it really doesn't matter, but I'd go with debian because it's very light weight.

I would agree with TheNNS. I currently run debian stable on both my desktop and notebook. Debian is very versatile. If your machine is connected to the internet via a high speed connection I would recommend that you do a Net install. The reason I say that is, this way you will have all of the security patches installed right from the git-go. Otherwise you would have to download and install them later.

not to mention debian has like 24 cd's you'd have to download.

You could also try Fedora. It has a whole host of security additions plus it is a zero cost branch of Red Hat.

At 512 MB RAM, I would say that it would run fine. It ran well on my 256MB computer.

>You could also try Fedora. It has a whole host of security additions plus it is a zero cost branch of Red Hat.

No. Fedora is way to buggy and to packed with useless things. Use something more lightweight.

Speaking of "lightweight", have a look at the Live CD linux page:

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

Pick one with a small iso size, burn it to a cd, put it in your cd drive and boot up from it. You just have to make sure your machine's BIOS is configured to boot from the cd drive. This is a great way to get a taste of Linux, and of different distros before installing to the hard drive. You can download, "burn-'n-boot" until your fingers are numb!

SLAX is an excellent livecd, as well as DSL. Most distros comes with livecd's you can test before installing the system on the computer.

I think the fact that most people who are asking which is the right type of linux for them may not be ready to go from 'something else' to 'lightweight'. Most work their way down, as they learn what they do and don't want in a distribution. Most people will start out with something like Fedora, or (K/U)buntu (I despise this distro, but if you want the stable debian base, it's a new user friendly release). Maybe if you provided a little more information about what your looking for in the distro, then we can make recommendations on things like how often they are updated, what packages they come with that are easy to configure to suite your needs.

I like to think of Linux Distrobutions like cars, even though most people want the minimalistic sports car to go fast, personally I like the fully loaded luxery cars.

how are you a moderator? you only have 345 posts and have only solved 5 threads? what the heck? i want to be a moderator.