Which free version of Linux do you suggest

I am currently in the process of resurecting several old machines to give away to needy families. Rather than be responsible for an O$ bootleg, I intend to put a free version of Linux on these machines. These machines are total dinosaurs, mostly in the neighborhood of PII 300 MHz. I just wanna give these families a basic word processor and a way to the internet. So the question is, which version of Linux is the simplest, not necessarily the best?

Hmm...Well i would have to say an older version of Red Hat on that slow beast.

Although, im sure there might be a more user friendly Linux that can run better - im just not aware of one right now.

I'm not sure if Linux is the best thing to put on those machines. The newer (user friendly) Gnome and KDE need pretty good machines to run.

You might want to consider BeOS. It's definently user friendlier than Linux, more secure than Windows and will be very fast. And you can get ot for free. And we have our resident BeOS people here on TS to help you.

Also, I really hate to advocate Windows, but..
A big part of the internet does not work with anything but Windows+IE
When Something Goes Wrong then it is much easier to get help with Windows.
You might be able to get Windows 98 or NT licenses from some company who has moved on to w2k or XP.

Maybe Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntulinux.org/) could be worth a try.

You might want to consider BeOS. It's definently user friendlier than Linux, more secure than Windows and will be very fast. And you can get ot for free. And we have our resident BeOS people here on TS to help you.

Someone call?

Perhaps Red Hat 9.0 and/or older versions of Slackware or Debian would be appropriate for that machine. Of course, Slackware and Debian aren't very user friendly, so I would first try RH 9 and see if that works for you.

Happy holidays! :grinthumb

Slackware and Debian aren't very user friendlyWell, yes and no. Getting them set up isn't a particularly user-friendly process, but once you have them running, they're pretty slick!

Oh I did the worst thing possible. I put Windows ME on them. I got 4 licenses for free. The guy said he sould be paying me to take them. It's the windows version windows lovers hate.

Hint: You can tweak WinMe to be a bit faster in slow computers with 98lite (http://www.litepc.com/98lite.html).

It's not an OS that Microsoft uses as their claim to fame, but from what you said you wanted to do with the machines, it should be OK.

RED HAT if your new to linux but if ur really into linux Gentoo owns all Linux desktops.