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.
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
Debian XFCE
something that runs xfce
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.
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.
ZorinOS Lite
Idk your laptop’s specs but I’ve been running Arch with XFCE on my Thinkpad T400 for a while now and it was decent enough to do college assignments, take notes, watch videos and stuff like that a year or two ago. Debian is also decent nowadays, and heard good things about Peppermint but I have no experience with it.
Truth is, it doesn’t really matter as long as you use a lightweight DE like XFCE, lxqt or cinamon. The thing that will inevitably kill older machines is the modern JS heavy web. Youtube and Reddit were really pushing the limits of that old machine sometimes but it struggled through.
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.
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.
Mx Linux or Antix Linux. If you need more GUI and handholding try OpenSuse Leap
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.
- 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.
