10+ free, fast-booting Linux distros that aren't Chrome OS

[safeguy]

10+ free, fast-booting Linux distros that aren't Chrome OS

Sure, Chrome OS has been all over the headlines since early December. But it might not run on your hardware and you're going to have to wait at least a year for the final version. Why bother waiting?

Linux enthusiasts have been working on projects like this for years - fast booting, stripped-down distributions which offer the core functionality most users are looking for in a pinch: web browsing, music and video playback, photo management, and some basic games.

Here are 11 options you can take for a spin right now...And since the Google Chrome beta version is available for Linux you can even run the browser that "is the OS" in most of these if you want!

More details here: DownloadSquad

P.S. Moblin looks nice...

[hellnoire]

SliTaz (notice the capital T in the middle, that's the proper spelling of it's name), is the one I'm going to throw on my laptop. The way I look at it is I need something OSS on my laptop lol, and it doesn't need to support my wireless. Xubuntu is my desktop distro, might stick with it when the LTS comes out, we shall see what we shall see.

[sm1]

Haven't tried chrome yet but for me ubuntu 9.10 is faster. Thanks for the link.

[hellnoire]

Oh god... if you find Ubuntu is fast, you'll find any of those screaming fast.

[rnbv424140]

Why so? Are we talking of a boot difference in minutes or in seconds?

[kv777]

should be seconds because ubuntu boots in less than a minute (atleast for me)...

[shan]

it also depends on the hardware people :P

and i still need to find a good flexible linux

[sm1]

I felt ubuntu 9.10 faster because of its faster system startup and shutdown time and it takes less than 200mb RAM when idle with 0% swap file used. Also browsing through files and folders was fast and smooth.

[hellnoire]

Why so? Are we talking of a boot difference in minutes or in seconds?

10 seconds compared to nearly a full minute.

That's what I'm getting at. Micro distros like those can just scream.

I felt ubuntu 9.10 faster because of its faster system startup and shutdown time and it takes less than 200mb RAM when idle with 0% swap file used. Also browsing through files and folders was fast and smooth.

Consider XFCE that needs less then 128 mb of ram to do the same thing.

It's to each their own, but I'd rather not have a desktop enviroment slow me down. Blackbox is a no-go because I'm not a fan of the style, though my buddy uses it... less then 50 mbs to do what XFCE and GNOME can do.

And KDE... is a pig. Anyone could agree to that, especially if they try some other desktop environment.

[shan]

obviously KDE = Beautiful = resource hungry