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1. Ubuntu or Edubuntu. Or any *buntu favour plus add edu package later with synaptic.
2. No. Its required by any OS, in order to boot it, that the so called bootloader is installed. It can reside on CD, floppy, USB, HDD in MBR or on the zero track of any primary partition. If you install to HDD as your only or multiboot system, you need no disk. GRUB is currently considered the best bootloader.

Regarding the memory issue, try Ubuntu Live CD, if it boots, then its not a memory issue.
BTW it would sure make things a little easier if you'd put the PCs hardware specs here =)
Thanks!

Hm, 128 Megs are actually no problem, but putting one extra 128MB 100MHz Dimm module will sure boost perfomance. But its actually not needed, since theres swap anyway. Such tuning as lowering eye candy and uninstalling/replacing existing packages with less resource demanding equivalents would also help.

Theres another interesting PC network building possibility as well: http://www.edubuntu.org/images/ltsp_inet.png

http://www.edubuntu.org/GettingStarted

But since youre main points are not only low resource usage but also an OS thats perfect for nontechnical users out of the box, for this age group edubuntu is perfect. It is Debian based distro, so updates are quick, safe and it has very huge community. Edubuntu is especially targeted for schools, so I think you can find ppl there, which already have built simular projects.

If youll be using the setup commercially, theres paid support as well, which may speed up the installation a lot and its a fair alternative, should the community not be able to answer your questions in time.

Lin

PS
Im actually relatively new to Linux, but not to win32. But switched cause linux is actually THE OS for the computing. Anyway, XFCE Debian(Ubuntu's big brother) consumes 80 MB RAM on boot @ my machine and there ARE ways to lower mem usage even more.

I am obviously doing something wrong. I have added 384 MB (3 x 128 MB DIMM) in the HP desktop now and I have downloaded Ubuntu 8, CentOS 5, Edubuntu, and the only one that will actually load without errors is Damn Small Linux.

Let me ask you this... when I burn the image from the file onto my CD/DVD, is there anything additional that I must add to it? Kiski asked where I loaded the Grub file. Honestly, I just chose the INSTALL to harddrive option and did nothing extra. When that did not work, I try the install that works from the CD/DVD, that doesn't work either... it stops somewhere in the middle.

I notice that in the Damn Small Linux, I have a grub file loaded because it asks me which file to load at startup.

I reformatted the hard drives so all Windows programs are off of the two computers that I'm working with to simulate what I will have at school to work with. One is the deskop I mentioned earlier and the other is an HP Laptop F3250:
MPN F1916A#ABA
Key Features
Processor K6-2 475 MHz
Installed Memory 64 MB (SDRAM)
Hard Drive 6 GB IDE
Display 12.1 in. TFT Active Matrix
Processor
Processor Manufacturer AMD
Processor Type K6-2
Processor Speed 475 MHz
Motherboard
Bus Speed 100 MHz

(While reloading Edbuntu on the HP Desktop, this error was scrolling down the screen....

SQUASHFS errors ) No matter which one I try... only the DSL actually loads. I did a disk check for errors and several of the earlier CDs had 1 error so I slowed down the burn speed. Even that did not allow me to install the programs. When your hard disk is re-formatted, it doesn't need a partition to work, does it?

It looks like my downloads are all the "live CDs". Should I be downloading something else?
Thanks for any suggestions... I've spent all week with nothing to show for it. (Accept the DSL... at least I'm happy I have that one. However, I'm not sure ten year olds would get much use out of it.)
I have got to figure something out so that I can removed the contents of the donated computers (which will all be different) and learn how to effectively load one of those programs.

Thanks for all of your suggestions... I'm learning.

Well... I was trying out EduPup and when I clicked on HardDisks, it froze and the two lights on the keyboard began flashing and I had to shut off the computer.

Thanks again for those of you who offered suggestions. I really appreciate it.

I'm downloading Fedora but I have a feeling, my computers are only going to run on the very small programs. I am so happy to be using programs in my classroom that are OpenSource. :-)

Thanks, Lin,
I'm so excited about Linux and all of the possibilities. I will probably spend most of my summer before school starts again trying to figure out what will work in my classroom. However, I'm not only interested in the classroom, I'm interested for myself as well. I see that I've stumbled across a whole new area to learn, the world of Linux. I know it has been out there a long time, but I'm now at a place when I don't have the resources to buy what I want to share with my kids. The whole concept of Open Source is wonderful. I use Dreamweaver and Photoshop and will eventually look for something similar as I won't be putting out $1,000 for Creative Suite 3 but once. I teach students (older elementary) how to use Paint Shop Pro and WebEditor and the students are amazing. I found Open Office this past year and used that with students.

Great idea about keeping a log of what is working and what is not. I'll do just that. I installed Puppy 4 this morning and so far, it is working just fine, also. I bet I do have bad sectors or something misconfigured on my hard drive. I have a feeling that most of the CDs I downloaded were "live" because I remember a couple took all day to load and they wouldn't boot so they may have been the setup disks. I shouldn't say they wouldn't load, all of the cds were able to load the introduction screen and menu but after that is where many froze, etc. I have another older machine that I'll work with this week and keep track of what I can load and not load on it as well.

Again, thanks for taking the time to help. I really appreciate it.

Quick update... I was able to load Fluxbuntu to my oldest HP Laptop with only 64 mg RAM in light install. It works great. My HP Desktop, mentioned above, would not load so it continues to look like hard drive errors. I'm going to try a different hard drive and install again. Fluxbuntu has a lot of promise and I really like Puppy 4 and EduPup for my students. :-) Absolute truth: There is always something new and exciting to learn... life is NEVER boring! :-)

Thank you! I will give it a try. I have a lot of computers that I could use as thin clients. I'll see what I can do about finding a newer one with more power. Thanks for the link and advice. :-)