I'm trying to make an mp3 jukebox.
 

And I'm a complete newbie to Linux. Windows is just nearly stable enough for this. Music crashing during a party? Yeah, doesn't make you look too cool.

Anyway, the machine is an old 200 Mhz Pentium with 32M of ram.

My question is, which distribution would be easiest for me to set up this computer to play mp3's (from the HD or CD)? A gui is not necessary.

BTW, I did search the forums for a question like this, and I haven't found one (so don't get mad at me!).

I bought this book to help, but it requires a working linux system first (getting all the devices to work has been a problem).

the distribution is pretty irrelevant, you're unlikely to gain any advantage from any inparticular. it's what you do with it that counts.

FYI: Redhat 8.0 no longer includes mp3 programs or libs needed to use them by default.

No matter what distro you get, strip it as much as possible, and disable all services this way it'll run much faster, then get mp3blaster (NCURSES based, no need for X) and enjoy. :D
-NSKL

Thanks so much for the feedback guys.

I have another couple questions.

#1: Is there a guide anywhere on the net that did something like this? Most of the guides I find are focused toward people who are already pretty linux-savvy.

#2: Any book recommendations for working with a GUI-less linux system?

I'm pretty linux savvy, but I would happily work you through it. I built a linux box for my truck to play MP3's through my car stereo. It's basically a computer just running mp3blaster, but it's more "streamlined" than that. Check out my homepage, it's in the Projects section. www.masterc.freeservers.com

Oh, and mp3blaster really doesn't require much linux knowledge once you get it setup and running.

As for the book, I'd say practice is better than anything else. Follow the tutorial through over at www.linux.org and that will teach you CLI (command line interface) basics and such. After that, repetition works.

Cool