I eventually plan on using "Linux from Scratch" system I'm about to start building, but until then I need a "host system" in which start the building. Could anyone recommend a distro that meets the following requirements:

1) Kernal is 2.6.2 or later version
2) Kernel compiled with GCC-3.0 or a later version
3) Easy to install on the hard drive
4) Doesn't take up much hard drive space with extras like games or word proccessors
5) Includes GUI with file explorer
6) Includes some kind of HTML viewer (Mozilla, Firefox, etc)
7) Free to download (not counting Bittorrent)

I'm considering Knoppix, but I'm not sure if it matches all the requirements, the first two are especially hard to confirm. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You could do an installation of Slackware, only picking the groups you need, or (I think) an easier way to go with slack would be Vector Linux (Based on Slack) Here is a link to the "features page" on their website. [here]

Or with Debian - use one of the businesscard iso's to install a base system, then apt-get dist-upgrade to Unstable, and runEasy !

Cheers, mj

Thanks for the suggestions. Vector Linux seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, so I'll give that a try.

This has probably saved me weeks of experimenting and a whole lot of blank CD's.

What do you mean by "not counting Bittorrent"?

Bittorrent has become a de facto standard method of publishing Linux .iso image files. It is not only legal, it is the PREFERED method of downloading, especially from the non-commercial distributions where there isn't so much money to support high bandwidth FTP servers.

It's true that peer-2-peer software has gotten a bad rep for being used to pirate copyrighted works ranging from music to warez to movies. It's also true that even bittorrent is used for those illegitimate purposes. However, bittorrent was originally designed for the legitimate purpose of allowing those with limited budgets to be able to publish large software files in a secure way, which would otherwise require expensive high bandwidth HTTP/FTP servers.

The requirements and budget limitations involved in publishing Linux .iso's perfectly match the design goals and features of bittorrent. Why not take advantage of it?

Simply put, because I don't know how, and I'll save learning how for after I've managed to complete LFS.

I've encountered linux distro's that were supposedly free to download, unless you wanted something other than Bittorrent, in which case it then became cheaper to just buy the CD's directly. So I clarified what I was looking for.

Gentoo is pretty lean. You install just the kernel and a few system utilities.

After that it's your choice. You can do whatever you like with it after booting into it

I'd also say Gentoo as you can pick and choose what you want to install and what you don't. Can't get much leaner than that.