new to this
 

hi all, am running a intel pentium 4 cpu 2080ghz speed 2800mhz memory 3804mb hard drive is a 40gig. my question is which os should i install? i only use it for tv , downloading and watching movies, youtube and facebook. am not good at computering of any sort.

Debian or Lubuntu?
please use more informative thread title next time.

Any Linux distro will run fine on that computer. You should probably pick Ubuntu, because it's generally perceived as the easiest one. If you're worried that your computer may not be powerful enough, then pick Lubuntu or Xubuntu. They are supposed to be lighter on resources.

That computer is more powerful than this one, so anything will run. It depends on what sort of user interface you like: you get to choose!

Ubuntu offers Unity, which makes your computer look as if it's turned into a smart-phone.
Mint is more conventional and a little more reliable. It's generally recommended for beginners by those of us who've experienced a lot of distros (114 in my case!)

tried lubuntu xubuntu or ubuntu and will not install right :(

tried fedora 17 like fedora 20 xfce not like, puppy linux love

So what went wrong? No reason you shouldn't be able to install any of those distributions on your computer. You might try reading one of the numerous tutorials on installing Ubuntu or its derivatives before trying again.

I have actually used Puppy as my main distro for almost one year. It's nice in many aspects, but it doesn't have many packages. It may not have what you want, which can be really disappointing.

tried to install ubuntu, lubuntu, xubuntu , from cd but would not install right they would load until 3/4 of the way then it would hange for hours , i don't not y.

Was the disc/download corrupted(?).

(It's not my favourite distro, but it should have installed OK.)

Maybe try downloading 'my' distro to try out. :)
http://antix.mepis.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
(This is Debian based.)

Get the '13.2 Full' version to try, it is a live/installable distro, so you can test it without installing it, & if you like it, then install to your internal disk.