[jeniansmom]

Looking for a linux distro with the following qualities:
1) relatively easy/has good documentation for a linux noob
2) will work well on 4+ year old laptops
3) will handle minecraft, youtube, browser-based games, mp3s...nothing too heavy but average teenager use
Thanks in advance for suggestions!

[Vailure]

Ubuntu or Fedora...

Ubuntu, but you'll need to run unity (their current stock interface) in 2D or not at all, I vote not at all because I hate it...

I'm running Fedora on an older Thinkpad ATM, and it's been running wonderfully.

You can also give Linux Mint a look, I used to love it buy haven't run it in ages.

[fritterdonut]

Linux Mint is very good for people who are new to Linux. I currently boot it. It has plenty of help and a fairly Windows/Mac-user friendly interface.

Ubuntu and Fedora are both very good suggestions. Stay away from most of the small clients though, they tend to rely more on console control (SliTaZ, BackTrack, Damn Small Linux, etc)

[jeniansmom]

Thank you both
Console control would be fine for me. I cut my teeth on DOS, and still use the command prompt frequently, but I have to think of the end user, so a Windows/Mac-user friendly interface is probably preferable.

[eplawsl]

I prefer Ubuntu, but I hear ArchLinux is good for people who are used to Windows but are transferring to Linux. As for Mac, I'm not too familiar with Macs but from what I've seen and heard they seem to be running lobotomized Ubuntu or some other Debian based Linux distro.

Linux related, not so much OP related:
As a side note can someone tell me where to find a good DSL iso? I've looked all over and cant find one good iso of it, I found 1 torrent but no one was seeding, any CPU architecture will do but x86 is preferred.

[fritterdonut]

I prefer Ubuntu, but I hear ArchLinux is good for people who are used to Windows but are transferring to Linux. As for Mac, I'm not too familiar with Macs but from what I've seen and heard they seem to be running lobotomized Ubuntu or some other Debian based Linux distro.

Linux related, not so much OP related:
As a side note can someone tell me where to find a good DSL iso? I've looked all over and cant find one good iso of it, I found 1 torrent but no one was seeding, any CPU architecture will do but x86 is preferred.

Sorry about going off topic, but did the DSL project get canceled? If so, that's a shame.

[alexrybicki]

I prefer Ubuntu, but I hear ArchLinux is good for people who are used to Windows but are transferring to Linux. As for Mac, I'm not too familiar with Macs but from what I've seen and heard they seem to be running lobotomized Ubuntu or some other Debian based Linux distro.

Linux related, not so much OP related:
As a side note can someone tell me where to find a good DSL iso? I've looked all over and cant find one good iso of it, I found 1 torrent but no one was seeding, any CPU architecture will do but x86 is preferred.

Wow, DSL is awesome, I didnt know that it hadn't been maintained in awhile.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html has a list of mirrors,
http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalll ... g/current/ I was able to download http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalll ... 4.4.10.iso It is from Nov 2008, and so it uses an old kernel. If you know what you're doing though, it shouldnt be too hard to update to a modern one.

As for linux, I'm currently using Ubuntu 12.04 (alpha), with kernel 2.3.0-6, and I like to run with Gnome 3. It plays minecraft really well now. If you're really interested I'll upload a quick tour of my desktop/playing minecraft to youtube. It's kind of fun.
Ubuntu or some variant is the way to go though if you're new. It's generally quite stable, although I can't stand the Unity interface.

Glad to see theres more than 1 linux user on minerealm.

[vsniney]

Fedora with KDE is my fave right now, and has been for about a year.

[jeniansmom]

If you're really interested I'll upload a quick tour of my desktop/playing minecraft to youtube. It's kind of fun.

That would be awesome (if it's not too much trouble).
I'm dling Linux Mint right now but not sure I'll have time try to boot it tonight.

So here's a question. One of the laptops may have a dead harddrive. It get a no operating system error when trying to boot up (was formerly an XP machine I think). I've read about distros like puppy linux where you can just run everything from RAM. Is this even remotely a possibility for running Minecraft? I'm guessing it's only got maybe 2GB of RAM.

[shaddowdemon]

If you're really interested I'll upload a quick tour of my desktop/playing minecraft to youtube. It's kind of fun.

That would be awesome (if it's not too much trouble).
I'm dling Linux Mint right now but not sure I'll have time try to boot it tonight.

So here's a question. One of the laptops may have a dead harddrive. It get a no operating system error when trying to boot up (was formerly an XP machine I think). I've read about distros like puppy linux where you can just run everything from RAM. Is this even remotely a possibility for running Minecraft? I'm guessing it's only got maybe 2GB of RAM.

You can run Ubuntu from a decent-sized jump drive. It is an option on the download page. I'm not too sure about playing Minecraft on it though... especially with only 2 GB of RAM. If it installs a "swap" space on the jump drive, it'd be "ok"... I don't think it does though. I don't think running an OS of off a drive would be very good though. I only use it for diagnostics and such.