Lightest distro with Debian/Ubuntu softwares

[iripu]

Which distro uses lowest system resource (when installed on hard_disk/usb.) where I can install software from Debian OR Ubuntu repository?

I found Quelitu which is based on Lubuntu, but uses less memory as given on their site. There are lighter distros but most of them are based on Slackware. I don't have much experience so want some expert opinion. Thank you in advance.

-Ripu

[jayd512]

Which distro uses lowest system resource (when installed on hard_disk/usb.) ...

There are lighter distros but most of them are based on Slackware.

Hello and Welcome!
There are, indeed, several lightweight distros based on Slack.
But you can do the same with almost any distro... just run it with a light WM like IceWM or OpenBox.
Use non-DE dependent applications.
Have some fun with it.

[iripu]

Thanks a lot jayd512. I am surprised to see such a quick response.

[elija]

Cruchbang is based on Debian Stable and uses OpenBox. It is probably the lightest Debian based distro I have found. (link)

[jmadero]

Bodhi is the lightest fork of Ubuntu I believe and are continuously trying to get lighter.

[Dapper Dan]

Debian with a fast window manager can be set up to use a minimal amount of resources. It is because of this that I've moved some of my boxes away from Ubuntu/Gnome to straight Debian with IceWM.

[North]

Cruchbang is based on Debian Stable and uses OpenBox. It is probably the lightest Debian based distro I have found.

+1 for Crunchbang.

[masinick]

Debian with a fast window manager can be set up to use a minimal amount of resources. It is because of this that I've moved some of my boxes away from Ubuntu/Gnome to straight Debian with IceWM.

Two of the choices already mentioned are good choices; I have a third: Debian derivative, built from a few pieces from MEPIS, and the rest either home grown, from Debian, and a few pieces even from Absolute Linux, a lightweight Slackware derivative. It's called antiX.

To get used to it, you may want to begin with the "full edition" of antiX M11.0, which comes with two really nice, lightweight window managers, Fluxbox and IceWM. A "base edition" comes with a GUI and just the raw guts of an X server with a truly minimal Fluxbox setup, but you install the applications you prefer. Taking it one step further, there is a "core edition", which installs the kernel and just enough utilities to allow you to build your own customized system.

I suggest the novice to begin with antiX M11.0 in standard, "full edition" form; it is still quite nice, easy to install, and fairly light. Once you get used to it and learn more about how it works, you can "graduate" to either the "base edition" or the "core edition", and basically "build your own system". It is truly one of my favorites.

Quite frankly, though, I have done the same thing by starting with a Debian Live installable edition. This isn't quite the regular Debian Edition; it is a custom Live CD, very small, that may not be widely available; you may have to poke around a bit to find one, but, like antiX core, you can build a custom system; like antiX base, you can at least start with a GUI and you can specify which core applications you want to include, then you can build from there.

Those are just three or four options. You can also start with the Debian minimal 60-70 MB "business card" or netinst versions and build precisely the system you want, using Fluxbox, Blackbox, IceWM, or some other really light environment.

You can choose a slightly heavier LXDE setup that's still pretty light and fast; that's a reasonable in between compromise.

There are many other nuances to choose from. I find a small Debian core or one of the antiX alternatives to be the fastest and easiest for me, but there are others. Crunchbang is a good system in its own right. Can't speak for others, but anything based directly on Debian is likely to be a reasonably solid starting point.

[Eldergeek]

Use the Business Card CD to install a basic Debian system, then install Xorg and a lightweight windows manager like IceWM (or Xfce if you want a few more bells and whistles) using apt-get.

OR

I don't honestly know which distro it's built on but if Slitaz will run on your machine it's awesome small (the ISO file for the live CD is about 30 MB in size).

[iripu]

Thank you all. It's nice to get variety of suggestions to try and learn.

Slitaz is based on Slackware. But I just found that there is an add-on for Slackware, src2pkg (I am not allowed to post the link here), that will build a Slackware installable package from *.deb archives (along with others, like *.rpm).