LinuxCoin works in under 2gb. I use 4gb w/ 2gb persistence file for when I want persistence. It also works great in transient mode for when i don't want to leave a trail.
No idea if others agree - but I'd certainly not use a distro that isn't generic.
The problem with using ANY distro targeted at bitcoin is that something could get in there to take advantage of that.
It certainly creates the possibility of a very LARGE financial gain for anyone unethical enough to attempt such a nefarious act.
My mining rig uses Xubuntu 11.04 and I've documented a list of commands to create it/update it to running cgminer - and the reason I specifically did this is so that it starts with a generic distro (built from the Live CD) and thus I am not a suspect in possibly producing something that could have a backdoor or wallet capture issue ... and no one needs to trust me to use it - they only need trust any software I've said needs installing.
In case anyone is thinking it: the reverse is not worse.
i.e. being worried about a backdoor or wallet capture in the generic distro: since if that is there, any bitcoin targeted distro made from it will also have the same problem (no one building a bitcoin distro is going to search all the software installed on it and guarantee to find issues and remove them)
If anyone finds such it would certainly be removed upstream as soon as they were told about it.
Unencrypted wallet.dat files are the bane of bitcoin (in my opinion), and thus any decision I make about a software distro on a machine that may contain one is going to not choose a distro with bitcoin in it's design target - only as add on software (though for me it won't ever include windows either)
There have been 10000's of downloads and no ones complained about their wallet being stolen from a linuxcoin install yet. Also LinuxCoin is like Xubuntu on roids
It has added security features you just wouldn't find in a generic OS.
