[mzpro5]

I have a 7 year old Gateway, in the past primarily used for work, that was replaced with a new PC in Jan. By now I am confident that I do not need any files on the old PC so I would like to turn it into a "Linux machine". My only experience with open source products are the Mozilla products. I have read the Linux FAQs but still have some questions.

1. The old PC is: Pentium II - 256 MB RAM - 10 GB HD - currently running W98 Will this machine work?

2. I would like to entirely wipe out the Windows stuff and start form scratch and make it a Linux machine. Is this advisable and how would I go about "cleaning" the HD. (remember that as of now this is a "play" machine so if something goes wrong nothing much lost.)

3. With all the Linux products out there what is a recommended program to start with. I have worked with MS-DOS and Windows for at least 12 years but no other OS experience. I want to do basic things and have Internet access on the "Linux machine". According to my limited understanding I can burn a program to CD from the Internet on my newer PC or laptop and download to the old machine, right?

4. This project is gonna be a bit of a winter hobby so any other relevent thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Maverick83]

That looks like a good little machine. Nice HD, good RAM, the processor is a tad old, but Linux doesn't need a powerhouse anyway.
For Linux, you will most likely want a distribution that's easy to set up and run. Like you said, you want internet connection and basic functions(word processing, image editing, media players). Most distro's include plenty of pakages to make Linux as functional as Windows.
I would suggest Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSE, or even MEPIS(I've heard good things).
I personaly only have experience with SuSE, but I plan on switching to MEPIS soon.
You can get any distro for free if you download them. If you want the discs shipped to you, you have to pay a little bit of money.
There are also Live CD's that you can pop into your CD drive, boot from the disc, and play around in Linux without installing it. Knoppix does this, and MEPIS is an installable Live distro.
If you decide to download the distribution you choose, you'll need a CD burner, a MD5 checksum program to make sure you got the file completely, and a program that will burn ISO files. Nero can do this, and does it well.
Once you have the discs, pop the first one into the CD drive(some distro's have multiple CD's), reboot the machine(if it's already booted and running), and a diologue should come up with instructions on installation. Once it's done installing, it should reboot, let you set up user preferences, and you should have a running Linux system with a GUI.

[Whiteskin]

(almost any distro)

Your hardware is fine, though watch out for non-standard/esoteric hardware, especially in modems and soundcards.

Remember that linux is a learning experiance, and will at time be difficult.

I agree with Maverick's choices of distros, however, i'd like to add a couple to the list.
Ubuntu linux (They'll even ship you a CD, free)
Ark linux
Arch linux.

[deviance99]

It really depends on what you want to do with linux with what you will need. I recommend starting it from the console and learning via it. (besides, this is where most of the power is!). Try Debian, it's relatively easy to install (if you follow the instructions) and apt-get is just plain AWESOME. This will force you to configure X yourself, but I think that is a vital skill anyway.

And, if you are really daring, go for Gentoo... you will learn a lot more going the gentoo route, but it's worth it if you really want to know linux.

[Whiteskin]

It's nice to start low, like gentoo and debian if you have the time, however if you are short on time I'd have to say Ubuntu. I've heard nothing but good about it, they will ship a cd, and they also use apt for packagemanagment.

[AbvAvgUser]

Die hard GNU fans (or loyalists) will recommend Debian. Red Hat (now Fedora) is also one good distro to start with because there are maximum number of self help learning resources for Fedora. Also, you can use a love CD. But installtion on a HD will give you a better experience. I would recommend Fedora for the above reason.

[I Fix 4 U]

Hellz yah go get mandrake 8 and put it on there it will fly superfast i have a gateway same make but w/ less ram and it was like magic. Select minimal packages and grub though, that way you can update the kernel and then install newer packages. A good OS for the olegateway.