Background: I am a lifelong Windows user who is planning to move to Linux in October, once Microsoft drops support for Windows 10. I use a particularly bad laptop (Intel Celeron N3060, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 64 GB eMMC storage).
I do have some degree of terminal experience in Windows, but I would not count on it. If there are defaults that are sensible enough, I’d appreciate it. I can also configure through mouse-based text editors, as long as there is reliable, concise documentation on that app.
So, here’s what I want in a distro and desktop environment:
- Easy to install, maintain (graphical installation and, preferably, package management too + auto-updating for non-critical applications)
- Lightwight and snappy (around 800 MB idle RAM usage, 10-16 GB storage usage in a base install)
- Secure (using Wayland, granular GUI-based permission control)
I have narrowed down the distributions and desktop environments that seem promising, but want y’all’s opinions on them.
Distributions:
- Linux Mint Xfce: Easy to install, not prone to randomly break (problems: high OOTB storage usage, RAM consumption seems a little too high, kind of outdated packages, not on Wayland yet)
- Fedora: Secure, the main DEs use Wayland (problems: similar to above except for the outdated packages; also hard to install and maintain, from what I have heard)
- antiX Linux (problems: outdated packages, no Wayland)
Desktop Environments:
- Xfce: Lightweight, fast, seems like it’d work how I want (problems: not on Wayland yet, that’s it)
- labwc + other Wayland stuff: Lightweight, fast, secure (problems: likely harder to install, especially since I have no Linux terminal experience, cannot configure through a GUI)
In advance, I thank you all for helping me!
I appreciate any help, especially in things like:
- Neofetch screenshots, to showcase idle RAM usage on some DEs
- Experiences with some distributions
As a complete newbie with those specs, I’d try Mint Xfce edition.
You should probably go for Linux Mint. I love the Gnome Desktop environment, but you’d need to install it afterwards. Probably go for the XFCE version of Linux mint.
Linux mint de
You’re going to distro hop (we all do) so just start somewhere. It’s debian based, so what you learn will be applicable to like 80% of the distros out there.
I like gnome. Plasma is nice too. Lately I’ve just been using minimal i3 window manager.
Good luck!
Just use Linux Mint, cinnamon edition, and then edit the startup app list to not load some of the stuff that take too much ram, like the reports, nvidia, etc. Also remove fwupd if you updated your laptop’s firmware already via windows. I personally also stop bt (frees overall 30 mb of ram). Make sure during installation that you create a 4 GB swap partition too. At the end, I have a system that starts up at 750 MB of RAM (htop reading, 980 MB with gnome-system-monitor). As long as I use only 2-3 Chrome tabs, I’m ok to not swap. Firefox uses more ram i’m afraid, especially with youtube.
I have 4 laptops here run linux mint with 4 gb of ram. They run fine, my husband even does development in one of these.
The n3060 cpu is slow at 660 PassMark points, just enough for Mint to function. XFce is a tad faster indeed, and uses about 60 MB less RAM, however, it’s missing some desktop options that I find useful (e.g. disabling tap and drag).
Yeah this is the way. Debian stable has outdated packages, debian testing has broken packages. Ubuntu is difficult for beginners because of snap. Linux mint is the perfect just-works debian-based beginner distro. Same for DE: Gnome is hard to use, KDE is bloated and unstable, and XFCE is too minimalist/diy/quirky for beginner users (you need to add a panel applet in order for the volume keys to work? Huh??). Cinnamon is the perfect middle ground between resource usage and features.
Make sure during installation that you create a 4 GB swap partition too
Or at least as large as your RAM if you want to be able to hibernate.
I’ve had Fedora updates screw up so many times and spent way too many hours fixing mutually conflicting updates that I have really come to loath the OS. I keep a Fedora server running for my customers who are Redrat enthusiasts but Ubuntu is so much better behaved.
Fedora Kinoite.
- You will basically never need the terminal.
- Highly tweakable, but out of the box is very similar to windows
- It’s immutable (impossible to break)
- App “store” makes sense and is not weird.
- Extremely fast.
“impossible to break”
Then why have rollbacks as a feature 🤣
I mean, rollbacks are quite literally a feature to prevent breaking it. That said I’ve never even had to roll back once.
Yeah, I’m just giving you a rub because of the assertion. “Less likely to break” is more where my mind is.
LOL yes I try not to speak like a FOSSite when talking with newbies. “Arch Linux does not yet have an adequate solution for the hammer problem (when your computer is hit with a hammer) so I can’t recommend it.”
Nah, rollbacks are a feature to save you when it has broken. A good one indeed, but it’s more akin to a fire extinguisher. It doesn’t prevent the problem, but it does prevent everything from being a pile of ashes.
