One huge advantage of Linux is it’s flexibility. Different pieces of open source software can be put together in order to make it work on certain types of hardware. One graphical user interface that is good for older hardware is Fluxbox. It uses so little resources that even a machine that is nearly 10 years old can run it well. The problem is that very few distributions actually have a Fluxbox edition. Linux Mint 8 has now come out with their Fluxbox edition meaning it’s one of the most modern and up to date versions of Linux that is using Fluxbox.
Linux Mint is a distribution that is based on Ubuntu. There are a few differences. First, it looks better than Ubuntu. Instead of the brown and orange colors, it uses greens and blacks to create a pretty slick looking desktop. It also comes with proprietary plugins already installed like Flash and Java as well as the codex that you will need to play certain music formats on your computer. While you can install these manually with Ubuntu, Mint has it done when you install the distribution.
Fluxbox can be added onto any Linux distribution. The problem is that you will have to configure it to work well. While this can be done by expert users, newer users have a hard time knowing all the pieces that you will need to make it work properly. Linux Mint 8 Fluxbox has all this already done for you setting it up so that everything works that way you need it to.
While it is made for older hardware, you might not be a huge fan of interfaces like Gnome and KDE. Fluxbox and XFCE are some popular alternatives to these. The advantage of Fluxbox is that it’s so simple that it doesn’t get in the way like other interfaces tend to do. You can use this edition even on a high power machine if that is something you want.