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From their own site:

Menuet isn't based on other operating system nor has it roots within UNIX or the POSIX standards. The design goal, since the first release in year 2000, has been to remove the extra layers between different parts of an OS, which normally complicate programming and create bugs.

So, if you want to port your own application to it, you'll need to rewrite it too. And you may need to do it in assembly — although there is, apparently, a C-compiler for MenuetOS it is billed as "low-level", which, I gather, means no (or limited) libc, and other exciting and challenging limitations.

Puppy Linux

Damn Small Linux

Try a live CD of either one. They should work fine on your specs.

http://goosee.com/puppy

Download a LiveCD of a small Linux distro and boot to it tomorrow:

Damn Small Linux.org
Puppy Linux

This way, you have nothing to fear, safely surfing the 'Net, without the risk of compromising any of your data. Plus, you get to have a taste of what Linux is like.

The worst that can happen is that you decide you don't like that particular Linux distro. In that case, you can take out the CD, and boot back to Windows on Saturday.

goosee.com/puppy
DamnSmallLinux.org

Sure, you can run Windows 95 (or even 3.1) on old hardware, but you can also run Linux.

Now if somebody could link me up with a tiny footprint version of Linux to throw on my key, I would be set!

http://www.goosee.com/puppy/ Use Puppy linux for that, man, and away you go. Footprints in the ~64Mb range. A 256Mb stick could have your portable linux and a portable set of apps for the windows machines you visit.

I've been considering building some sort of e-commerce appliance for my less technically-inclined family members...essentially a low-end PC that will only boot off a Puppy Linux CD. All online financial transactions would take place only over this PC. Since the whole OS is on CD, it's fairly immune to the traditional spyware strategies (being Linux helps a bit as well ;) ). With this latest news, I'm thinking such a 'e-commerce appliance' might make a dandy and well-appreciated Christmas gift.

Puppy Linux only consumes about 60MB of disk space, leaving 68MB free on a 128MB drive. It is so small, that if your machine has 128MB RAM or more, then it will load and run completely from RAM, making it screamingly fast.

Go here and download it. Since it is so small, the best way to explain Puppy, is to try it:
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

There is lots of space left, even on a 128MB device: http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

Windows locks CD drives too, while it's reading them.

But it isn't something that you're expected to evaluate through live-CDs.

Get Puppy Linux: http://www.goosee.com/puppy/ which runs entirely from RAM.

Thanks; I wasn't aware of that.

This just goes to show, people who complain that Linux is too hard to use over Windows are only interested in setting up one straw man after another to beat up. Windows locks CD drives too, while it's reading them. Nobody would expect a computer to do otherwise. But bring up Linux, and all of a sudden the computer is supposed to be able to read the CD while you take it out and play frisbee with it.

Fine then: Get Puppy Linux: http://www.goosee.com/puppy/ which runs entirely from RAM. It is also a live CD. Once it boots (as soon as you get a desktop), open the CD drive. Take the CD out. Play frisbee with it. Continue to use the computer while you do so. Note the exceptional performance! Puppy even has ICEwm as it's desktop, the simple window manager designed to make Windows users feel right at home, with it's drab bar and dreary button labeled "START" so you don't have to strain your brain figuring out where to click. I've even run Puppy Linux on a machine with *NO* hard drive, and taken the CD out, and we all proceeded to get several day's use out of a computer without a single byte of persistant memory anywhere on it. But no matter *what* we recommend to a Windows user, this same person sticks to pushing their shopping cart down the street because the limousine we're offering them doesn't stock any Grey Poupon.

Puppy Linux already has a complete operating system and applications on a flash drive. You can have Mozilla, Open Office and a host of others in less than 100MB of space. http://www.goosee.com/puppy , or if you prefer you can use a CD/RW to save your files.

runs off a 128 MB flash dongle:
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

It has everything you need to get a job done.

...but I hope Sony has made this new Aibo to be able to run Puppy Linux

:-)

They're the wrong kind of solid state for speed, and repeated "write" operations will wear them out far faster than a typical disk.

They're extremely useful for occasional boot use, transferring data, and running an OS like the Knoppix live CD os that writes nothing to the bootable media itself.

...because Damn Small and Puppy can both do that, too. And as far as I know, it doesn't violate any license agreements either.

it has been done, a dozen of times
what these Linux distros really lacks is publicitity and marketting .. ie an excellent P.R Machine.
Microsoft can afford that, Apple too, contributors already spend much of their free time helping, they dont have the cash also.

So in short what Linux distros need are millionaire patron.
Ubuntu is an example of how much patronage matters.

Many tried in varies way - maybe you could try your version?

Linspire's approach is of Click to Install, run everything as root, offer interesting goodies such as iTunes, etc

Xandros which tries to appeal to the business man, hides even the terminal, if you are a techie, it is a difficult distro to work with. But non-techies find it a marvel.

Beatrix is probably the closest you've envisage, with but essential apps and very light and fast.

