Specific distro requirements
 

I'm in need of a distro that can be booted off a CD, that can save modifications to a USB thumbdrive and on which I can easily install the software I like (in other words, with apt).
Puppy does points 1 and 2, but doesn't have apt, and if a .pup package for what you want isn't available you're boned.

It is important that the distro boots from the CD and saves to thumbdrive; in my specific case, neither saving by burning on the CD Puppy-style nor booting off USB are useful.

Thanks :)

Debian Live
or, more specifically a customized version of Debian Live!

you can get regular deb-live here
http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/

I made my newest(unfinished) creation 503box, aka "Lenny&3/4"
off of remastersys-lxde version
http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/rll.html

the result is here and download
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...51#post3726251

debian live defaults to a persistent file or partition named "live-rw"
http://live.debian.net/manual/html/persistence.html

so, all you gotta do is edit the isolinux.cfg in your iso/cd
or manually enter "persistent" at boot prompt