Well, we've done it again. We've squandered away another perfectly good hour week... wait, no. That's something else. But if you haven't squandered away your week on Download Squad, here are some of the stories you may have missed.

• Wanna write for Download Squad?
  If you haven't heard, we're hiring. If you've always wanted to try add "professional blogger" to your business cards, now's your chance. Be the envy of your friends. Your very, very geeky friends. Click the link to find out how to apply.
• Flipping the Linux Switch: Cairo-Dock is pain free eye candy
  Want to run Ubuntu, but like the look of OS X? Cairo-Dock is an OS X-like dock for Linux.
• Microsoft: Think twice about IE7 before upgrading to XP SP3
  We're going to go out on a limb and assume this doesn't affect a lot of people. But if you want to upgrade to Windows XP SP3 and use Internet Explorer 6 (because you're only cutting edge when it comes to operating systems, not web browsers), here's a tip: You will not be able to downgrade from IE7 to IE6 unless you install IE7 after SP3.
• Filemail: Email files up to 2GB
  We're always on the lookout for new ways to get around the 10-20MB file attachment limit imposed by most free email service providers. Filemail is a new service that lets you upload files up to 2GB to share via email. You can also adjust a variety of settings, or pay for a premium account if you need to upload even larger files.
• OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta now available
  The next major OpenOffice.org release isn't due out until this fall. But you can download a public beta of OpenOffice.org 3.0 today. The new version includes a handful of new features, a bunch of bug fixes, and a native OS X client.
• Hahlo 3.0: Twitter freak's new best friend
  Hahlo 3.0 might just be the best Twitter client we've seen for the iPhone. It's fast. It's pretty. And it supports practically every Twitter feature you could want in a mobile client.
• Puppy Linux 3.0 released: Linux for your flash drive
  Puppy Linux has long been one of the most popular "portable" Linux distributions. You can install Puppy to a flash drive and carry it with you to use on practically any computer that can boot from a USB device. The latest version includes a new theme, better hardware support, and some shiny new applications.

Puppy Linux is one of the most popular thumb drive Linux distributions. What that means is the entire operating system weighs in at less than 100MB, and can be run on any computer just by plugging in a USB flash drive. But unlike some thumb drive distros, Puppy Linux provides such a robust desktop experience that you could seriously make a case for running Puppy as your primary operating system, at least on older machines with slow processors and small hard drives.

Puppy Linux 4.0 Dingo is the latest version of Puppy, and it packs all the usual goodies like the SeaMonkey internet suite (which is a Mozilla product with a Firefox-like web browser), AbiWord word processor, and Gnumeric spreadsheet application. But there are also a bunch of improvements over Puppy 3, including:

• Support for scanners and digital cameras
• Audio recording, editing, and conversion software
• New GTK2 applications including ePDFView, Pschedule, Pcdripper, Pburn, and Pnethood
• Automatic selection of native screen resolutions for LCD monitors
• A new theme and background

Puppy 4.0 uses the same 2.6.21.7 kernel as Puppy 3, which was released 6 months ago. But there's an optional version of Puppy 4.0 that uses the 2.6.25 kernel for bleeding edge types. Some Puppy features have been reported not to work as well with the newer kernel.

[via eeextra]

Last week we took a look at Puppy Linux, a small Linux distro optimized for installation on a flash drive. There are (many) others, of course. One of the most well known, Damn Small Linux, has been around for quite some time. Over the years, the developers of Damn Small Linux (DSL), have masterfully kept that little distribution under 50 MB. This means several things: it is lightweight, and can run on many machines nothing else can run on. It also means it has bypassed some of the programs you might want on your "desktop on a stick."

Enter Damn Small Linux - Not. (Yes, Damn Small Linux Not is most definitely not Damn Small Linux.) DSL-N is a bigger, more modern variant of DSL, but with a similar philosophy: DSL-N hates bloat.

This is a double-edged sword for DSL-N. On the one hand, it's a bigger, more functional distribution. You're more likely to use it on a regular basis. On the other hand, it's still fairly limited in areas one would expect more support.

Puppy Linux 3.0 was released this week, and like earlier versions of Puppy Linux, it's a tiny distro, weighing in at under 100MB. But it's packed with features, making it an excellent distribution for older computers with small hard drives and slow processors. You can also run Puppy Linux from a LiveCD or throw it on a flash drive and run it from any computer that will boot from a USB drive.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that OpenOffice alone is larger than 100MB, so what kind of applications does Puppy Linux 3.0 include?

• AbiWord for word processing
• Gnumeric for spreadsheets
• SeaMonkey for web browsing
• Pidgin for instant messaging
• XFinans financial management

Of course, if you want to install OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, or other programs on top of Puppy Linux you're free to do so. But you might want to take it easy, seeing as the more apps you add the more memory you'll use, which kind of defeats the purpose of having such a lightweight operating system.

It looks like some Puppy websites aren't responding at the moment, so here are a few alternate download links.

Wow, I am pretty blown away. Almost unanimously everyone said that Ubuntu is the best Linux distro for almost everything you would want to do. I am already a Ubuntu fan, and I thought there would be a huge list of distros because there are so many out there. Ubuntu is the distro I used at work to recover old PC data, and fix PCs when even windows was trashed. It is definitely a killer build and deserves all the recognition it gets. If anyone out there is wondering which Linux distro is good for your uses, this should be proof enough. Other distros that made the list, but were all soundly spanked by Ubuntu are:

• Slax
  
• Fedora Core
• Kubuntu
• SUSE
• Mepis
  
• Red Hat
• Knoppix
• Debian
• DSL (Damn Small Linux)
  
• Gentoo
• Linspire
• Xubuntu
• PCLinuxOS
• Mandriva/Mandrake
• openSUSE
• Puppy

Thanks to everyone for your comments and thoughts on your favorite Linux flavor. I will be awarding stars as soon as I can, but I believe that feature is down at the moment.