Ubuntu required more than 15Gigs? Are you sure? Most Linux installs I've done would fit on 2Gigs or less. Granted, I haven't personally installed Ubuntu on anything. Before you jump on the Linux bandwagon I would analyze more closely "who" has to support these PCs. If you will be the support person and are willing to spend your time great. If someone else will be supporting these computers then you should look at what OS that person (or persons) is used to supporting. Win2k is still a viable operating system (as long as it is behind a good firewall) and you can easily create multiple login profiles or none at all. Just a couple of distro suggestions if you go ahead with Linux. Mepis PCLinuxOS Slax VidaLinux(VLOS) VecorLinux (based on Slackware, fairly quick even on older hardware) CentOS If you plan to go ahead with Linux, I would grab one of the computers and play with each of the above distros and any other you want to try before installing on all of the computers. You might even consider creating an "image" machine where you apply all the patches before-hand and create images of the hard drive as you go (using Ghost or appropriate Open Source software). That way if one of the machines goes belly up, you can quickly restore it providing all the hardware is the same. Todd Young Steve wrote: > Need Help, > The "Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly" organization in the Twin > Cities area helps older people live an interesting life, especially > those whose spouses/significant others are deceased. It is primarily a > non-profit supported by contributions of money and time by volunteer > helpers/workers. You may or maynot be familiar; sorry for verbage if > you are. > > O.K. they replaced all the office computers recently and now have a > dozen or so which they would like to place in elder/client homes for > their use. I have volunteered to erase all office data on hard drive > and install email and word processing software. > > Now we are getting to the problem; the computers have MS Windows 2000 > Pro as OS and most have only 15 gig hard drives (a couple only have 2 > gig drives - those probably won't be used). The boxes are password > protected and the pw's are not always available. So my thinking is to > reformat & install Linux (my experience is quite limited). > > I have downloaded Ubuntu 5.10 at home, wrote to a CD and installed on a > box. It works great but required considerably more than 15 gigs. > > Is the a Linux distro plus email and word processor which can be put > into approx 10 or 12 gig drive space?? > > BTW - if you happen to be available during business hours Mon - Fri, you > are welcome to help with project. > > Thanks, > Steve > > > -- Todd Young