LinuxQuestions.org - best distribution to install on Toshiba Tecra 520CDT

Toshiba Tecra 520CDT Laptop
160mb ram
2gb hard drive
pentium 166mhz MMX
internal cd-rom drive
external floppy drive

I'm trying to determine which distribution to install on the laptop listed above. Unfortunately I know I'm going to be restricted to a select few distributions due to the small hard drive and amount of memory. Basically my only goal with this laptop is to be able to use OpenOffice and GIMP. Right now it doesn't even have a NIC so I'm not even concerned with having an internet connection. I do have a 2wire external usb 802.11g adapter but as far as I can tell no Linux drivers exist for that device. So for now I'm only concerned with desktop productivity and not with the internet connection. I would like openOffice and GIMP to be included in the distribution if possible. And I would also prefer to use KDE if possible or XFCE.

I have already tried booting a Ubuntu 7.10 live cd as a test and was presented with a number of error messages. The first error message stated the following:

Code:

no DMI BIOS year acpi=force is required to enable ACPI

After that error was displayed Ubuntu continued to load for a short period of time and then this was displayed:

Code:

busybox 1.1.3 (debian 1:1.1.3-5ubuntu4) built-in shell (ash)

Enter 'help' for a list of build-in commands.



/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

(initramfs)

I would prefer to install the OS directly to the hard drive instead of using a live cd. So what would be the best distribution to install on this laptop? And I've also heard that OpenOffice requires 256mb of memory so could I use the hard drive to make up for the lack of memory? Thanks in advance.