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The first release of the lightweight Linux distro, antiX (pronounced "Antiques"), was in 2007. It was spun off of MEPIS. With the exception of 1 controversial release, the antiX ISO has always been able to fit on a CD.
The last release of MEPIS was in July 2013. Distrowatch calls MEPIS "Dormant". The antiX developers have picked up the torch and built a DVD-sized distro they call MX.
Softpedia reports:
The final release of antiX MX-15 [codename "Fusion"] comes after two Beta and two RC (Release Candidate) builds, during which the distribution's maintainers implemented numerous new features, updated some of the most important core components and applications, and fixed many of the bugs reported by users since the previous stable release of the OS.
antiX MX-15 is based on the latest and most advanced Debian GNU/Linux 8.2 (Jessie) operating system, which means that it inherits many of its features, including the Linux kernel 4.2 packages. The OS is currently built around the lightweight Xfce 4.12 desktop environment.
[...] Prominent features of antiX MX-15 include the automatic enabling of the Broadcom b43 and b44 drivers, support for installing the operating system on UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) machines, numerous improvements to the Advanced LiveUSB tool, as well as several under-the-hood changes.
antiX MX-15 comes with some of the best open source applications, such as Mozilla Firefox 43.0, Mozilla Thunderbird 38.4, LibreOffice 4.3.3.2, VLC Media Player 2.2.1, and Clementine 1.2.3. Additionally, the distribution improves the Settings Manager and lets users install numerous apps using one-click extras with MX Package Installer.
The antiX MX original applications are also included, and among them are Apt Notifier, Boot Repair, Broadcom Manager, Check Apt GPG, Codecs Installer, Find Shares, Flash Manager, Package Installer, Switch User, Persistence/Remaster, User Manager, Create Live USB, and Sound Card.
The News section of antix.mepis.org notes:
Just like MX-14, this release defaults to sysVinit
[...] Both [the 32- and 64-bit] ISO files weigh in at around 1GB in size.
[...] Download page (for torrents, mirror choices, and pre-loaded media purchase): http://www.mepiscommunity.org/download-links
Project home page: http://www.mxlinux.org
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 28 2015, @03:10PM
build my own personalized distro, with exactly the bloat that I want - no more, and no less
In practice you've described how Puppet is used at work and home.
Install a dead simple plain no add ons "it just boots" Debian (now freebsd, but whatever) then bootstrap up puppet (a couple lines, a few minutes if that) and puppet does its magic and suddenly I've got emacs and R and sshd and libpam kerberos and ldap and xmonad (now awesome) and whatever else exactly the way I want them.
All the puppet does is class and individual hostname related package installs (using apt-get or pkgng) and stick network wide config files in certain locations. Puppet churns away in an automated manner for a couple minutes, maybe reboot the new box/image to make sure its not messed up, all done.
You don't technically "need" puppet as you're only running a script once. I'm moving away from puppet because its a PITA to set up and toward scripts in a sort of test driven development as applied to virtual machines. So provision a new image and configure it with this script and run this suite of automated tests against the new image and call it good (or bad) then keep refining the script and accepting (or not) new software versions. I don't admin the images directly by logging into them, other than for troubleshooting or fooling around. Writing tests for test driven development style systems administration is actually a PITA and I end up using a lot of "expect" which many people weirdly hate. Its kinda like docker without the accompanying "ask toolbar" level of social component / culture.