Hi everyone.

I will write in English because it's more comfortable. Hope it's okay.

Any lightweight Desktop Environment should use less than 1 Gigaybte of RAM on boot. This is sometimes called "RAM fingerprint". You can google the term and find alternatives, like Puppy Linux.

+1 XFCE, I agree it's a great desktop for beginners, and it has low RAM fingerprint.

+1 Mate, same reasons.

-1 Fedora, I don't think it's baginner-friendly because of the constant kernel updates. Unless the experienced/ friend who recommended it is willing to give support every once in a while (say 6 months or so).

The obvious option would be ubuntu mate of xubuntu (ubuntu xfce).

To put another option on the table, this debian-based distro comes either with XFCE or FluxBox: https://mxlinux.org/

Always keep your system up to date.

Have fun!!!

PS. I've been using old hardware, and participated in such clubs a lot of years back in my country. Not to put any 'principle of authority' fallacy, just thought it's worth mentioning I've some experience on the subject.