Just have to say that I am impressed with Puppy Linux. I am visiting my parents for the week and there computer is pretty old. Running a PIII Coppermine Processor that came out in '99 and has only 320MB of ram. They had been running windows xp and their computer had been running real slow for a long time. They mostly just use their laptop now and they plan to buy a new computer after thanksgiving anyways. My mom said she use the computer mostly for internet, email and photos. I told her I could put a linux system on the the computer that was designed for older slower computers and she was really confused so I burned a puppy linux live cd and booted it up and connected it to the broadband internet and she was amazed on how fast it was. The web browser opened up immediatly without waiting for ever. I think there going to let me fully install it on that computer. Once I set it all up it will work for what they need and when they get a new computer they can still use the old one also.

I recently tried MacPuppy (It has the Mac theme by default), I was very impressed by its speed. Not only that, it's nice to look at too. Everything worked, the broadband connection was a doddle to get working, and as you have pointed out the apps open up really quickly. A very good distro for older machines, I highly recommend it.

I've noticed here and elsewhere people recommending Puppy for older hardware. This is fine and it does work well on the old stuff but recent versions of Puppy do have a modern kernel - 2.6. They do have a retro 4.1 version for older hardware. And for very old stuff release 2 and 3 can still be found.
I'm currently playing with a beta version with the 2.6.27 kernel.

BoxPup with the openbox window manager is another very nice derivative. One of the nicest default desktops I have ever seen. My wife runs this on a newer dual core and it is smokin fast. She is a little impatient and short tempered so ... thankyou Boxpup!

Some puplets require modern hardware
for example Tipsy pup or Ultra Pup which use compiz fusion
http://puppylinux.org/downloads/puplets

Some puplets such as 4.2 SMP are designed for dual processors

As we move into the kennel series
http://www.puppylinux.org/wiki/devel...puppy-5-kennel
and we make use of larger programs and offer more compatibility (woofability) with major distros, modern hardware will become more useful. The support for older hardware will always be available

I've always used puppy on older hardware, & I'm a bit cautious about the trend to update it with newer hardware specs.

it traditionally was for old hardware, small memory etc. etc.

this is also pushing up the ISO size, as well.

If you like older Puppies, Qemu-Puppy is 2.17 and runs off USB and plays Qemu from usb too.

( http://sourceforge.net/projects/qemupuppy )

and check out this post-it's good stuff!
( http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/qemupuppy/index.html )

That is great to hear. I tried to introduce some one to Linux, who is involved in IT, but their M$ blinkers would not let them see the benefits.
They do not want to get out of their comfort zone.
kato40