Hey sorry i know this is asked alot but here's the system specs:
AMD Duron 1.33Ghz Processor,
512mb PC2100 RAM,
DVD drive
350w PSU.
No Harddrive as of yet

This comp will be used by my mom mainly for internet, word processing, and email by my mom. I want something that will load up fast and be very responsive even on this slow of a system. I want to be able to easily customize it before I burn it, so I can include my favorite programs, and take out what I dont want. I want something that can boot up with little (or preferably no) user input. Lastly, I want something that can automatically save all my settings to my 64mb USB Thumbdrive when I shut down.

Im willing to do customizing and stuff, as long as you can give me directions.

Thanks
Sean

I'm a bit confused by your post.
512 MB RAM and a 1.3 GHz processor is not that "slow of a system." In fact, that's quite respectable. Just about any distro (even with a KDE desktop) will run well on that.

If you want something that can save settings to a thumb drive, consider using Knoppix or possibly even running the complete distro from your drive itself (Damn Small Linux or Puppy Linux).

You can't customize the distro installer CD unless you know how to modify source code and create your own distro.

You can, however, pick a build-from-scratch distro (Slackware, Gentoo, Linux from Scratch, Debian) and build it from scratch. That way you can pick what apps you want or don't want.

What I would do is pick a fairly robust distro from your mom's computer (say, Mepis or Ubuntu), then pick a small distro (Damn Small Linux) for your thumb drive.

Sounds like you want something like SLAX...
http://slax.linux-live.org/

It is modular and you can add and remove applications by adding .img files to the .iso... It's small boot's quickly and you can save the configurations to a USB drive...

KC

hehe oh yah ive been back in the windows community too long.

I forgot that in linux terms, 1.3ghz is pretty nice

hmm yes but i dont have a harddrive right now so i need a live cd for the next couple months

EDIT: oh just read kencaz's post. Yah I tried slax and was reasonably happy with it except for the command prompt login thing in the begining, and i want something that goes straight through all that automatically. Also is there a way to automate the backing up to make it easier?

I know what you mean... The boot process can be quit cryptic... Saveing to the USB can be done through the GUI, howver, when you boot you will still have to mount the USB drive and tell SLAX where the file is...

I imagine there is an automated process for that, (like a Kiosk type of version) but being a live CD I think your going to have to live with that...

KC

Use knoppix or Mepis .. they are pretty good as live CD's .. and Mepis is better behaved on hd installs.
Everything else is pretty much a drag ... Suse is nice but crippled (may be you'll like 9.2).

yah i tried a custom slax mix using a program called myslax creator and it was alot better. I now have a DVD burner so a live-dvd is also an option now. But the only one i could find was Suse.

Sean

Check out this LiveCD list. Lot's to chose from.

PCLinuxOS is a GREAT LiveCD. It has everything you need, even an app to save your settings to a USB drive.