Anyone with direct experience with one or all of these Linux distros? Primarily for replacing old Windows operating systems, namely XP and 7. The obvious question: which is lightest and fastest? I realize there are a dozen more very light distros, but I see these mentioned quite a bit.
Debian should be little faster than Ubuntu but is primarily server oriented. So it's important to know what you would use linux for - games ? web ? special applications ? Desktop environment IceWM, openbox are lighter and faster than default GNOME / KDE.