SAM

SAM is another Mandrake based live distribution, but they've managed to squeeze quite a bit into only 200 MB. This means it will fit on one of those little mini CDs. You can pull one of those out at a party - boot somebody's machine with it and amaze all your friends. Unlike the other distributions that we've seen here, this one uses the XFCE window manager. It's a minimalist but quite user-friendly desktop that looks a bit like KDE.

Good Points	Weak Points
Network setup easy Comes with the Firefox (Flash supported) The latest GIMP image program (2.2 pre) Comes with Skype, the popular voice over IP app	attractive but somewhat confusing login screen no secure shell (SSH, SCP and SFTP missing) - though there is a substitute for ssh couldn't set up printing

SAM has one major issue and a half, I guess you could say. I couldn't print with it, which was one of the major evaluation criteria. The half issue is that though I got my network connection set up easily, I couldn't transfer files easily back to my file server. scp (secure copy) isn't on this distribution, so, for example, I had to mail the screenshot you see back to myself. If I were to do any work, that would have to be the way of transferring files - that is, if you don't have an FTP server, which many people don't, including myself, for security reasons. But, as the screenshot proves, you're not totally without options.

SAM comes with some interesting programs, like Skype, as I mentioned before. There's also an RSS feed reader called Liferea, if you're into blogs. If you give SAM as spin, remember that by default, it boots up in German. If you're not a German speaker, you'll have to choose a different language at boot time.

SAM, like Slax, looks like another promising project. What's even better is that so much good stuff fits into such a small package.

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