Hi, I’m Nancy,
Just an FYI, I have a thyroid problem and this has caused short term memory problems, so hopefully with enough notes I can overcome this.
I’ve dug out an old laptop, here are it’s specs (will have questions about that)
It’s an Acer/Aspire 5551-2036
AMD Athlon ll X2 processor ~does this mean it’s a dual processor?
P320 2.1 GHz ~Is the P320 part important?
ATI mobility radeon HD 4250 Graphics ~I have no clue as to what this means
Up to 1405mb hypermemory ~is this for video and gaming or something else?
3 GB DDR3 memory ~is this my ram?
320 GB HDD ~is this my hard drive storage?
DVD super multi DL drive ~pretty sure this is my CD player, but if I’m wrong let me know.
Acer nplify 802 11b/g/n ~again, no clue what this is.
It has 3 usb ports and I have a 4 port hub
ether net port
Wifi
HDMI port
another port that will accept 15 pins which I believe I can attach a monitor to ~again if I am wrong let me know.
SD slot
headphone and microphone port.
It has windows 7 which I have to problem exterminating. 
I dug out my blackhawk (external hard drive), it has 1 terrabyte? and backed up everything I might possibly want
I have a new 16GB flashdrive, it’s a keep onn if that makes a difference
I have narrowed my options down to 4, linux lite, zorin, k/ubuntu and linux mint. Not sure if the k/ubuntu will work as I couldn’t find specs on it last night, which I am sure is more of a me problem than they are not out there (brain had shut down). These were all stated as being easy to use and a good starting point.
I know I need to download whichever I finally end up with and I know there is a program I also need to download (I’ll have to write that down since I didn’t and now don’t recall what it is, but I know it’s in the introduction, so not a problem). Hopefully I can find step by step instructions for this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome, Nancy - I am fairly new as well. I chose Linux Mint w/Cinnamon. The program I used toburn the iso to the flash drive was Etcher by Balena, some people also use Rufus.
ATI mobility radeon HD 4250 Graphics ~ This is your graphics “card”
3 GB DDR3 memory ~is this my ram?, Yes.
320 GB HDD ~is this my hard drive storage?, Yes.
DVD super multi DL drive ~pretty sure this is my CD player, but if I’m wrong let me know. You are correct
Acer nplify 802 11b/g/n ~This is your wifi adapter.
Welcome to the first step in regaining your freedom from Big Tech. I have had a couple of strokes, so I too have memory issues and take copious notes. You will find that Everyone here is super helpful and the admins are fantastic.
Mery Christmas and Happy New Year!
Memory issues suck! I’m sorry to hear you also have them.
I too ended up with Mint. Used the rufus as that is what the guy used on the video I was watching. I am using this as a learning tool and then will put it on my main computer. I am updating everything, said I needed to.
I am not happy with the firefox having google, so found the post about changing it to Brave and will do that after the updates, hopefully. With any luck most of the places I use will support it.
Evidently my wifi wants a new driver. That is scary. May have to ask questions about that, will know here shortly.
I need to find the few apps I use, dropbox, telegram. I use those to transfer things from one computer to another. Don’t want to get to far ahead of myself though, I am still going through the welcome part.
Thank you so much for your help.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.
@Wlfwo absolutely. I am using Brave and I really like it. I had a ton of updates that needed to be done when I first instaled Mint and a few device drivers as well. If after all the updates are done you still do not have wifi - Make a new post in the questions queue and one of the admins or another of our more knowledable com-patriots will help, I am sure.
Thank you and I will do so. You have to love it, here, get the latest version, wait! you need updates. 