Tiresome not-even-newbie question

[peter@example.com]

Hello, all. I'm new to this list (which was recommended to me by at
least one fellow-subscriber to N-Computing).  I've never used Linux,
FreeBSD, etc., or any other Unix derivative, let alone on my own
computer.  But I'd like to do so.  And if possible I'd like to do so on
a laptop.

This is going to be a longish message.  Sorry about that.  But it will
be a long mumbling-out-loud preamble to a simple question: Which Linux
should I attempt to install on which of the two laptops at my disposal?
[Yes, idiot newbie asks cliche question number 3. . . .]

If it's relevant: I want Linux in order to familiarize myself with it
so that later, when I *need* it for something, I'll be ready.  Of
course I don't intend to use a laptop as a webserver, or similar. 
However, I would like to be able to handle Japanese.  I guess I'd use
it for mail, websurfing, and maybe gimp.  (And Abiword, perhaps, but
StarOffice doesn't tempt me.) And I've got, or can easily get hold of,
Red Hat 6.2J and 7.01J on CD, and have books on Red Hat 6.2US and 7.0US.

I'm not too bright, but I can follow simple instructions. The various
books I've borrowed and bought make the installation process sound very
straightforward.  However, firsthand reports of installing on a laptop
-- particularly one that lacks a CD-ROM drive -- make it sound a lot
less so.  For example, I've read http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/notebook.html
, in which Jim Breen talks of the hours he put into installing Red Hat
6.2 on Toshiba Satellite 2800 -- but (a) the machine has a built-in CD-ROM
drive, and (b) he's experienced.

What I've just bought is a Toshiba Portege [silly name!] 7220CTe.  It
now has a single WinY2K partition of a modest 2GB, plus 10GB of
inviting wilderness.  I'd rather like to have 4GB-worth of Linux -- and
leave the rest of the space for joint-use data files and [blush!] more
WinY2K stuff.  I have already learnt that I have to throttle down the
PCMCIA driver in order for cards to be readable.  Moreover,
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pb/T7140CT.html#S0750 gives the general
impression that this computer is bleeding-edge, even for people who
obviously know what they're doing -- and I of course do not.

One reason for getting this Toshiba is that I've outgrown the hard
drive capacity (1.3 GB or so) of *this* laptop, a Fujitsu FMV-5133NU6/W
(Pentium 133, 32MB RAM). As the Fujitsu isn't mine, I'm not authorized
to open it up and change the hard drive -- but I can do absolutely
anything I want with software, e.g. nuking Windows and putting Linux in
its place.

I got Red Hat because it's well known and . . . yes, I suppose I was
amused by the logo. I got 7.0 because I thought it would have better
support than 6.2 for USB, PCMCIA, etc.  But it requires 2.5 GB of hard
drive space, and installation on the new laptop promises to be a
nightmare. Therefore I'm starting to wonder about deferring plans to
add 7.0 to the new laptop and in the meantime nuking Windows from the
old one (built-in hard drive, extremely blunt-edge technology) and
putting 6.2J in its place.

Ladies and gentlemen, your comments?

++++++++++++++++
Peter Evans mailto:peter@example.com