Damn Small Linux is a lightweight Linux distribution that fits on a business card-sized CD and can be directly booted from it. It only takes up 50MB of disk space, making it easy to run on low-end hardware.
Damn Small Linux is complete with almost all desktop applications including a music player (XMMS), an FTP client, a web browser (Dillo and Links), a spreadsheet, an email client (Sylpheed), a word processor (FLwriter), four editors (Beaver, nVi, Zile [emacs clone], and Nano [Pico clone]), graphics editing and viewing software (Xpaint and xzgv), and much more.
Moreover, it has a host of command-line tools, system monitoring apps, games, and USB and pcmcia support. Additionally, it provides both generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, VNCviewer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, and much more.
If you desire, you can also install DSL on your hard drive. The best part about Damn Small Linux is that it is ideal for older hardware as all the applications on it are small and light. Originally based on model_k, which did an outstanding job of distilling Knoppix down to 33 megabytes, the more recent versions are a reduction from Knoppix proper.
Furthermore, Damn Small Linux is Debian-based, which makes the task of creating a streamlined OS much more effortless. However, the applications on the CD are not purely Debian, and there are a few apps that are not available via apt-get. Overall, Damn Small Linux can provide you with a fully functional desktop no matter how small your system is.
Version 4.4.10: N/A