Puppy Linux approach is have it micro light weight in Ram, they don't strip the techie-stuff but add lots of tutorials, wizards and follow-throughs. I have to admit I liked it, its good for old machines too.

Yoper's approach is to get you up and ready where one-CD installs everything you might need and more - very fast. The community is very helpful and friendly. The idea is that the distro should be as multi-media ready as possible on things like plugin (which are short of impossible for a newcome to install).
Wonderful idea, but we need more help with that, like all free-distros specially - we need helpers, contributors, coders, packagers.

In the Linux community, the will is there, just the challenge and obstacle is very big. Drivers and hardwares primarily set for Windows machine and nothing else .. etc

What we all need is patronage, sponsorship.

What we need is what Apple, Microsoft + etc has:
money-money-money (even if its to pay for hosting our servers).

Remember the saying: easier-said-than-done

So I would urge anyone that is really concerned to join a distro that matches your ideals and instead of criticizing offer help - there are many ways of doing that, learning being one.

If the idea of coding is really off-putting I found reading this pretty interesting and applicable to any open source project:

Q: Are there non-coding ways to help?

Hell, if you're too lazy to do that, just grab one of these babies:

http://www.vectorlinux.com/

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

Seriously
Don't listen to anybody else.

A lot of distro-zealots would rather you have their favourite distro - like adding another fan to their favourite football team.

What matter is that which is best for each individual.
And more often than not - that is not our best-loved Linux distro.

My feeling is that Puppy Linux is the best Linux for your machine and to start of with.

It is a Linux distro very strong on tutorials and low-spec machines.

Cenon - http://www.cenon.info/ --- interesting NeXT CAD/CAM program making the jump to opensource illustration. Runs on OPENSTEP, Linux (w/ GNUstep installed) and Mac OS X

Intaglio - http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/ --- Mac OS X native program able to make use of Apple Advanced Typography / ATSUI and other Mac OS X technologies. Commercial, but demo available.

There's apparently a graphing calculator in Mac OS X w/ does nifty things, and I'm surprised that Mathematica, MATLAB and METAPOST weren't mentioned (not really drawing programs, but if pstricks is gonna be included....)

For people running Windows:

EVE - http://www.goosee.com/goosee/index.shtml - small, free, symbols &c. available for it.

William
(who really wishes Macromedia had gone back to the Altsys Virtuoso code when it was time to move FreeHand to Mac OS X so that FH could've had decent typographic font access &c.)

EVE (http://www.goosee.com/goosee/index.shtml) is a very small (74kB) vector graphics editor. The web edition, which is now free, exports SVG. It is surprisingly powerful, considering the program size.

no problem.
So why not contribute by building these tutorials yourself?

Linspire did it also in Flash.
Puppy Linux did it as HTML files.

Puppy Linux runs in 128 Mb ram as a ramdisk based distro. you can get it as a live 650Mb disk with tons of apps or as the plain 60Mb updatable distro and save files on spare space.
You can even fit it all on a 128 Mb usb drive and have room for files.
http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

Main reason I like Knoppix is it has all you need in one CD. Once it goes over 1 CD, I guess, Ill move to some other small distro which serves my purpose of emergency repair (like puppy http://goosee.com/puppy which is what I use now-a-days)

The post contains a link to an article, which contains a link to the Puppy Linux page on Distrowatch, which then contains a link to the Puppy Linux home page.

So I figured I'd give you a shortcut straight to the home page...

Basically you need a boot loader (grub is fine) and Linux kernel with USB drivers. There are instructions on the Puppy website: My PC can't boot from USB|CD

Here's the "give'em what they want in action:

"I want a car with tail fins!"

http://www.openvms.org/ Vintage design, looks a bit strange, but still classy in its own way.

"No I want a car with a bright pink paint job!"

http://www.linspire.com/ It's a real Linux and seems to do the job, but it may be a bit soft compared to the trad distros. Looks a little like one of those "strange" OSs

"I want a car that flies through the air, and swims underwater!"

http://www.knoppix.com/ Frisbeed it at the cat. Dunked it in the sink. Dropped it into the CD drive and it still booted into Debian. Nice.

"Foo to the others. I just want a basic car that goes from point A to Point B!"

http://www.goosee.com/puppy/ This is one quick little puppy. Not much to it, but it goes like a train.

"Nuts to the above. I want a car with a hot tub, and a wet bar, and plenty of space for all the women I'm going to get by driving this pimpmobile!".

http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en-us/ This sucker's big and fluffy. Has everything and the kitchen sink, and it'll look after you while you install it.

Giving credits to folks at Puppy or DSL? http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/usb.html
Both can be booted from an USB key Puppy comes also in a version for multi session CD, allowing you to write on it while using it as a Live CDhttp://www.goosee.com/puppy/multi-puppy.htm
A few other liveCD do this as well.
More seriously, the new is that what IBM developped doesn't mess with the stuff you already have on your cellphone or MP3 player.

