Can somebody help me find something to fit the following specs?

Network of some twenty computers, with server dell 1.3 ghz - win2kserver.
Network has dsl with dhcp router.

I want something for the student computers. (A nomal student computer is a Dell PIII 450 - 500, 128 mem, 10 gig and up. )

The only needs are, network, Open office, internet to do online tests, and conect ion to data folders on the win2kserver.

I have tried mandrake 9.XXX and redhat. Both seem very heavy and have to many apps. All I need are the above so the boys get their work done and don't get sidetracked... right now I'm on mandrake 9.2 and all I ever use programwise are Open office, LinNeighborhood, and drakconf to get my work done.

It seems to me that something like this would be very fast and stable, but how do I get it without all the extras.

By the way I have no idea how to use the command line! Give me anything graphic and I will figure out how to use it but give me the command line and I will ask you, what next. (Yes, I have been using windows for the past 12 years, but now I need to be free AND legal.)

You might try CollegeLinux. It's very graphical. I'm not sure if it comes with Open Office, but you can probably install it without too much trouble. I installed it on a girlfriend's laptop once. She seemed to like it well enough, given that she'd never used linux in her life. Check it out at http://collegelinux.org/index.php.

OK. I'll try that.

if u want a fast distro then try out slackware

you could strip it out if u dont want any application except the ones u want

Will do. I suppose stripping it out means spending a lot of time. That would be great but how do I copy the stripped down version to other machines?

assuming that all the machines have the same hardware, you could just create an image of the drive and ghost it to the other machines...norton ghost will do this, but offhand i'm not sure of a linux package for it (i'm sure one exists)

You could also try VectorLinux. They've done exactly what you're suggesting. It's a stripped down version of Slackware. Installs very quickly. You'll probably want the SOHO version. It uses a package app called Software Plaza to download and install applications. Good luck!

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the dd command will do it to some extent..

Thanks for the help friends. I will try out all your sugestions.

Question? Will I have to set crdisk my HD's in a special way? I have drives that are from 9 gig to 20 glg. If I was to set up a 20 gig and try to ghost it two a 9 gig would that not cause problems. I suppose the thing to do would be to set up a 9 gig and ghost that to all my other disks.

Once again thanks for the help

Matthew

Looking for VectorLinux now...