[plug] ideas and hints wanted

[Bill Kenworthy]

Hi all, want some ideas please,
    I have been asked to set a couple of low powered (486) systems that
the families are getting from their workplace (pensioned off)  The
likely candidates have 8 meg ram, probably dx4(100) and 500meg hard
drives and wiped  clean. My first thought is windoze 3.11 and MSworks as
they are mainly looking at wordprocessing for school assignments.  Games
and internet/modem are not likely in the short term.  They are also new
to computing so do not have any MS bias (yet!), just limited funds.  Is
linux usable in 8meg?   The interface will have to be gui due to the
experiance level and gui wordprocessing is much more intuitive for
newcomers (I presume the kids use word/works at school) - is there a
lightweight window manager system that would do.  KDE would be ideal as
the usability is great and supplied KDE apps are good, but my experiance
is that it takes a hefty cpu, particularly if a high resolution is
used.  In this case 640x480 is probably all that will be used (14inch
monitor).

    Does anyone have any experiance setting up machines for this level
of user.  I am interested in hints such as configuration - bother
setting up accounts for each person, or just go for a single user
account? only use root? (will have to educate them on how to use
accounts etc which is a BIG drawback with only limited gains).  What I
am after is something as usable as windows, without a lot of training or
technical stuff for the users to do.

BillK