Alright, so after much searching around I’ve realized that my “perfect lightweight linux distro” doesn’t exist.
Here’s what I have in mind:
Based on Ubuntu
Run Fluxbox (or possibly pekwm) with LxPanel and PCManFM (Meaning it’s lighter weight than LXDE, but looks really similar).
Have just a bare minimum of packages…it’s EASY to install things in Ubuntu, so let people do it themselves.
Anybody have any experience with fluxbox or with building a distro in a VM to be distributed via iso?
Thanks!
I have no experience in building distros, so cannot help you there.
If you want a minimal Ubuntu then you could start with the server edition and build on that.
Also a good starting point would be the Debian net install.
I would ask whom would be your target audience?
Possibly look into the Ubuntu customization kit, to build a customised Ubuntu.
or perhaps remastersys to create a LiveCD image of your currently installed system.
See here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DerivativeDistroHowto
Otherwise you’ll have to unpack an ISO and the squashfs manually … chroot into it … make your changes … and rebuild it all manually.
There are plenty of online tutorials for doing this, such as:
http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-customize-your-ubuntu-live-cd/
but you’ll need to be comfortable with the command line … or use the tools mentioned above.
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If you would ask me I would say put your weight/expertise behind some of the other (many of them struggling) minimalist distros instead of starting your own. Even ex Fuduntu Cloverleaf to become openSUSE Add-on
Hey!! I found one!!
Apparently WattOS’ latest release (the microwatt edition) is based on pekwm 
Downloading now…I’ll let you know how it goes