Distros[-][- -][++]

Like-ability: 8
Efficiency: 6
Speed: 9
Look: 6

currently on qlap (P4 2.66Ghz 512mb)
Init install was 1.8g to /
Does not use grub, uses lilo or nothing, I chose nothing, which blew my MBR for some reason, had to grub it back.
Used mem on startup is like 105MB
Very fast, very nice

What I like, it's all about providing 1 application to do the job, not fifty like most distros, and the ones it does include are the best and very very nice. Everything is very streamlined. Good for a beginner transitioning from windows. Very nice XFCE graphic setup, sexy. Has some nice apps I haven't seen before, but will now use (thanks).Has it's own control panel called Zendpanel wich things like Netpkg (it's package manager), kernel modules, startup services video config, proxy, user profiles. Very nice.

Like-ability: 10
Efficiency: 9 (its ubuntu)
Speed: 9
Look: 10

1. Installer: 697mb CD, default 32 or amd64
2. Gnome version installed at 2.4G
3. Default is GNOME, but there are perfect community editions for LXDE, Fluxbox, KDE, Xfce
4. Has ext4 option in installer
5. Very VERY fast bootup and shutdown!
6. Flash and MP3 Installed by default
7. Custom gnome menu (incredible, right-click uninstall, favorites, start on login, wow!!)
8. Custom Web .mint Installers
9. Custom mintInstall package manager GUI (awesome screenshots, descriptions, categories, and featured apps!!)
10. Custom mintBackup
11. Custom mintNanny
12. Custom mintUpdate
13. Custom mintDesktop (edit desktop icons, turn on compositing)
14. Comes with compiz
15. Gufw firewall GUI for ufw firewall
16. Randome saying or forture everytime you open the terminal
17. APTonCD (created a mint installer from the apt packages you've installed on your system)
18. Has a Windows Wireless Drivers GUI (probably fwcutter stuff)
19. Gnome-do
20. Gnome menu has delete, and archive, and command line here, open as root, md5sum ... (and a app to configure them)!

I think it has a very nice set of packages by default!

Could never get mint 6 and below to work, but mint 7 and 8 seem to work.

Mint 7 looks much better (graphcs) than mint 8

It's a 32bit version of ubuntu, with extra custom applications and nice custom gnome menu. Very sexy graphics work on gnome. Very nice live CD and graphical installer. Mint 7 Gloria is Ubuntu Jaunty, and Mint 8 Helena is Ubuntu Karmic.

Has a nice website software ports, to easily find and install apps, much like PC-BSD pbi installers. Downloads are a .mint file that download and install easily.

If you want ubuntu, but with much better graphics and nice customizations, mint is it.

2.1.1 Gnome Lite installer 652MB CD

1. Uses the nice anaconda graphical installers (like fedora)
2. It's own version of linux, not a spin off, they even created their own package manager; conary
3. NOT have ext4 option in installer
4. Super fast installer (uses in image I think) about 5 minutes
5. Boot up normal, 35-40 seconds, not too fast
6. Gnome Lite was only 2.0G installed
7. Very basic gnome, no special icons, default panel layout and images, a green theme thats about it
8. Only graphics changes are bootslash, and green gnome theme, nothing else, not even gdm or icon changes
9. No custom applications (except native foresight help docs)
10. I know conary is awesome, I found you can run multiples simultaneously!

I have 11.0 and 11.2 installed and tested

The best full featured linux OS you will see, they have made tons of custom tools. Yast is huge, it has graphical configuration for everything. It comes pre-installed with everything you would see in something huge like windows. It has firewalls, ldap, windows domain stuff, windows printing helpers, everything.

The graphics are absolutely beautiful. From grub to splash to gdm to desktop, very nice. They also take it to the next level and customize some normal applications, like open office has an open suse branded graphical splash, wow.

1. Very bloated, but still quite fast, I have 11.0 and 11.2 installed
2. Own custom menu, but limited, does not show all apps, just a quick starter, you can click all apps, but it opens a new windows of apps and takes a few seconds to open
3. Incredible graphic installer, best for regular windows type users, very nice!
4. 11.0 boots normal, seems 30-40 seconds or so

http://alpinelinux.org/wiki/About
A super tiny, in RAM router/firewall distro, haven't tried it yet, but after reading their wiki I want to try it.

1. Other Router distros to try
   1. Alpine
   2. http://www.untangle.com looks absolutely amazing, but is subscription based, and it appears the gui to access the router is windows based? Maybe they have a web app too. But I like free, so...

I just installed alpine. Its a quick install. Total install is 146mb to /, 13.3mb to /boot and uses about 14 mb of ram. Nice and small.

An arch linux spin off. Very nice, live CD installer, tons of graphical app work, KDE4 by default but others are available through community editions. Very nice, its Arch!