--To everyone reading this thread:

NOBODY should have to run with 32Meg RAM anymore. Unless you're running with ancient 72-pin SIMMS or a non-upgradable laptop, you can go out to Officemax and get 128Meg SDRAM for like $30-40. They even offer a money-back rebate. You can probably find it even cheaper online, but then you have to wait, and pay for shipping.
I totally agree with Dave, I wouldn't want to have to run Knoppix on my P-150 w/32MB of RAM (72-pin) and swap partition, I said it was slow running KDE, I really didn't do this thread justice when I said it was slow, it took more than 15 minutes for konqueror to come up with the cd's html index page, I never did see mozilla actually run, I gave up. The other problem with most systems of this age is not only a lack of memory but also video cards that only partially function with X-4.x.

Similar to Dave's story about his server, I have taken several old cases, made sure the power supplies functioned OK, put in a new 80mm fan if necessary and then put in used AMD K2 processors on AT motherboards that I find used. Using other recycled parts that I find or have laying around, I have built 3 or 4 computers for a cash outlay of between 30 to 75 dollars (US) each. The $75 one is my office computer, it was built from a free case, a $20 combination of a motherboard, a K3-450 processor, and a Voodoo3 pci video card. I paid another $30 for a used 30GB hd and had to buy a $20 128MB stick of ram, and a $3 used cd-rom, it runs great, it has never crashed or locked up, I am running libranet 2.0 on it, no problems even through power outages at school.

I do realize that in other parts of the world people are not obsessive consumers like we are in the US so finding good functioning used parts inexpensively may be a different story.

rock