wattOS... the last frontier, the lightweight Ubuntu-based operating system is now here! Faster than anything else out there, wattOS is not just another Ubuntu clone, it is powered by the Openbox window manager, a standards compliant, fast, lightweight and extensible window manager.

WattOS Beta 3 is a lightweight Linux Distro geared towards running on less energy and for recycled or low power computers without compromising on features or performance that you’d expect from a full power system. Their motto “Light, Fast, Now” seeks to provide a low-energy full featured Linux distro.

In the sea of today’s market it’s easy to find whale sized operating systems that run poorly on slim hardware but my interest is with the minnows. One lightweight Linux distribution in particular that I tried recently is called...

Bodhi Linux is a lightweight Linux distribution based on the LTS releases of Ubuntu. It makes use of the Enlightenment window manager and includes several unique features you won’t find on any other distro. I switched over to the recent release of Bodhi Linux 1.4.0 for two weeks and grew to love this little lightweight.

With Ubuntu 14.04 closing in to the release date, which is set for April 17th, I took Lubuntu for a spin from the daily live ISO image. Lubuntu is the most lightweight distribution in the Ubuntu family (the other one being Xubuntu which uses Xfce), using LXDE (Lightweight X Desktop Environment), as well as a set of applications intended to be low on resources.

Arch Linux is a lightweight, flexible and simple Linux Distribution which is targeted at competent GNU/Linux users. Its Development focuses on a balance of minimalism, elegance, code correctness and modernity. It provides a minimal environment upon installation, (no GUI), already compiled and optimized for i686/x86-64 architectures.

Does using a lightweight Linux desktop always mean trading lower resource usage for usability and features? Juliet Kemp reviews LXDE, one of the newest lightweight Linux desktops."

Gnome, KDE and XFCE users will have no problem changing the wallpaper on their desktop. However, if you are using a lightweight desktop manager such Openbox or Fluxbox, you will find that there is no way that you can set the wallpaper for your desktop. In this case, Nitrogen will come in handy.

OpenOffice.org is the darling of the FOSS office suites, and it is a nice suite. It's cross-platform, and OpenOffice.org Writer is a first-rate word processor with a lot of advanced features. But it's not the only good option for Linux users: Abiword and KWord are excellent lightweight word processors with good feature sets, and both are licensed under the GPL. All three are wonderful. In this two-part series we're going to dig into KWord 1.6, and mine some of its hidden jewels.