Friends have been whispering "Ubuntu" in my ear for some time. I have an older ThinkPad, Windows 2000, Pentium 3, 800MHz, 256Mb memory, 40G hard disc (80% empty). I'm pretty much a novice but always up for a learning experience. So, what do you think? And which version, etc. Thank you.

Ubuntu will work fine on that, Xubuntu will work better.

Since you are a novice to Linux, I'd start with one of those 2 9 Ubuntu has a lot more to offer, but the choices can be over whelming, and the bloat may pinch you a bit (like running XP on a brand new computer )

Xubuntu uses a very lightweight Desktop Manager called XFCE - much lighter than gnome or KDE - but it has its own drawbacks as well - there is a lot that does not come with the DM, hence making it a lot lighter than the other two. KDE has a lot of apps native to it that make it worth using, whereas Gnome just looks better, to me.

Just as there are *nix fanboys versus the Windows fanboys, you'll find users of KDE and Gnome falling into similar divisive fanboy groups. My advice, from a more neutral person who likes *nix but needs Windows for every day use, is to try it out yourself - and do a lot of reading online.

Just to give you an idea, I ran Ubuntu 6 on a Celeron 366 Laptop with no issues....

You might try Wolvix GNU/Linux, very easy install.

@chrisretusn - That looks nice - have you tried Zenwalk?

Not since version 2.8

I think this would also be a good beginner package.

I never really could really get my self to like any flavor of *buntu, not that it's bad, just not my cup of *nix.

Understandable - coming from a user who started out trying Fedora Core 2, then optimize and recompiled my kernel (thanks to Con Kalivas' patches) who then realized that this could be done system wide for all apps - and who then moved to Gentoo....

Currently, though, I don't have a second box to run any *nix, as I had to pilfer hardware to keep my main box running - but I am building a small little box that will shortly be running Gentoo again....

The latest Ubuntu can run a machine of that specs, but it's a little taxing on it.

On average, it took my P3 about 8 minutes to start up fully.

Xubuntu takes lesser time, it's up and running in less than 5 minutes.

Another easy-to-use Linux distro - http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/download.html

It uses KDE though... and can be a little taxing on the machine, but on the whole, it's easy to use.

After studying the great advice received here, my ThinkPad developed a fatal disease and after a long illness finally died. I'm now using a Dell Inspiron 1525 with lots of memory, speed and disc space. Vista Home Premium. Would like to download Ubuntu within next few days. Does it automatically go to dual boot? What's the best way to "configure" the computer?

Depends upon what you are gong to do with it - but I would spend a *lot* of time learning Vista since you're jumping from windows 2000 to Vista - and hold off on *nix for a bit....

Then again, it may not be a bad idea to let you use *nix now - but it is going to be a steeper learning curve for you than Vista will, in the long run - in the short run it won't be....

As for dual booting, go to http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first.htm and prepare to start reading.

Started reading the link. Good stuff; have bookmarked it. Took a reference guide to Vista out of the library and will soon get a Ubuntu guide. Appreciate all the help/advice I've received here.

During the download can I use the computer for other things or is it best not to? Is this the case with all downloads?

May I know what kind of download you're referring to?

The OpenSuse download and installation.