Puppy Linux. It just plain works. Less of a review and more of a user report .

I have been using Puppy Linux since about it's 2.X releases. The current "stable for me" version is Lucid Puppy AkA Wary Puppy AkA Puppy 5.

http://www.puppylinux.com/

Simplest explanation is that you download the ISO, burn to CD or DVD, or a Bootable USB drive and it loads into RAM. Which makes it really fast. It can be a daily tool for making life easy.

Running in the RAMdisk mode makes your session a scratch paper type of event.

Reboot, not saving session- and it's like a fresh install due to it being literally that. It's that easy. If you save sessions, you may be able to pick up just where you left off.

If it's a shared computer like a family or dorm or lunchroom etc, using Puppy from a CD on a Non-Burner drive makes data hygiene a much simpler matter. Running a Linux Distro in RAM on a machine with no persistent storage is not just for professional needs. Reboot- answer a few queries- and it's a functioning computer with net access. The user experience becomes a lot less stressed. No " I broke it" worries, at least for the software that is. No Worries is my two word review of Puppy Linux. Like anything new, there's a "Learning Curve" or an "Unlearning Curve might be more accurate. Unlearning the expectations of reboots etc being a several times a shift event was neat.

Puppy is our friend.

Saving some things may warrant the effort of plugging an USB drive in to save work done or bookmarks etc. Or- Export the bookmarks to My Documents, open up whatever mail tool you choose- email the bookmarks and all in one en passant sequence- it's done. Next session- D/L the bookmarks- import and enjoy.

No hassles for all practical uses in "my life" sums it up. I even found a PET package for Google Voice. Cups found my older HP printer- and it just- worked. Puppy mounted my collection of weird legacy media like Dane-Elec flash drives plus laptop drives plugged into USB readers. And stacked microsd in an adaptor kludge soon to be posted in Orenism. Puppy just mounted the media- copy dialog a bit less than simple drag&drop till I figured out the quirks. then it was fast and easy. I so far have been able to avoid booting in MS for several days at a time with this version of Puppy.

The summary- Puppy Linux may be a MS Windows replacement for many users.