Smallest distro

[Shagpile]

I know there are plenty of stupidly small distributions out there. But I want something bigger. Yet small

What is the smallest distro that includes the latest version of KDE

I am thinking of installing to a flash drive (not cf, probably a D.O.M.) and I want it to load up as fast as possibly possible.

I also want it to support my wifi card as well though. Which means it has to be recent and maintained.

Can anybody help? Can just be the bare operating system but needs to be able to install more programs. (firefox. dvds. etc)

So to sum up :P

What is the smallest maintained distro that includes the latest version of KDE??

Thanks

[borromini]

Try Slax! I think they have a KDE centered version.

On the other hand: why do you want a heavy DE like KDE? That alone takes hundreds of megabytes... You better go with Xfce or similar lightweight equivalents.

[bryansmith]

Slax sounds like the perfect choice for you. In fact, 5.0.6 was just released: http://slax.linux-live.org/.

Bryan

[Shagpile]

I want KDE for one reason and one reason alone.

ok, 2 reasons. But the first is that its linux so that doesnt really count.

The main reason is because it looks good. Simple as that. My first experience was with suse 9.1 and while it was a great OS it just took ages to load. I am running on 600Mhz machine with 1gb ram.

If there was an alternative that looks better than KDE then point me in that direction. The only small OS I have used is puppy and while it is a nice quaint little thing its interface has a lot to be desired.

It needs to look good straight off the install as well. Due to processor speeds and the fact that I just want it to go quickly I dont want to load the OS and then load another app on top of it for the layouts etc.

Any ideas or is KDE the best looking?

[borromini]

Look. You'll never have a fast distro while using KDE... Unless you turn off all the eye candy and as far as I can tell that's exactly what you're looking for. Check out Xfce, it's worth it. And it runs fast, while using very few resources. KDE doesn't only consume much space, part of the 'slowness' of SuSE and stuff lies also with the K desktop environment. With Xfce for example, your SuSE becomes a lot more responsive. You won't believe what difference it makes when you start up a plain and simple program like a web browser for example...

[Shagpile]

whats a good xfce distro for a beginner then?

[borromini]

I recommend Slax. It has KDE and Xfce, in fact, it has lots of different versions... Check out their home page. I suggest you start by trying out the Slax Popcorn Edition. Fits on 128 MB . It contains only a limited selection of apps though.

Check it out! For a full distro (1.1 Gb), I recommend Minislack. It is a 400 MB iso.

[Shagpile]

Currently downloading it. Though its not so much whats included as the speed in which it does it. More programs can always be added to a barebones distro doesnt matter.

If the OS was 20Gig but ran faster than one which was 200meg then I would be prepared to sit and keep reloading dvds into the drive.

Its more speed and looks than anything else.

[borromini]

Slax is based on Slackware, so any slackware package should install fine on it. I myself use Minislack, also slackware-based, and I never had a single problem with any of the slackware packages I installed . Slackware is traditionally optimized for older systems (i486), but it still runs pretty fast on newer compo's also; even compared to other modern distro's . Enjoy the ride!

[Ethyriel]

While everyone else is suggesting Slax, let me suggest Arch. It loads very fast, especially if you compile your own minimal kernel (or at least remove PCI-E support), and it's as small as you want it to be. You can use XFCE, KDE, Enlightenment, Ion... whatever you want, and you only have to install the applications you absolutely you want. You might even be able to hack in busybox if you want.

I agree that KDE itself is slow, but Suse is a rather heavy implementation of it too. I'm no fan of KDE, but I think it's only fair to try it on a lighter weight distro before you decide against it. That's the great thing about Linux, the possibilities are endless, only limited by your time and knowledge... and your knowledge builds as you put in the time.