Best Linux distro for Intel Celeron 1.3Ghz 80Gig HD
 

The best distro is the one YOU like and which suits YOUR computer.

It's a bit like asking whats 1) the best sport team 2) the best car or 3) the best religion. It's a matter of taste. YOUR taste.

One big determining factor is: How much RAM have you got?

The question basically is which distro would be better suited to the said machine configuration? Though there are many options but not necessarily all would work well.

BTW, RAM is 512MB.

With a celeron processor you might find problem running kde and gnome

you can install

Any specific versions. I already tried Ubuntu 11.10 but it's real slow..

hello vchandran and welcome to LQ!

With those specs I would install one of these:

Slackware 13.37 with a "lite" DE like XFCE4 or LXDE or use even lighter Openbox or Fluxbox WM.
Debian Stable with the above DE/WM
or even something like ARCH.

If you want a distro that is a little more customized try
Salix OS 13.37 XFCE4/LXDE/Fluxbox
ArchBang
Antix or Mepis

all those above are full-featured distros that run on lower resources

Ubuntu 11.10 is just too much for 512MB and an older P3 celeron. Xubuntu/Lubuntu/bodhi would run better if you want to use a *buntu. Mint Xfce/Lxde versions would be O.K. as well.

If it was me, I'd probably use debian Xfce or Lxde, it tends to have better performance than the *buntus or mint, and is still pretty easy to install and use. But I'm biased against *buntu and I like debian....

Ubuntu 10 should be good

Or it is better if you go with mint 10 or 11

here is one link might be helpful, have a look

http://floyd-linux.pappapc.com/

I agree with cascade9, I have a Debian stable install and it runs at much lower resources than any *buntu.
I have Slackware 13.37 running on a Toshiba 7000CT with 168MB ram, 266MHz and 4GB HDD no problems, and I also have had Archbang on the same lappy and it runs great.

If you want auto-dependency resolution go with debian/arch/salix
otherwise go with Slack

My vote goes for Xubuntu or Lubuntu. Download the latest version at the following links

http://www.xubuntu.org/
http://lubuntu.net/

Learn the basis of Linux from any of these then switch to SlackWare, Arch, or Gentoo if you want
Good luck to you

How about Puppy Linux?

No sure about this but for what I understand Puppy Linux is mean to be use more as live CD. Meaning more as rescue disk than a Desktop installation.
I really don't know I haven't use Puppy Linux before.

Lubuntu and Xubuntu are know to work really well in low resources hardware, and they come with lots of already installed tools.

Good luck to you!

Thanks all of for your suggestions. I'll try these out and put back my comments..