Last week I threw away three old computers, each a lot better than that. It isn't worth the trouble/cost to ship such computers anywhere.

Businesses in this area (as they downsize) are throwing away computers better than computers I didn't throw away.

I really doubt your computer is worth the trouble of trying to salvage, especially with your intent of running office software.

I have no idea what you can find watching business trash flows in other countries or even other areas of the US. So I don't really have a suggestion, other than not wasting too much of your time on a computer that probably can't do what you want.

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Γεια Maikl!!!
Thanks for sharing your experience with me!!!

Do you really believe that 15 years ago is ancient times? -OMG, I've aged that much and I haven't realised it yet!!!- Of course, I'm not trying to install Ubuntu on that pc, but maybe, just maybe, there is a Linux distro, even an older one, that could work well. I'm saying this because I've searched the Internet and found quite a lot of similar cases to be succesful.
So, it's best to buy a new RAM and CPU? Or would upgrading only the RAM without changing the CPU do the trick?
I'm not really in any need but it's not like I would prefer to throw the pc away/recycle it. Finding out the other day that I could resurrect older computers by using Linux got me excited and made me open that old machine again for the first time in 9 years!!!It seemed like an interesting project.More interesting than getting rid of the old machine!
I have no problem upgrading pieces of the hardware(RAM,CPU) if that would make a great difference in the pc's performance. I just wanted to know first whether a Linux distro suitable for these system specs existed or not.

Apparently, I would do well to upgrade my RAM,CPU.

I'm really torn between Absolute and AntiX... maybe Absolute is better because I can choose the applications and alleviate the system.
Thank you everyone for your insightful information!!!

Its stil worth a try, if you have the bandwidth and time to spare. I doubt it would run as well as antix would on a machine that old though.

USB ports are generally fine, and proably will be on your system as well (without knowing the hardware though, its a guess)

Coping files from HDD-> USB with a liveCD should be possible with liveCD that will run on 192MB or less.

You can probably upgrade the CPU and RAM. Upgrading the CPU will take it at best from 'omg soooooo slow (P-II 300) up to 'omg sooo slow' (PII-450, maybe a 100MHz FSB P3)'

Getting more RAM means you will be able to run 'heavier' programs. They will still require more CPU power than 'lighter' programs that do the same thing. IMO you would do better to run Abiword than LibreOffice even if you had P3-650 + 512MB RAM.

Its really not worth it unless you've got access to other machines to strip some RAM and maybe get a CPU from. The CPUs are hard to find now, and you'll pay more than they are worth if you pay anything much for them. The RAM is avaible new (if its a system using SDRAM PC-66/100, there are odd P-II systems using FPM or EDO RAM).

256MB PC-100 = $20 US. 512MB PC-100 = $25-30 US.
2GB DDR3 = $10-15 US.

johnsfine is corrct, there are 1000s of machines with more power than that being thrown away every day. I'm in a process of scrapping a 2.0GHz machine right now......

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In computer terms it is. Look at it this way, while this machine was a work horse back in the days nowadays mid-range computers have 4 cores running at 3GHz+, 4-8GB of RAM and literally 250x the storage space of that machine. Yes, in computer terms that machine is ancient, as is Office 2000 or any other software from that time.

If you can get more RAM for that machine (most likely SDR-SDRAM at 100MHz) at a reasonable price (0-5€) then go for it. Anything else would be wasted money for that machine. Have a look at Ebay or fleamarkets (if something like that exists in Greece, don't know), for a little bit more than that you should be able to get a complete system which is classes better than that old machine.
If it is just for learning purposes then go for it. Make it a small webserver or a mail server or maybe a jukebox, but don't expect to reasonably work with that system as a desktop.

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You misinterpret my advice... I do not recommend putting more money into the Pentium 2, I recommend replacing it entirely. I am sure you can find better hardware for free from friends/relatives/co-workers/businesses/recycling/trash.

Have you ever heard of Moore's Law by the way? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

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you might want to look inside and see the manufacturer and model number of the mother board
then find the user manual for that motherboard on the internet
see how you install memory and how much it will take
for most modern op systems i think you need 2 or 3 times as much memory as you have
memory fo old systems is cheap

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That's splendid!!!!'Cause I really wanted to move files(of more or less sentimental value)from the HDD and I didn't want to burn a CD so as not to stress the computer too much (OMG it has NERO burner in there!O.o)
Yes actually, I did find a post of yours somewhere in the forums in which you were mentioning that and I clicked the link

I could buy replacements as long as I can find them in reasonable prices.
But what I have in mind at the moment is taking apart a faulty HP Compaq nw8440 laptop that IIRC had a problem with the motherboard. If I'm lucky most of the other pieces of hardware are intact!!!
The laptop's specs look great:
Intel CPU family Core Duo model T2400 1.83 GHz 2 MB L2 cache, RAM 1 GB, Hard drive 80 GB

I'm quite clueless when it comes to hardware, it's not even my cup of tea (I'm more attracted to dealing with software. Hardware -especially old- kinda scares me!!!!XD I'm a med student for heaven's sake!!!), but if it is for gaining one more functional computer, why not try my best?! Even if that takes time and a lot of effort!

One quick question(and I must apologise if I'm off topic too often): Is it crucial to update the BIOS of my old computer if I decide to replace hardware and install Linux???

I would not recommend to take the laptop apart. It would be better to sell it at Ebay (as faulty) and for that money purchase a Computer at Ebay (for example AMD-Sempron or Intel P4 with 1GB of RAM etc.).
I would at first try to install Linux, and only if there appear problems which only can be fixed with a BIOS-update I would do this.

Markus

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Okay guys I've decided to try and boot the computer with AntiX LiveCD. The problem now is...which version should I get???I'm kind of confused because on the AntiX page there are only 64bit versions...
Also is the core version the lightest?

One of the isofiles here http://download.tuxfamily.org/antix/releases/

Markus

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I think you need to download the one labeled as base, they are all 486.iso, vector linux is a good project too http://vectorlinux.com/downloads
If you download the light family flavor and install the IceWM graphical interface which is also one of the choices in AntiX.

Bodhi Linux is another project that might work well for you, Bodhi is based on Ubuntu and has the Enlightenment graphical interface, very good. http://www.bodhilinux.com/

Good luck to you!

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If you are new to Antix then choose antiX-12-486.iso in my opinion/experience. The base and core flavors are stripped-down versions for intermediate users who want a minimalist platform to build from.

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TroN-0074, thank you very much for your suggestions!!!

Snowpine, if I download the full version, it will still be probably functional in my system, right?
How come the size of the .iso file is different among different torrent sites/download links?
I'm making that question, because currently I only have 700MB CD-Rs and the full version here is 739.1 MB, while here it's 698 MB.

The official page is here: http://antix.mepis.org/index.php?title=Main_Page so I would use those links.

If you don't have a big enough CD for the full version then you can install base and then install additional apps as needed.

"Probably functional in your system," I doubt, that is why I have recommended a hardware upgrade for you.

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Okay,I'll go with base.
LOL snowpine I got it, I'll replace the hardware, I promise
But for now I NEED a light distro with USB drivers so that I can get my files out of the HDD. I won't do an installation yet.