Why do people recommend mint xfce over cinnamon? Is not the cinnamon version better for a newbie?
I think because: 1: I have a tiny bit of technical experience, although none with a Linux system. That’s enough to use something more advanced 2: Cinnamon is basically on par with KDE, in terms of performance, which is not good at all, since my laptop’s specifications are particularly sub-par.
Okay, I do not have enough knowledge about the current version of XFCE. I only know that the look of XFCE was super outdated if you do not tweak it. I cannot say if it is solved or not today.
Yeah, it does feel like Windows XP, but that’s also the beauty of it - I can customize it using the graphical editors, since the UI is not confusing, just outdated.
I think XFCE Mint is a good experience. That said, depending on how W10 has been running for you, Cinnamon won’t be worse than that.
Not that bad - the start menu opens in about 2 seconds, but some apps can take much longer (highly depends, but up to 6-10 seconds). I can easily work with a minimal, Windows 9x layout, if that means I will get a significant performance boost.
I think your assessment of Linux Mint with XFCE is a really good first choice. Cinnamon could be worth a try though as the UI is a bit more modern looking. I’m biased towards XFCE because it looks fine and runs extremely well on old laptops. I’ve got a laptop from 2008 running it (it’s my only computer that still has a disc drive) and it’s honestly a usable machine again.
If your laptop can run w10 at all, it will run mint cinnamon very well
What do you prefer? Linux allows multiple desktops to be installed. I use Mate primarily but I also have lxde installed as a backup in case something breaks.
I prefer something that has the same functional layout as Windows, but is as lightweight and minimal as possible (a Windows XP-like Start Menu is fine, I just need something that is configurable enough and doesn’t blow up my laptop).
Arch. Yes, it is a tough start, yes, you’ll type stuff on the terminal, but my good god…
- Their documentation is the best.
- You will learn a lot.
- You’ll get the cool stuff before anybody else.
- Your system will be as snappy as it can get.
- updates? one single command is all you need.
- your nerd friends will worship you, and your non-nerd friends will think you are a wizard.
- Once you pass the
initiationinstallation, your system can look as pretty as any other distro.
XFCE is probably a good, lightweight DE. Many distros will support it. I believe Linux Mint has an XFCE version by default. I’m sure they will get to Wayland eventually, but it sounds many of the features will not matter to you beyond just a working desktop.
I have never tried it myself, but maybe Debian with XFCE might be more lightweight than Mint? Probably more involved to set up, though, so I would research that a bit more before taking the advice of a rando who has never done that specific distro/DE combination.
I did do some research, and there is a YouTube channel called “Old PC Gunk and Stuff”, that tried out a laptop (that has very similar specs to mine (same model, too), but mine has twice the storage and RAM), with multiple Linux Distros and Windows 11 LTSC.
Apparently, Mokha (Bodhi uses it and he tested it out, altho Chromium outperforms Firefox) and IceWM (AntiX uses it, and AntiX uses Firefox and yet outperformed all other than Mokha by twice the performance).
One downside though is that both Mokha and IceWM are X11-bases, albeit I’m not aware of how bad that is, security-wise.
I’ve literally never heard of Bodhi Linux, but apparently it is a fork of Ubuntu LTS, which will have very outdated packages if that is a concern for you.
AntiX is likewise a fork of Debian Stable, so I suspect it will have the same issue. It also does not use the more standard systemd init system, so finding support could be an issue.
I don’t think that it make sense to start off on such obscure distros. The advantage of a widely-used distro is that there will be forum threads and a much larger network of support to help you learn and debug issues.
I can’t really speak to the security aspects of either X11 or Wayland.
Lol i see these over and over and the conclusion is always the same. They really are looking for Debian but they never mention it as an option.
@thatonecoder unless i missed it, it looks like no one suggested puppy linux! it’s very light and some variants (bookworm pup) has wayland options (32 bit and xorg options as well) and full apt usage.
LMDE. And this is as someone who has used a ton of distro over the years and now just rolls that whenever asked. I prefer the Debian Edition; Mint feels hacky in comparison, almost like snaps and stuff have been ripped out to make the distro something it is not…
I would recommend slackware or devuan with xfce or lxde
I’ve tried many desktop environments: Flux, Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, Mate, Enlightenment, OpenBox, TWM, and screens. Naturally, Gnome prevailed. I can’t resist a system that allows for endless tweaking.
I can’t resist a system that allows for endless tweaking.
So you actually chose KDE, right?
When in doubt: Linux Mint.
You can find something more suitable for your need later on, but this should give you a baseline experience.
I would steer clear of labwc or other minimalist WMs when you’re just getting started. In fact, try nothing but the basics first.
