10 Best Minimal / Low-Footprint Linux distros

“With the emergence of netbooks there is an increasing demand
for lightweight and faster OS with minimal/low-footprint. Google
promises Chrome OS for netbook to be a fastest and lighweight. But,
as Bill Gates suggested it’s just another Linux.

“One of the important aspects for any desktop operating system
performance is the amount of system memory available. Even with a
fast processor it’s important to have enough physical memory to
keep that processor utilized, else the system will spend all its
time shuffling data between physical memory and swap space. This
will force the CPU to remain idle most of the time. This is the
case especially with the older systems. There are a number of ways
to deal with the memory footprint in older systems. The most common
idea being adding extra RAM. However, there can be a several
reasons for not doing so – ranging from affordability of RAM to
lack of free slots. This minimal footprint Linux distros could be a
viable option to work on such machines. Moreover, its widely
accepted that Linux performs better on less than cutting-edge
hardware. These old systems are also incapable of ruining the
latest and greatest software. We listed the 10 best
minimal/low-footprint Linux distros.”

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