I have an old Subnotebook (at least 10 years old I think) which runs Windows 7 atm. I would like to run Linux on it. I‘m a Linux noob, but would like to try and learn a few things. Any recommendations?
Being lightweight or not doesn’t depend on the distro but the desktop manager (the graphic interface). Unlike Windows, the graphic in Linux is separated from the system so you can use different desktop managers on the same distros.
The lightest DE is LXQT but it’s pretty barebone, XFCE has more features while still being very light, avoid GNOME and KDE.
That being said, I suggest you try Linux MX XFCE or Mint XFCE first, if that’s not light enough for your liking, try Lubuntu, that’s Ubuntu with LXQT as default DE.
Mint XFCE
This is first stop, if this is slow than try something else.
My guess is it will be too slow, but it is worth a try.
exactly the way I see it too it’s the lightest of the no compromise linux environement, after that you’re starting to see the gears
Debian with LXQt. Good luck.
Debian XFCE
Thank you for all the suggestions, I don’t have access to the laptop right now, so I can’t get the specs, I’ll try to post them tomorrow
I daily drive a netbook and I use Debian 12 with KDE Plasma on it. The netbook is a 2014 ThinkPad 11e with a Celeron and 4GB of RAM. I find it comfortable for writing and even some Python and JavaScript development. I remote into my servers/cloud infra for more intense development tasks.
+1 for upgrading whatever you can before installing linux. An SSD in particular will go a long way to make it feel snappy.
I spent a few weeks learning the arch installation for my old laptop and it’s had the same installation now for about four years. It’s awesome and I have only the packages I need, no more, no less.
You can use quite a number of “underlying” distributions, it mainly depends on what you like (Arch-based ones, Debian-based ones, etc).
As a desktop environment, have a look at XFCE or LXDE.
Artix or archbang. For the debian side, antix linux.
You could try out BunsenLabs, it’s loads of fun and reasonably lightweight. Basically Debian with a few tweaks.
- Lubuntu
- Linux Lite
- Zorin OS Lite
If that is still not enough you could try Chromeos Flex. It’s not Linux but it could at least maybe make your old Laptop usable again for casual web browsing.
ZorinOS Lite
I would just buy a cheap RAM stick and install one of the mainstream distrobutions with KDE Plasma on it. You can turn off most of the desktop effects and unnecessary background services.
I recomend you to max out the ram, replace hdd with ssd and thermal paste while cleaning the dust with compressed air. It’ll work with Linux faster than ever.
You can try out different distros in Live-mode (no installation/format requirements) if you just format your biggest usb stick with Ventoy2Disk and drag and drop any .iso-file you want to try: https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_ventoy2disk.html
I don’t say what distro you should use. But if you’re considering Linux Mint then try LMDE5 instead and here’s why: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=374128
Thank you for your recommendation, but I really don’t want to spend any money at all on it. I’d like it to be a toy to learn a bit about Linux, not a daily driver 😁
then void linux would be the perfect fit for you
its highly tinkerable and has a smooth learning curveThe 128 gb ssd’s are like 20-30 bucks and used probably even cheaper. Used ddr2 or ddr3 ram sticks are like 5-10 bucks each.
Thermal paste should be replaced every 2-3 years into every computer. Because the cpu isn’t modern nor fast in today’s standards, cleaning the dust and replacing the thermal paste will make cpu to thermal throttle way less which means faster run overall.
But obviously the choice is yours and I’m not forcing you. Happy Linux learning times!
Thanks 😁
I have successfully run Arch with Openbox as WM on machines even older than that. Arch has a learning curve, though.
And therefore it should not be recommended to Linux beginners… It is not a beginner distro.
There is no such thing as a “beginner distro”. There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain. Arch needs you to read and follow instructions. It is a myth that it is impossible for beginners to use Arch. There are several good installations instructions in the wiki, select one and follow it till the end.
There are also plenty of Arch derivates that preconfigure the system for you.
It’s not impossible, but it’s unnecessarily tidious… Especially when with other distros you can just follow a 4 Step wizard and get a similar result.
I beg to differ and say, even when the Arch wiki is a great source of knowledge, setting up own Arch system and maintaining it requires keeping on track with updates, to understand what is wrong with your system to look up the right keywords and so on. In my opinion it is better to stay on a stable, periodically released distro with tested repos like Debian, Mint or Ubuntu at first. Afterwards, you can still switch to Arch.
There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain
It’s not a matter of intelligence but prior knowledge, Arch wiki is the best thing ever for everyone, even if you don’t use Arch, BUT you need some Linux knowledge - at least Linux “lingo” - to be able to understand it.
That’s something a Linux newbie doesn’t have yet, exactly the reason why Arch is not recommended for newbies.
You’re way too deep in the linux world lol.
There are distros that need little to no intelligence to set up and maintain.
One might call that… suited for beginners.
You’re way too deep in the linux world
Yep.
beginners
Beginners need to learn anyways, why not skip the “not-for-beginners stuff” and go all in? :)
I tried a couple distros on VMs (mint xfce, Manjaro i3…) because I want to eventually resurrect my old laptop and I was trying stuff out.
Tried installing Arch in another VM this year. The regular instructions were complicated and I didn’t follow them because too much work. Tried using arch installer and couldn’t. Had to install arch installer (???) from the boot command line. But it gave me a keyring error as well. Idk how I solved that but eventually got through.
Then I had it functioning for some days. One day I try to turn the VM back on and it just doesn’t boot. I’m sorry arch, I love you but it wasn’t meant to be.
@Dirk @Fungus
Arch + aur is a little bit too much in my opinion. Old PC = old slow hardware. Some of aur pacages are basicly compile instructions. Also you won’t benefit as much from rolling release.
For GUI stay away from GNOME as it is resource hungry. KDE claimes to be a lot better but honestly it is still a very polished flashy expirence out of the box.
Learn using KDE, atempt to replicate using window manager like AwesomeWM.
You will “waste” resource only for what is a mass have for You.@mrXYZ
Unless you’re doing something very unusual, you’re not going to end up with many AUR packages. I’ve run Arch on SBCs without much trouble.There are severely steps in between Gnome/KDE and Awesome. XFCE and Enlightenment are more user friendly options that are still quite lightweight.
@Dirk @Fungus
