its the ram that counts mostly

Im currently using a pentium 3M 699mhz, 256mb RAM laptop and it runs just fine

take a look at:

Ubuntu ("Edgy 6.10" Version) . Modern and easy to get mulltimedia etc... set up and you can run it off the cd first to see if you like it before installing - (dont worry if its slow, its always slow when its running off the cd)

It has lots of music, picture organising etc.... apps (perfect for a family pc) as well as a full office suite compatible with any microsoft office documents you may already have.

One thing to note is that linux in general is a pain in the ass to set up dialup internet on.

As I mentioned earlier, I want it to be as user-friendly as possible, because I want the family to be able to use it.

Thanks for the response!

yes ubuntu would be right up your street. You may want to look into a service called shipit who deliver free cds (if you dont have broadband thats a good idea as the download is about 699mb)

take a look at some screenshots here:

http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/sl...se=751&slide=4

288Mb of ram is barely enough but you might be able to run MEPIS and if you couldn't run MEPIS then I would say to try damn small linux. DSL will run on most any computer and doesn't need as much ram. Of all the MEPIS versions 3.3 was the best at booting with a very old system. This is a partial description of DSL. This is the link if you want to read more.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=damnsmall

Damn Small Linux is a business card size (50MB) Live CD Linux distribution. Despite its minuscule size it strives to have a functional and easy to use desktop. Damn Small Linux has a nearly complete desktop, including XMMS (MP3, and MPEG), FTP client, links-hacked web browser, spreadsheet, email, spellcheck (US English), a word-processor, three editors (Nedit, nVi, Zile [emacs clone]), Xpdf, Worker (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE, a web server, calculator, Fluxbox window manager.......Follow the link to get the rest. If you want to get dsl by torrent it is at linuxtracker. This link might take you there. http://linuxtracker.org/torrents-details.php?id=3602 I am seeding this one after I finish downloading it.

ubuntu will run on 288. I just tried it out on a 700mhz 256mb ram pc and it worked alright

Probably MEPIS will run on that computer too. MEPIS uses ubuntu sources for repos so I guess it may. I just haven't tried any of the new MEPIS versions on an older p3 set up. My son (5 1/2) dual boots xp and 3.4.3 MEPIS and it works awesome. He has 512 Mb of ram though. Actually his first computer was a dell gx1 with 256 Mb of ram on a 550 Mhz p3 but the version of MEPIS was 3.3. 3.3 would boot on older systems when the newer ones wouldn't or if they did they ran slow. So it is always worth a try.

Most common distros will run on 256MB though they may be slow. Ubuntu is probably one of your better bets for a quick setup and easy to use system. You might want to look at Kubuntu as well, which is simply Ubuntu with KDE as the desktop manager (this way the default appearance is "more like windows").

I've not used DSL, but the footprint for it isn't a feature in this case; you should be fine with a full distro, just minus the extra eye candy. I don't know how difficult it is to setup, but I'm willing to bet it takes a lot more effort than Ubuntu....

yeah ubuntu is your best bet