[TAG] Distro choice for an old laptop (was: ISP email goes down in flames)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Mike Orr (sluggoster at gmail.com):

[Large amount of incredibly valuable advice, delivered with
characteristic self-deprecation:]

> DEB and RPM are just different ways to do the same thing.

Concur.  Developer Joey Hess once wanted to drive that point home
without overt rhetoric, so he posted this comparison page:  
http://www.kitenet.net/~joey/pkg-comp/

> If you like Debian, take a look at Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

For laptops, also MEPIS and Kanotix.  Kanotix is a particularly wise
choice for recent-production laptops, since the hardware recognition
is reliably really good (with MEPIS being close).

As I said separately, I do _not_ think attempting any of those things
on, specifically, a 1996 Inspiron is a good idea.  Adam would be working
against severe hardware constraints, if my guess about total RAM (in
particular) is right.