-get to install additional software from Debian into tmpfs. It has bash, which is an improvement from the lightweight shells used by similar projects, and ncftp. Salvare also boasts an almost complete distribution of Perl and has sound support for playing SoundTracker modules, MP3s, and other files. Another great feature is that it can run entirely from RAM, unlike other "live CDs."

Overall, Salvare is an impressive option for those looking for a lightweight Linux distribution with practical and rescue functionalities. The only downside being that some features are not yet available, but more are in progress.