On Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 12:22 AM, Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com> wrote: > For a first-time Linux user with only 495 MB of RAM, I recommend Puppy Linux, antiX Linux, or (maybe) Linux Mint Debian Edition. All three of these distros are well-established, user-friendly, and MUCH lighter than Ubuntu, which is now as heavy as Windows Vista/7. > > Puppy Linux has great codec/driver support and runs on computers as old as the Windows 98 era, but its software repository is small. Of course, this wouldn't be a concern for the average person on the street. (The average person on the street isn't using Ruby on Rails, Octave, etc.) Straight up Debian might not be a bad choice either. Just make sure to install one of the lightweight destkops instead of Gnome or KDE. LXDE, XFCE, Fluxbox, etc. It has full Spanish support and of course, a fantastic repository. It's also got plenty of online tutorials. One other thing that may be helpful about Debian is that you can download the Debian repositories on CD, so they can install what they want without requiring a network connection. -- Michael Moore