One of the original targets of Linux was the under-powered computer gathering dust in the closet destined for electronic disposal. While that sounds like a noble goal, it isn't reality for the majority of today's Linux distributions. Xubuntu says it's for the limited resource computer, but even it has a minimum memory requirement of 256 MB.

The Puppy Linux project has released a 4.3.1 bugfix upgrade for last month's major 4.3 release of the popular, lightweight GNU/Linux distro. Puppy Linux 4.3, which has been rebuilt with a new "Woof" build system and PPM package manager, has received a number of positive reviews.

We reviewed the June 2009 release v.4.2 of Puppy Linux, which comes in a 110 MB file download from their website, or from accepted mirrors. The iso file is then burnt to CD and runs as a Live CD.

It is every computer owner's worst nightmare. You switch on your PC and Windows stubbornly refuses to start. Inevitably it happens on the day that you have complete and send off a vitally important job, and there's no one on hand to fix it, so what do you do?