funny, but wrong. The e is pronounced like first e in Mesmerized.

Edit: Spelling

Try HerbstluftWM. It’s quite simple but very flexible to configure.

Floppy drives don’t use IDE, they use their own type of connector ( called a floppy connector), I’ve never seen a Sata to floppy adaptor, but you can connect a usb to floppy adapter to an internal usb header

correct me if I’m wrong but just overwriting the whole disk it wouldn’t make a difference if it is SMR. SMR is only slower if you want to overwrite something kn the middle of it because it then needs to change and re write adjacent tracks.

give AntiX a shot, I run it on my own older laptop and it’s super snappy. Be aware it doesn’t come with a DE, just your choice of 4 WMs, and is quite bare bones but still a fully functional Distro out of the box.