[luau] My Current Linux Needs

[demon_jr808]

To everyone that responded to my previous post, thanks!   This is a more specific version of my previous question, but I hope everyone doesn't mind.   I wish to learn and become profecient in using Linux, but at the moment, the only thing holding me back are my hardware requirements and what I will actually be using the Linux system for.   I am looking to purchase a laptop, but being very, very, very, poor, I can not afford anything close to a modern system. As a result, I have been looking for refurbished laptops at the very low end of the scale, ranging around $100 to $200. As a result, the only laptops I have been able to find are very low end, ranging from 486 to Pentium 133 and with ram ranging from 8 MB to 16 MB, along with hard drives that barely reach 1-2 GB.   From my past readings regarding Linux, I have read that Linux requires very little in the way of hardware to run fast and smoothly. Many of my readings at the time, indicated that a 486 system with 8 MB was more than sufficient to run a Linux system. From what I have read, a system that would appear slow in Windows 95, as a result of old and dated hardware, would become amazingly fast in Linux. This being the case, I believed that Linux would be an excellent choice of OS to install on an old and dated laptop.   I will be using the system for mainly two tasks: as a learning ground for Linux and web page design. I am just a newbie when it comes to web page design, however I can code very simple pages using HTML, CSS, and a very simple text editor, such as Notepad on Windows. This being the case, for a Linux system, I would need a text editor similar to Notepad along with browsers, such as IE or Netscape. I have used Pico a great deal in the past, however that was only in the shell. Since I wish to practice making web pages in a graphical environment, believe I will have to use the Linux GUI.   In regards to the Linux GUI, I really have no idea what the difference is between X, KDE, and Gnome. However, I have read that running these "applications" increases the hardware requirements on the Linux system.   Now taking into account the above, what kind of system would you recommend?