Robert volunteers for a St. Louis organization called ByteWorks, which takes old PCs & refurbs them, then teaches kids how to use 'em. At that point, the kids get to keep the PCs. Pretty cool program. Robert is helping them move from old versions of Windows to Linux, which is great. Unfortunately, these machines are so old that "modern" Linux desktops like GNOME and KDE are too much. Here's what I suggested:

<begin my email to Robert>

If this was for "normal" users we were trying to wean away from Windows, I would push KDE, but that's impossible with this ancient, underpowered hardware. Ice [a window manager] is way too different & weird. Actually, so is KFCE, since it's based on GNOME's ideas about desktops (which are quite bizarre).

Have you looked at this?

http://www.simplekde.org

It's a stripped-down KDE.

Or this?

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8239

Another stripped-down KDE.

Interestingly, Auditor - one of the absolute best Live CDs for security - switched from ICEwm to a stripped down KDE.

http://www.remote-exploit.org/index.php/Auditor_changes

Have you looked at this distro, which is specifically for old hardware & uses KDE?

VectorLinux
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=vector

<end my email to Robert>

(Check out all of our posts on KDE, ICE, XFCE, & Auditor.)