Linux for the people

[toffee]

I am new at Linux and have only used Redhat9 with the Gnome and KDE interfaces.
I want to set up workstations for low income families (primary and high school students) to access a good interface and run open office which will deal with their schoolwork.
What is the basic hardware - CPU, ram, hard drive space, to set up a good user interface. is network ability an issue?
I have found it to be hungry for HDD and ram, however if you compare it to the requirements of .. say Windows XP..... there is a par . I have it running on a Pentium 333Mhz and 2Gig HDD and only 32Mb ram.
it runs slow, but the interface is looks quite good and generating a lot of interest.
What hardware requirements are needed for different distributions of Linux? and what are the plus and minus of the various distros around?

[Chris H]

Personally I find Mandrake 9.0 & 9.1 less memory hungry than RH9. Might be worth having a go with them.

[big_k105]

of the main three i would say mandrake seemed to me to be less memory hungry as well. i would say suse is probably your most memory hungry but that is jst what i have noticed on my computer (Amd K6 233, 128Mb Ram) hope this helps you out some