CrunchBang Plus Plus VS Salient OS

You might also want to look at a distro set up to run something like OpenBox instead of a full desktop environment. It's pretty easy to add a lightweight panel (like tint2 or fbpanel) and get something like a Chromebook interface, but with a full linux distro behind it. Check out Crunchbang++. AntiX also has Fluxbox, if I'm not mistaken. Source: 10 months ago

You could try CrunchBangPlusPlus, that's Debian stable with the Openbox window manager: https://crunchbangplusplus.org/. Source: about 1 year ago

If you'd like to tinker with this, CrunchBangPlusPlus is a Debian-based Openbox though the kernel and mesa are a little old now, or Fedora has a spin with i3 which is newer so probably better for gaming. You can also try install these window manager packages on your current distro. Source: about 1 year ago

If you want a terrible desktop. I would personally recommend some kind of basic window manager setup like the ones provided by chrunchbangplusplus, or bunsenlabs. However I can only really recommend the desktop setup and not the distro itself as I have no idea how they are managed. You might need to change the repos to the standard debian ones. Source: about 1 year ago

How about Crunchbang++? It's based on Debian 11 but uses OpenBox with a panel (tint2, iirc) instead of a full DE. That'll give you a good, small base and you can install anything else your users will specifically need. Source: over 1 year ago

If you're looking into gaming specifically, I can heartily recommend SalientOS - I've been using it near exclusively for over a year and loving every moment. Unfortunately there's damned near no community around it other than the vaguely active Discord. The maintainer, Silent Robot, is super-helpful and usually responds to questions quite rapidly. Source: over 2 years ago