Geexbox is a compact Linux distribution designed with the HTPC (home theater pc) in mind. It's paltry 8.9mb cd footprint makes it perfect for taking anywhere you want to go. You can even use it at home for your regular media center if you so desire. It's biggest claim to fame is that it can play any file at any time anywhere. You could even, in theory, take it to school with you and watch videos in class, not that I condone that or anything.

The OS itself loads quickly, given it's very small footprint, and does an incredible job of detecting all the hardware on your system it needs, including TV-out devices. Since it's whole goal in life is to play media files, it won't connect with any TV capture devices, but that's a small price to pay given that it's primary goal is to play movie files, music, and dvd's. Once the OS is done, it ejects the disk from the cd/dvd drive so you can remove it and place something else there. This might seem tedious for a more permanent media center setup, but it works well when you're traveling and want to use one machine temporarily and don't want to be bothered with or can't install Linux to play your media files.

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