Hi,
I have a mini-ITX based system with a 256Mb Flash Drive and 256Mb of RAM. I aim to use it for the following applications:
Samba Server
Cups
Rsync
Basic Web Server
File based Wiki (perhaps Dokuwiki)
Package Management (to easily add other software as required)
I don't need any X based software or Desktop.

I was hoping to create a Debian Live distribution and run the whole operating system either from a Read Only file system or from RAM.
However (after connecting a standard HDD) and installing basic Debian along with the packages I require (and their dependencies) the filesystem is already over 1Gb in size.

Is there any way this can be reduced drastically in size? Is Debian Live the best way of achieving what I want? Something like Puppy Linux is much smaller in size but I don't want something with such an emphasis on having a Desktop environment which I don't need.

thanks for any advice
Gordon

I'm not sure I'm answering your question right. If I understand, there's two parts. One part is that you want info on Debian Live. The other part of your question, as I understand it, is how to make an especially small system. That part I think is best answered by someone else. Regarding Debian Live, you can find out a lot of stuff google-ing, but here's a good link or two:

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/Examples
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/Howto/USB

The thing about Debian Live is that you make the bootable disk or usb card on another computer, then after you've made the whole thing do you go and install it in its new home.