Multiple Linux installs on 25 pc's with older specs ??

[anarcholinuxism]

Hi i'm involved in aproject where we've been donated 25 Dell Optiplexs 233 and 333, 64mb ram and 3 gig hdds. We intend to give them away with linux installed, the catch being that the recipient (we're assuming no previous computer knowledge) will have to install the OS themselves with as little help from us as possible (although we'll keep an eye on them).

My question is what do people think the best distro would be - it's gotta be lightweight, easy graphical installation, and fairly self-configurable, we've got to do 25 of these in a day.

http://ecc.bristolwireless.net/

although some people claim not to be able to reach that url

[ph34r]

Knoppix. Drop the cd in , reboot, and its running. Maybe copy the whole thing to the harddrive.

[ven0m]

You could use RedHat, as Dell supports them.
http://www.redhat.com/solutions/partners/dell/index.html

[JamminJoeyB]

That is a tall order. Graphical install with people that have no prior computer experience?

64mb of ram is going to make it tough to run kde or gnome. I think the early version of kde or gnome may run. Not sure how well though.

Mandrake has a pretty graphical installer, but there is a lot of extra stuff on there that could slow things down.

I am guessing that these systems will be used as basic work stations, Internet, email, documents etc.

ph34r has a good suggestion on Knoppix or maybe even the new Gentoo live cd.

[andysimmons]

I don't know of any current distro that has a GUI install and would run well on those computers. Slackware would run well, but it sounds like you need something easier, and most easy distros have too much bloat in their default settings to run on those computers efficiently. I've never used it, but I've heard Vector linux is lightweight (Slack-based), and easy to use.

[joelc]

Use Mandrake, but go back to version 7.something if you can.

On a side note, people complain about how hard it is to install linux, but I think they don't give it a fair chance. I think the linux installations are at least as easy as windows. The catch is that most of the people who use windows have never seen it installed, or if they do, they don't have to worry about partitions. On the other hand, the vast majority of people who try linux have had to install it themselves. Of course many of them aren't going to be up to it the first time.

[mdwatts]

http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ may help you find a distro that fits the hardware and user requirements.