Which Linux distros would be best for me?

When I ask which distros would be best, I mean ease of learning, community
support and newsgroups, and availability of good, simple books.

I am retired from 20 years of aerospace software development. I live on a
small fixed income. I have used Windows since 3.11 and Office since O97 and
a myriad of other OS's ad computers before that. I like to learn from
newsgroups and books. This is, however, my first post to any Linux ng.

I want to add one or more Linux systems to my multi-boot Windows
2000/Windows ME systems.

My goal is to Linux and OpenOffice and not need Windows or Microsoft Office.
As a retiree, I can no longer afford to keep chasing after Windows (DOS
4.01, DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11, 95, 98, 98SE, WME, W2K) and Office (97, 2000,
XP). I also have a suspicion that Vista and O2007 would overload my Athlon
2000+, its 512 MB RAM, and 120 GB HDDs.

I have read that Linux can run on as little as a 286, and can prolong the
life of many an elderly computer?

I have been downloading and testing open source software for a few years
now, and it appears the open source community is close to producing the
tools I need, specifically an OS, office suite, tons of graphics tools, and
some good books.

I use BellSouth DSL. I don't know if they support Linux, but I don't think
so. A search of their Help site turned up no reference to Linux. I sent them
email asking for clarification. If they don't support it, I will eventually
switch to another ISP.

My greatest fear is learning a bunch of semi-meaningless Linux commands a la
DOS or Unix. Best for me would be something that closely resembles
Plug-n-Pray.

I also have a non-standard mobo that uses a special drivers CD. I tremble at
the thought of not being able to use my various peripherals.

Thank you for your help and I apologize for the lengthy post. Future posts
will be shorter. :) I wanted to give you as much helpful information as
possible.

Walter Donavan


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