Load USB Puppy Linux from bootable floppy.

How about using a DVD? Note that this is the same link from the story submission:

Why should I use a CD-R, why not a CD-RW or DVD disk?

I do not recommend a CD-RW simply because it isn't necessary. A CD-R is "write-once", but in multi-session mode, tracks can be written one after the other, up to 99 tracks or the CD becomes full.

You could use a DVD-R, however I would discourage you. Puppy has a mechanism for keeping track of deleted files, and this may become unwieldy if a very large number of deleted files have to be kept track of. This mechanism works on a per-CD or per-DVD basis, and is going to be more manageable with the smaller number of files on the CD. Also, it could take years before you fill-up a DVD, and in the meantime, unless you leave it permanently in the drive, there is the increased risk of it being scratched.

Note however, this is tentative advice -- it may turn out in practice that a DVD-R is a good way to go.

With that pasted, it must still be noted that a normal CDR holds only 700MB. A normal DVD holds what, 4500MB? 4400? I'm honestly not sure. Anyway, if you're using this on a broadband connection it would be trivial to fill up that whole 700MB in a single session of downloading even 100% legitimate content; game demos, for example. If you have the DVD, might as well use it. Anyway you can install whatever software you want if you have enough disc space. You could install your own gnu toolchain for example, a DVD would have plenty of space. Then you could build whatever you liked, provided your ramdisk were sufficient.

Why should I use a CD-R, why not a CD-RW or DVD disk?

I do not recommend a CD-RW simply because it isn't necessary. A CD-R is "write-once", but in multi-session mode, tracks can be written one after the other, up to 99 tracks or the CD becomes full. You could use a DVD-R, however I would discourage you. Puppy has a mechanism for keeping track of deleted files, and this may become unwieldy if a very large number of deleted files have to be kept track of. This mechanism works on a per-CD or per-DVD basis, and is going to be more manageable with the smaller number of files on the CD. Also, it could take years before you fill-up a DVD, and in the meantime, unless you leave it permanently in the drive, there is the increased risk of it being scratched. Note however, this is tentative advice -- it may turn out in practice that a DVD-R is a good way to go.

It's very small, yet very usable.

Put a copy of Puppy on a USB flash drive and have it put up the Blue Screen of Death on bootup. Share the key with your friends.

P.S.: Interesting experiment: put a Linux system on a key like this with a Windows-like desktop scheme, boot someone's PC with it when they're not looking, and see if they can tell if there's any difference.

This Puppy does boot from a CD, or a flash drive or your hard drive.

It's also house trained.

Ginux - Glinux - LinuG - LiGux - G-Linux - Gnix - Ginix - Goonix - Lingle - Lingoo -G*nix - Gnugle/Linux and Gurd and GOS and GFOSS and Mangoo and Gonectiva and Goose and Yellow God GOT Goontoo and
Glackware and Glookware and Slackgoo and Slackgle and
Gasp and
Grosa and
Gine and
Grudgeware and
G007! and
Gycoris and
Gaydar and
Galt and
Grid and
Gark and
Ginspire and
Goper and
Gorphix and
Guppy and
Fedora Gore and
Gimpi and
Golinux and
The list goes on and on..

Dashes/ands/bad formating for benefit of lameness filter.
Gnopix is already taken!

I've been doing this with my 128mb USB watch for quite awhile now. There's a few USB jumpdrive linux distros out there.

Here, Here, Here, and Here too.

But this is all provided whatever PC you hook it up to allows to boot from USB (usually USB-ZIP).

Puppy is designed to load itself into RAMdisk and not need to run from the boot media - I don't know for sure if that lets the hard drives or CDROM shut down, but you can probably tweak the Power Management utilities to make that happen. The LiveCD is about 50MB, so it won't take long to download.

No problem, Puppy Linux also allows you to boot off of a floppy, then run everything from the USB flash drive.

Puppy linux might be what you're looking for (the flash version).. then again maybe it isn't. Your mileage may vary - good luck

Beware... some motherboards that say they can boot from USB can not. I've two boards here that say they support it, but only one works properly. http://www.goosee.com/puppy/flash-puppy.htm has a tutorial using a USB CF reader.

Flonix and Puppy. These are both small, and capable of being run off of more than a cd, but they do have bootable isos. They both have flash drive versions, which I have taken looks at while designing my USB pen drive distribution RUNT.

When I'm doing something people don't understand they don't question whether or not I'm doing my job, because it is my job to do all the things people don't understand.

Off the top of me head, I know of Knoppix, Morphix, Damn Small Linux, and Puppy Linux.
There are a few others, but I don't remember them off the top of my head.

Puppy Linux

If you're interested in trying to get Linux running off a USB flash device, have a look at Puppy Linux.

I'm still not convinced that their move from WindowLab to FVWM95 as the default window manager was that clever though. Have they not seen the size of that thing?