This is one of the few distros that will run in 128MB, although you will need a swap partition present to install in less than 256 since the installer runs from the live session. A Pentium II is recommended.

The software provided includes Iceweasel (aka Firefox), Sylpheed mail, Mtpaint, LibreOffice, Gnome-mplayer, Conkey, Synaptic, and Software Centre. After that, you have all the resources of Debian Testing available. Codecs and flash are also installed. All works perfectly. Icewm provides a pleasant interface. Naturally it requires file editing to configure, but everything is in ~/.icewm and the Ice website has an excellent manual.

As with other Debian derivatives, my USB speakers wouldn't work until I finally found I needed to comment out the last line of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf.

One problem is the use of the LMDE installer, which does not provide for encryption, which really ought to be done on a laptop. This is probably less of a risk in this case, as the sort of computer likely to receive Swift is less likely attract thieves!

Swift invites comparison with AntiX, Bodhi (prettier, but less configurable), and Tiny Core (less friendly). Unlike AntiX and Bodhi, it actually manages to use Firefox and LibreOffice rather than Midori and Abiword.