Looking for OS that is light for my detachable laptop

[Anas Dweik]

Hello guys 

 

I am looking for light and fast OS for my detachable Lenovo Yoga duet 7 with pen. 

90% of time i use the touch screen 

I use it for web browsing and taking notes  and run some android apps all using touch screen. 

 

 

Because i am done with windows 11, it uses all my ram and cpu with that windows defender. 

 

My laptop specs 

i5 10210u, 8 gb 1600hz, 1TB ssd, 2k screen. 

 

Thanks 

 

 

 

[manikyath]

windows is using "all your ram with that windows defender" because nothing else is using it. ram that's sitting empty is wasted, so windows may as well make your experience better and use that to make itself faster. go ahead and load up something actually memory intensive, and windows will just page out some of it's own stuff, to make room for your application.

 

also, last time i've bothered to check, touch screen interfaces were absolute shyte in linux.. so your options are cope with windows, somehow try to shove android onto that thing, or deal with horrid UI.

[RONOTHAN##]

If you're trying to ditch Windows, you're gonna be heading to some sort of Linux distro. As long as you don't go for something like Garuda you're gonna get lower RAM and CPU usage compared to Windows 11, it's just how much better do you want it to be. 

 

There are 2 main things that you want to know for picking a distro for a system like this -- base distro and desktop environment (DE). I'd recommend getting something based on Debian/Ubuntu if this would be your first time running Linux since it's got the most documentation, tutorials, and a lot of software available. Some distros based on Debian/Ubuntu are vanilla Debian (wouldn't recommend this though, it's very temperamental to get installed), MX Linux, Ubuntu itself (Debian but with more packages available), Linux Mint, Pop_OS!, KDE Plasma, and a bunch of other ones. The main differences between them is just what's installed by default, how often things get updated, and who maintains it. I'd get whichever one has the desktop environment you like best installed by default. Manjaro is also an option, it's Arch-based so everything is more up to date and the Arch Wiki is really helpful with it, but it's definitely not as stable as Debian based stuff (every Manjaro install I've had has broken within a week, and I know what I'm doing, though from what I've seen that isn't completely typical to happen), though if you want to get your hands dirty it a decent option as well.

 

The DE isn't that important for picking a distro, because of how modular Linux is you can always change it around and install something else without too much effort, but I'd still try to get one with the DE you like out of the box. The two big ones that do have out of the box multi touch gesture support are KDE Plasma and Gnome. Both have their pros and cons. Personally I think Gnome has the better touch interface and the best virtual desktop implementation period, but it's also one of the heaviest DEs (still lighter than Windows, but no where close to something like LXQt). KDE, on the other hand, has more customization options (there are screenshots of it that look exactly like MacOS, Windows XP, and Windows 11 depending on how they're configured), is relatively light for all the features it offers, and is a bit more intuitive IMO, but there are some things about it that are a bit clunky/not polished and it is definitely more optimized for a keyboard and mouse experience. There are other ones out there that are really lightweight like XFCE, LXQt, Cinnamin, etc. that you can try out, but if you're gonna be using the touch screen 90% of the time they might be a bit sub optimal. Don't be afraid to download a distro with a particular DE you want to try and use the live environment to see what you like (you can try using a Linux distro before you install it if it supports a live environment which most do), you might love XFCE or Mate even without the touch optimizations, you never know. Unity (Ubuntu's home built DE) might have decent multi touch support, but I haven't used it in years so can't tell you for certain.

 

Personally on my laptop (1135G7, 8GB RAM, also touch screen) I run Fedora 35 with the Gnome 41 desktop (yes, Fedora 36 exists, I've just been too lazy to update it) and it does run great. Fedora is a very rock solid distro that is very stable and has a great Gnome setup out of the box, though it does somewhat assume you kinda know what your doing in the documentation so if you've never used Linux before it's not a great first option. 

 

Also, Chrome OS does exist and will have the best Android app support (Linux's Android app support is a little spotty), but it's also Google so take that for what you will. If you don't want to have to think about anything though, this is a good option. 

