>1. Which distro to use? I've used Mint before in a similar setting
>(and was pleased) but I'm now stuck with 6 year old Dells with almost no
>video acceleration and .5 G memory each. I'm thinking XFCE with Mint or
>Xbuntu, but am open to others (even a stock debian install which I use
>on my home machine) but I will not be able to update unless I do so
>manually (which a CD or thumbdrive).
>2. How do I 'clone' the machine to a CD or, preferably, a thumb drive
>so I can install the same configuration to all machines (limiting menu
>options, put in educational games, add openoffice or
libreoffice, etc.)?
Another option would be to roll your own with Debian live ( http://live.debian.net/ ) and add the packages you want. If you're going to do that, stable is the easiest distro to use.