Best And Lightest Linux Distros

Best thing about Linux is that you can get a Linux distro of almost every size, type, desktop etc. For instance there is a Linux that looks just like Mac OS called Pear OS(It's Funny! almost exact replica). If you are a guy who knows a little bit about packages in Linux and stuff like that than you can even create your own Linux distro using a web app called Reconstructor or by using a customization kit called Ubuntu Customization Kit (UCK) from Ubuntu's app store.

P.S. Have a look at this post on How-To-Geek to know more about UCK

But if you are not a hard core Geek and cannot create your own distor and just want something that boots up fast and you don't want something like Chrome OS that this are the smallest and best Linux distros that will give your old computer a new life:

3. Peppermint OS (Size : 440 MB)

Desktop: Openbox

Peppermint OS is a Lubuntu-based Linux distribution that aims to be lightning fast and easy on system resources. By employing Mozilla's Prism technology Peppermint integrates seamlessly with Cloud and web-based applications. The distribution's other features include automatic updates, easy step-by-step installation, sleek and user-friendly interface, and increased mobility by 

integrating directly with Cloud-based applications.

2. Macup (Size : 164 MB)

Desktop: Enlightenment, JWM 

 Macpup is a small,light OS. The .Iso is only 164 MB.It runs in ram and is very fast. It is not a striped down,bare bones,basic core OS. Macpup is a full featured systemright out of the box with apps for office,graphics,multimedia,internetand much more.And it looks really cool.

Macpup 528 is the latest and is based on Puppy Linux 5.2.8 ,"Lucid Puppy", An official woofbuild of puppy Linux that is binary-compatible with Ubuntu Lucid Lynxpackages.MP528 contains all the apps from Lucid puppy with the addition ofFirefox 7.01 beta. Extra apps like Opera or Gimp are available for easydownload from the Quickpet App on the ibar or the Puppy Package Manager.MP525 also includes the Enlightenment E17 window manager. The EFL librariesversion 1.0.999 and E17 version 62861 where compiled and installed from source.

1. Puppy Linux (Size : 140 MB)

Desktop : JWM, Openbox

Puppy Linux is yet another Linux distribution. What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full-featured. Puppy boots into a ramdisk and, unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, it loads into RAM. This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk, floppy disks, internal hard drive. It can even use a multisession formatted CD-RW/DVD-RW to save everything back to the CD/DVD with no hard drive required at all.

[Distrowatch]