Hello, I use MDK 10 and am very happy with it but have been asked to help out with a mate.

They have 5 pcs at work (ranging from 200 to 600MHz, with 32 or 64mb RAM). They run win98, but want to upgrade. After being told they need new machines for xp, my mate turned to me.

Now they only use basic office apps and a couple use email via dial-up, but MDK10 is out. Is there any half decent linux distro that can work on such low resoures? I don't think they'll mind adding ram, but if they need to buy a new system they will opt for xp.

What's best ?

cheers,

Ross

russcopeeko; absolutely that what am operating on now! except 128mb ram. PII machine 40gb dialup with dual os; windows< mdk8.1+. hitch unless wanting to use speed or much more than that maybe upgrade fine.
suggest : if savvy and willing to work exclusively with linux maybe not upgrade just do it. have fun and enjoy mate,s

Before you make any permanent decisions, why not try out a few options first, to see how they work? What I mean is that you might want to try using the Knoppix Live CD, which will allow you to run a fully functional Linux system off a CD without disturbing the existing insalled system. Knoppix comes with OpenOffice, etc, and is available here www.linuxiso.org

Good luck with it. -- J.W.

yeah i might. I have a pc spare (about the same spec) to load various distros on. The most important thing is that it runs ok, and at a good speed. Windows 97 runs at a good speed, mdk10 crawls........Have downloaded libranet, and will try that, perhaps with fluxbox. As i've said I need a "light", but window ish desktop for these beginners - the best news for me is all they basically use is office - word and excel equiv, and a couple who use email.

Any more distros would be good...

OpenOffice is pretty well equipped to handle Word and Excel docs, and an app like Evolution is very nearly an Outlook clone. Knoppix is an impressive distro, but others, such as MEPIS, also are getting rave reviews.

The key point I was trying to make was simply that with Linux, you can "try before you buy". These Live CD's permit you to get a feel for how the actual distro would work, without requiring any trade in return. Note that because a Live CD will not install anything to the hard drive, and exists solely in memory, its response speeds may not be up to snuff. The purpose of a Live CD is to demonstrate the functionality, not the performance. In any event, good luck with the project -- J.W.