One of the ancient Pentium III 450Mhz machines I rebuilt for the IT team has returned to me, with a request to try Linux. Against my better judgement, I installed straight Ubuntu on it, but it seemed to handle the workload in an acceptable fashion. I installed xubuntu-desktop too, as a safety measure, and sent it home this evening with a brief e-mail full of instructions.
I think the owner will like it. She’s more forward-thinking than most, and she asked for it specifically. If the hardware holds up (and I think it will), she might want to add it as a second OS to one of her faster, contemporary computers (I think between she and her husband and two kids, there are about three computers in the household — including another 800Mhz giveaway she took from me about six months ago). Dual boot, here we come.
Had a PC just like that (with lots of RAM).
Ubuntu (Gnome) is quite sluggish, but Xubuntu runs perfectly.