reccomend a distro for me

[stringcheeseincident]

i'm a 14 year old kid who's solid with computers and the everyday windows environment, i just recently aqquired and old 500mhz i'm interested in using to learn linux. i need something thats easy to set up, learn, and install programs on. i'm currently downloading the mandrake 10 bittorrent, but i'm also open to all other suggestions. i just want something i can use openoffice and firefox on, basic music/word processing/internet box. let me know what you all think.

[NleahciM]

Mandrake. Definitely.

[ameoba]

If you're looking for something to kill the time on your summer vacation, why waste your time with a 'friendly' distro? Pick one of the 'heavy' distros (slackware, gentoo, debian) and make a project of it. The learning curve might be a bit steep, but you probably have the time.

Granted, difficult is a relative term. Any distro you get your hands on today is going to be simpler to setup & run than what I had to work with (10yr ago. some old slackware running a 1.2 kernel installed off a big-ass stack of floppies which I had to download off a 14.4 modem. uphill. bot ways. in the snow. over broken glass. on my knees. etc) when I was your age.

[BillLeeLee]

If you really want to learn Linux, Mandrake is probably not the way (I say probably so as to not generalize and anger the Mandrake fans).

I'd recommend Gentoo to really have a hands on install and system configuration, and Slackware behind that.

[nonsequitur]

if you have access to a printer and a ream of paper, i'd reccommend you print our all of gentoo's installation documents and try to install it.

if you just want to tinker and get the feel of what a fully compiled system is like, dl the knoppix live cd, and then try gentoo.

[Z3Px]

i would say gentoo or slackware or debian. anyone can install Mandrake if they know how to install windows. or you can try freebsd...its good

[BillLeeLee]

Heck, if you still have the Mandrake, you could be daring and go for Linux From Scratch.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org

[portlandoregongamer]

if you want something easy, mandrake or fedora core 2 (free red hat), if you want to actually learn, gentoo :)

[Anarchonixx]

I'll back the Gentoo or Slackware suggestions. Especially since you don't want a hardcore workstation, Gentoo would do perfectly since it's easy to make a no BS box, and just load whatever you actually want on it, no extra bloat.