I need desktop Linux advice

[Sims2789]

Which Linux distribution should I put on a public 500 MHz Pentium III with 512 MB of SDRAM? It needs to have internet and word processing, and be usable by normal people. The GUI also needs to be decent. Ubuntu is great for a public computer but it might be too big for this computer.

 

[Sims2789]

I live in a student co-operative with 150 people. As part of my workshift responsibilities, I help people with computer problems. I'm no expert (another student runs our servers) but I know enough to keep people's laptops and the co-op's desktops running.

Anyway, we have three public computers. Our faster AMD K7 uses Ubuntu and gives us few problems. Being located in the dining hall, however, it mostly gets used for web browsing. Our Evo machine is hooked up to the TV and plays movies from the servers (which now both run Fedora Linux; one used to run OpenBSD but it died so we got a new one) and runs Windows XP. Our main public computer, an old 500 MHz Pentium III with 384 MB of SDRAM, runs Windows XP, and is in the study room.

The two Windows machines give us 99% of our trouble. They're used more (especially the Pentium III) but even considering this and its older hardware it shouldn't require as much maintenance as it does. One fails Windows Genuine Advantage (yet passed activation) and the other might fail WGA at any time, since I lost one of my CD keys and had to use it on a third-party computer. That computer, using the same key as the Evo box, wouldn't activate.

So, I've decided to put Ubuntu on all of our public machines. It's very, very easy to restrict access to non-administrators and has proven at least as usable as Windows in the dining hall. Plus, accessing our servers is easier in Ubuntu's GUI than the Windows GUI.

As for the Pentium III, I have no clue which distribution to put on it. I'd like it to run Word, but that's generally slow on Linux anyway, and might be unbearably slow on a Pentium III.

 

[IglooDame]

Moderator Action: Moved to Computer Talk

 

[Chairman Meow]

I recently installed Xubuntu (a variant of Ubuntu which uses the Xfce desktop environment) on my parents' computer, which is a computer with similar specs (but less RAM) to the machine you're talking about. It runs pretty well, so it would work well on your computer. I configured it for them to automatically log in and display a Firefox window on startup.

edit: Xubuntu site. I installed version 6.06 LTS since it has lower system requirements than the current version. The main difference is in RAM usage, so the current version should be fine for your computer.

 

[Shadylookin]

never tried it but Xubuntu should be good(since your'e familiar with ubuntu)

however if you're truely feeling gutsy(terrible pun i know) you can install ubuntu on that system since it still meets the minimum requirements(assuming it has ~8 gig hard drive)

but for improved performance you should stick with Xubuntu. Or you could always venture out and try something like "Damn small linux"

 

[GVBN]

Fluxbox + FbDesk
Opera
AbiWord

My local Kela office uses poorly configured IceWM, Firefox and OpenOffice on their slow public computers

 

[Strider]

Xubuntu, as mentioned already, is probably the best choice for you. It's pretty light weight and similar enough to Ubuntu that you won't have that many problems with it.