advice on new user
 

I have a friend who wants to put linux on his old computer. I'm really not sure anything about it, other than it's old and it's internet doesn't work. Maybe I'll find out some more tommorow. He wants me to come over and help him set it up. What distro should I recommend to him? Something fast preferably, probably not KDE or GNOME, too graphically intense. Something not too complex, small, fast, and realitivly friendly with hardware.

His internet is a wireless USB tower. USB + wireless... it will be fun. I tried unsuccesfully to get that sort of setup to work with RH when I first started, and it wasted many hours of my life. I have little hope that his wireless router will magically configure itself either. Of course then, I knew nothing about linux and was just shooting around randomly in the dark. Now however, I have a much better understanding of linux, and should, with any luck, be able to help out my little newcomer.

How do I go about setting that up? You have a blank computer with a generic kernel distro with a generic usb wireless tower. Where do you start?

In most of the tutorials I've seen, they talk mostly about wireless cards. Do you need a wireless card if you are just plugging in a usb tower?

Will I need to configure anything on the other end?

I don't know much about this wireless USB thing... I just got wireless working in a laptop... so I won't say anything about it.
Concerning distro, DE/VM etc... I would advise debian (sarge is the new stable and got released last week), now it comes with a nice installer so don't worry, must of the default selection will work for most people... and about the VM/DE I would advise without hesitation fluxbox... it's the fastest and lighest VM around... well you will have to configure it a little for him (to let him access his applications in the menu more easily for instance...)
If you need anything let us know...
Good luck!
A.