I have a Compaq 1220 with a Cyrix 200mhz, 32mb ram, and a 2.1 gb hard drive. I want to use internet through my pcmcia Linksys 54g card. I HAVE to have a gui since I'm a real linux n00b.

What would be the best distribution for me?

Someone has to know!

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That being said, given that your machines specs are modest, you will need to choose a very lightweight distro. If you've got 2.1G of disk space and 32Mg of RAM, then practically speaking a lot of the current popular distros would be out of the running because you wouldn't be able to physically install them, or even if you could, the small amount of RAM would make using them a painful experience. I'd suggest taking a look at Damn Small Linux, which you can download from the LQ ISO -- J.W.

agreed, I would have said LFS, but seeing as how ur a newb, go with DSL. It boots of of a cd so you can test it to see if it works w/ usr hardware

I recommend Vector Linux. I have an old Compaq Armada 7330T laptop (150 MHz Pentium, 32 RAM, 2GB HDD) and Vector Linux works great. It's not the most modern distro you'll ever use, but it's a heck of a lot better than Windows 95
If you need any specific help, feel free to e-mail me: alex.v_AT_comcast_DOT_net