Have Linux 5, can get 6/7 if needed. Have on Toshiba Satellite 2530CDS running Win98? Could not run Win2K (hardware does not support Win2K)...can it run Linux?

To start with, linux is the name of the kernel....not the operating system, most people make this mistake. The OSs are referred to as distrobutions or more commonly distros. The linux kernel is up to v2.4 with 2.6 out pretty soon. (NB the odd numbered subversions eg 2.3, 2.5 are development versions and are released as even numbers when considered stable eg 2.5 becomes 2.6 when finished. You say you have version 5 and could get 6 or 7. I am assuming that you are referring to redhat linux (which is up to v9 now), one of the most popular distros around. v5 is pretty old so should run on older hardware...then again so should v7 which still seems to be used a lot these days. Bear in mind that the first release of a major version (eg 5.0, 6.0 or 7.0) can often be a little unstable due to new/ experimental software, getting better with following releases (7.1, 7.2 etc). Getting back to your laptop, visit www.linux-on-laptops.com and have search through for other peoples experiences. You can also visit www.distrowatch.com in order to compare different choices, and you can download them all from www.linuxiso.org