I want to resurrect my old desktop computer.

It currently has Windows 98, but I want to completely change it to Linux. I plan to dedicate it to software development in java, c/c++, etc.

It has 8GB and 32MB RAM. The RAM is so small that I want to install knoppix without any kind of XWindows (KDE, etc). All I want is to install bash, all of its console-based programs, and other development tools that come with Knoppix (gcc, etc).

Please advise. Thank you.

P.S. I understand there is no 'mail' program in Knoppix. Are there other missing shell programs?