[Rule] Care to discuss favorite lightweight apps?

[ml at distasis.com]

Noticed the mailing list seemed pretty quiet.  However, was hoping to run
across other users who have older systems they're not quite ready to give
up on and compare notes on keeping them running and what applications they
like.

I have a Sony laptop 500 MHz pentium with 64 MB RAM and sneakernet (no
direct Internet connection for it).  Had been hoping to run a more modern
operating system on it (similar to the RULE philosophy).  Didn't realize
how hard it would be to find just the right distribution or how hard it is
to keep a system set up.  So far, I've tried DeLi Linux, Absolute (which
no longer has install disks that work on 64 MB machines) and Vector Linux
Light.  They all worked okay on my machine, but just didn't seem to be
what I was looking for.  Also, I usually ended up having to compile most
of the applications I wanted from source each time.  I did notice, if I
use light-weight applications, performance on the machine is what I would
consider perfectly acceptable, although not as good as when I had an older
operating system on it.

Am getting a growing list of applications I like that run well on
lightweight machines.  As a programmer, I don't mind patching a few
programs that are no longer supported, just to try them out and get them
running again.  Would love to hear from others on what lightweight
applications they find useful and to compare notes on the subject.  It
would be nice if there was some way to share work on getting lightweight
applications running for older systems.  Look forward to hearing from some
other people in similar situations.

Thanks.