Looking for a small Linuw distro that can be installed by a novice and only needs to offer web access. The target PCs are Pentium 1s with who knows what for a video card and NIC.

Any suggestions?

Go for Knoppix. Even I was able to use that

Most novice's seem to be incapable of installing any OS (Linux, Windows, BSD, ...) except perhaps one from Apple.

Gentoo, Lindows (Linspire), and Xandros are probably the best for this situation. The latter two especially should be easier to install and configure than Windows.

Knoppix is my favorite, but it is intended to run completely from CDROM, so some expertise will be needed for persistent storage of email, preferences, etc..

Cheers

Some of the sci-fi conventions I go to have a makeshift "internet lounge" set up where you can sit down and grab your email. It seems that the people running these things have switched almost exlusively to Knoppix because it's so easy to set up. (Basically, setup is: Stick in the CD, press Power...)

I'd recommend Knoppix and Gentoo. I learnt a lot about linux with Gentoo and as Mark and Tony have already said, Knoppix is just so damn easy.

Thanks all, I'll go play with thoes suggestions.
The guy using it is a Linux novice but familure with PCs in general.
Thanks.