Let's face it, Linux and hardware are like the strike of lightning:, or sex:
If it's right - it happens.
If its wrong; there's a lot of huffing and puffing, tears that fall like rain and a lot of concern. but most of the time its fatal.

When I saw the first SunMicrosystems Adverts for OpenSolaris (just prior to the full Oracle takeover) installed on a Toshiba Netbook N205. I was gassed! As a gateway sales tool for Sun, I knew no hardware would be left behind. And the NB205 fit my recently nomadic lifestyle.

Bought a NB205 from a local discount vendor and installed the genetically modified bastard child of Berkeley, ATT/MIT and a gnu, in the rear-end partition !

But all good things have the characteristic of turning to fertilizer, and in that vein, Oracle had its way with Sun. OpenSolaris is no longer, it seems.

SO! If YOU had 60GB on an Atom driven platform, which distribution would you use?
I've spawned two desktops, both with Slackware (3.0 and later 13.37), but its time to stretch my wings..

And at my age, life should be easy...
Sunw believers should pipe in here, lest I be missing something.

I'd have to know what the use of this distro was for.

"What for?"
What for the average Linux user?

Its a Toshiba NB205 with an Atom processor...
The keyboard is a bit smallish for extended exercises...

Not going to do a lot, just looking for the alternatives to Win7.
Judging by Win 8, it seems Microsoft is going to become a cloud supplier, in the classic razorblades business model. But I really think that's what all the major contenders are trying to achieve; "...from search to software", since that enables and enhances the marketing channel opportunity.

To a high degree I believe its clear that the majority of tech users, particularly in the mobile market segment, aren't interested in a programming platform, running spreadsheets, OpenOffice Impress presentations.... They just stop, watch, listen, post and giggle.

Then there are the rest of us transistor-heads.
So browsing, documents, lite coding efforts. I have eclipse installed on the MS side, and it seems the screen's a bit smallish for extensive work in that context also.

It boils down to the pair of polar issues I have: I'd rather own than rent (Perhaps divergent from the so stated "tea leaves" vision of the future market.); I hate screwing around, fighting hardware wars. The first points one toward Linux, the second repels.

And it seems to me that once one achieves a functional installation (Secular hardware that speaks to the world.), the other remaining issues are much easier to deal with.

In this case the platform is only material since its my question. And it travels well.
But the quandary is universal, just peaked in the laptop segment because of all the weird stuff manufacturers do to the hardware environment. Less a problem with DT Boxes.

So editorially we seek experiences on the specific platform/hardware mix, so that the merits may be debated.

The paradox: By resolution, the hardware has aged and needs replacement, starting the task anew.

But still we forge ahead, undaunted: YOUR THOUGHTS ?