Hi! My name is Johan, and i want to install linux on my really sucking laptop... it only has 5gb left on the harddisk, and 1gb of 166Mhz ram and a AMD athlon 64bit 4000+ 2.6Ghz CPU (And i have XP home 32bit now).

But i have for a long time wanted to play a little with Linux, but i just dont know which one? I've heard that it doesnt take much of your computer, and is free if you just burn it on a cd yourself. I think Ubuntu is the best, but i don't know any others, so which linux is the best, just to play a little with?

Hello, Have a look here:

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/how-...t-linux-distro

Thanks man, thats a good link! (:

You are welcome, Hope u enjoy LQ !

BY THE WAY, I AM NOT A MAN , I AM A GIRL

Haha, sry man

But which linux is the most popular, just to use at home?

It depends on your needs !!

Can you list out all the purposes/applications for which u want to use Linux at home ?

It's just for fun ... just to try something different than windows it could be nice to have mac too, but that costs

There is no "best" Linux--you simmply have to try different versions.

One standard advice is to pick anything in the top ten on the "hit list" at http://distrowatch.com

Try a few, make your own choice. Don't rely too much on other people's opinions.

@OP
What brianL says about relying on other people's opinions is true. For this reason, I wouldn't rely on his. I wouldn't rely on mine, either

What's best is whatever is best for you. With such low RAM, though, you're kinda limited. It really would be worth it to add some RAM if it's possible (dunno about laptops), bring it up to at least 512. Then you could run any of the distros in the top rankings at distrowatch.

When you click on a distro on Distrowatch's list, I think it's wise especially for newbies, to scroll down the list of packages each distro contains, and if you see anything in red (which indicates that it's Beta software), don't try that distro. You're a newcomer, so you shouldn't be asked to act as a laboratory rat for some developer.

I always point my friends who are new to Linux to a rock-stable, widely and thoroughly tested version with no experimental software. Like Mepis or Debian Stable (currently "Lenny").

-Robin

I have 1gb, not less than 512mb? but an ekstra giga costs about 200$ ...
but is it not right that all linux versions use less ram than xp? and how much hard drive space does it take?

1 GB of RAM is enough, you should be able to run any distro on that setup. The 5 GB space might be more of a problem with some distros. Check on the distros websites, they usually show minimum requirements.

The RAM usage depends on what you are doing, and the disk space depends on what you install.

This said, Linux certainly has the potential for using less resources.

Not here!!! I've seen TWO gigs of RAM for under $100.