ubuntu v red hat for my kids

[stowpirate]

Gives 3,870,000 hits. ubuntu fast give 6,800,000. therefore...

You need to look more deeply than that? Even Kubuntu will run at a usable level in 256mb ram on 1ghz machine albeit virtual machines are not advisable and you need swap partition! So I am not having a go at Ubuntu just pointing out that it is not the best distro if you want absolute speed.

is this also only availble in wh smiths...? how quaint.

argumentative but yes it is available at WH smiths but also at Addenbrookes hospital newsagents! But not in rural East Anglia!

http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/

currently using 08.04 on 2.26 P4, 2gb. You should upgrade mem to at least 1gb. ideally 2gb. its cheap now.

There is little to be gained from jumping from 512mb to 1gb with Ubuntu - you should already know that? With 512mb you can even get away with not having a swap partition. The same goes for XP but you do require a swap file. In my case the best upgrade path would be from P4 to dual core with 1gb ram and use 64bit flavour of Linux.