Damn Small Linux is a very versatile 50MB mini desktop oriented Linux distribution. Damn Small is small enough and smart enough to do the following things:

Boot from a business card CD as a live linux distribution (LiveCD) Boot from a USB pen drive Boot from within a host operating system (thats right, it can run inside Windows) Run very nicely from an IDE Compact Flash drive via a method we call "frugal install" Transform into a Debian OS with a traditional hard drive install Run light enough to power a 486DX with 16MB of Ram Run fully in RAM with as little as 128MB (you will be amazed at how fast your computer can be!) Modularly grow -- DSL is highly extendable without the need to customize

DSL was originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD. But over time, Damn Small Linux grew into a community project with hundreds of development hours put into refinements including a fully automated remote and local application installation system and a very versatile backup and restore system which may be used with any writable media including a hard drive, a floppy drive, or a USB device.