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I have a Sony Vaio PCG-9401 and it's soo old that one of the RAM ports doesn't work leaving it with a grand total of 128MB of RAM. I want to install Linux on it (any distro that will work) but it stops reading the disk and shuts off after a while. The battery has completely died so it does not carry a charge anymore. What solutions do you guys suggest when I have a 12GB hard drive?

Linux distros I have tried:

• Ubuntu (alternate CD)
  

• Xubuntu (alternate CD)
  

• Vector Linux (standard gold)

I'd like to use this for homework (OpenOffice.org), messaging (Pidgin or Gaim), and Internet browsing (Firefox)

Puppy Linux and SLAX are good alternate choices too.

What if Bill Gates had a nickle for every time a Windows computer crashes... OH WAIT, he does!!!

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/linux-newbie/8441-distro-look-here-before-posting.html
^^ Useful link that, though the only one it suggests that hasn't been is ZenWalk (haven't tried it personally). The other solution is to do a very minimal Debian install, and then use something like XFCE (reasonably lightweight) or (for the very lightweight) FluxBox, IceWM or FVWM (there are more lightweight ones, I just can't think of them right now) as your window manager.
http://www.go2linux.org/installing-a-light-linux-operating-system-debian-fluxbox
^^ If you ignore the irrelevant parts of that, it's a good quick reference for a light install (really, it's just "Install *base* Debian [not the desktop environment version, just base] setup sudo, install FluxBox and a few choice apps" and you're done).

Edit: Fixed typo
[Modified by: Penguin on March 28, 2008 04:10 PM]