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Porteus 3.1
Porteus is unique in that it doesn't offer a singular download but rather asks its users to build one via its web-based builder. The distro enables you to pick a desktop from KDE 4, Mate, LXDE and Xfce together with a host of popular software, including web browsers (there's Firefox, Chrome, Opera), word processors (LibreOffice, AbiWord), VoIP client (Skype), graphics drivers for Nvidia and AMD Radeon etc. Advanced users can also define and customise boot parameters, such as the tmpfs partition, and enable kernel modules, such as zram.
You can use the Porteus installer to install Porteus to a removable USB drive or a fixed hard disk. Porteus is based on Slackware and includes the graphical Unified Slackware Package Manager to help users install apps.
Slacko Puppy 5.7
Puppy Linux is extremely resource friendly too and yet still includes a very functional system. The Puppy Linux project has several official variants. There's Wary Puppy for dated hardware, Lucid Puppy built from Ubuntu's binary packages and Slacko Puppy built from Slackware.
Slacko uses one of the lightest window managers, JWM, and there's no beating the distro in terms of out-of-the-box functionality. The distro bundles an application for virtually every imaginable task that you can perform with a desktop computer.
It also has all kinds of multimedia applications including graphics viewers and creators and apps to playback, edit and even create multimedia. The included Firefox browser is equipped with all kinds of plugins and the distro also has a custom application to download and install the Flash plugin.
Tiny Core Linux 6.3
Tiny Core is the smallest distro around that boots into a graphical desktop. It isn't a distro that's derived from one of the mainstream distros, but owes its slim stature to a careful choice of lightweight components.
Tiny Core is available in multiple flavours, besides the recommended Tiny Core release that weighs in at a mere 15MB. There is, in fact, an even smaller command line-only 10MB Core release and an all-in-one 72MB CorePlus variant which includes multiple desktops and additional functionality, such as support for wireless network hardware.
As you might expect, the distro is incredibly quick off the blocks and drops you to a plain desktop running the FLWMwindow manager. Tiny Core uses its own package format and its repository is flush with hundreds of popular applications including the Firefox browser, LibreOffice, Chromium and Thunderbird etc.