[Anas Dweik]

31 minutes ago, manikyath said:

windows is using "all your ram with that windows defender" because nothing else is using it. ram that's sitting empty is wasted, so windows may as well make your experience better and use that to make itself faster. go ahead and load up something actually memory intensive, and windows will just page out some of it's own stuff, to make room for your application.

 

also, last time i've bothered to check, touch screen interfaces were absolute shyte in linux.. so your options are cope with windows, somehow try to shove android onto that thing, or deal with horrid UI.

I hate it because the laptop gets hot everytime. I am just looking for an OS similar to android systems. Simple and fast

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Anas Dweik said:

I hate it because the laptop gets hot everytime. I am just looking for an OS similar to android systems. Simple and fast

it'll get just as hot with a different OS. that's not an OS problem, that's a laptop problem.

[Anas Dweik]

46 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If you're trying to ditch Windows, you're gonna be heading to some sort of Linux distro. As long as you don't go for something like Garuda you're gonna get lower RAM and CPU usage compared to Windows 11, it's just how much better do you want it to be. 

 

There are 2 main things that you want to know for picking a distro for a system like this -- base distro and desktop environment (DE). I'd recommend getting something based on Debian/Ubuntu if this would be your first time running Linux since it's got the most documentation, tutorials, and a lot of software available. Some distros based on Debian/Ubuntu are vanilla Debian (wouldn't recommend this though, it's very temperamental to get installed), MX Linux, Ubuntu itself (Debian but with more packages available), Linux Mint, Pop_OS!, KDE Plasma, and a bunch of other ones. The main differences between them is just what's installed by default, how often things get updated, and who maintains it. I'd get whichever one has the desktop environment you like best installed by default. Manjaro is also an option, it's Arch-based so everything is more up to date and the Arch Wiki is really helpful with it, but it's definitely not as stable as Debian based stuff (every Manjaro install I've had has broken within a week, and I know what I'm doing, though from what I've seen that isn't completely typical to happen), though if you want to get your hands dirty it a decent option as well.

 

The DE isn't that important for picking a distro, because of how modular Linux is you can always change it around and install something else without too much effort, but I'd still try to get one with the DE you like out of the box. The two big ones that do have out of the box multi touch gesture support are KDE Plasma and Gnome. Both have their pros and cons. Personally I think Gnome has the better touch interface and the best virtual desktop implementation period, but it's also one of the heaviest DEs (still lighter than Windows, but no where close to something like LXQt). KDE, on the other hand, has more customization options (there are screenshots of it that look exactly like MacOS, Windows XP, and Windows 11 depending on how they're configured), is relatively light for all the features it offers, and is a bit more intuitive IMO, but there are some things about it that are a bit clunky/not polished and it is definitely more optimized for a keyboard and mouse experience. There are other ones out there that are really lightweight like XFCE, LXQt, Cinnamin, etc. that you can try out, but if you're gonna be using the touch screen 90% of the time they might be a bit sub optimal. Don't be afraid to download a distro with a particular DE you want to try and use the live environment to see what you like (you can try using a Linux distro before you install it if it supports a live environment which most do), you might love XFCE or Mate even without the touch optimizations, you never know. Unity (Ubuntu's home built DE) might have decent multi touch support, but I haven't used it in years so can't tell you for certain.

 

Personally on my laptop (1135G7, 8GB RAM, also touch screen) I run Fedora 35 with the Gnome 41 desktop (yes, Fedora 36 exists, I've just been too lazy to update it) and it does run great. Fedora is a very rock solid distro that is very stable and has a great Gnome setup out of the box, though it does somewhat assume you kinda know what your doing in the documentation so if you've never used Linux before it's not a great first option. 

 

Also, Chrome OS does exist and will have the best Android app support (Linux's Android app support is a little spotty), but it's also Google so take that for what you will. If you don't want to have to think about anything though, this is a good option. 

Thank you for this useful informations,

 

I think chrome OS suits me the best. Since it supports Android apps and kinda looks like Android system. And also seems very light 

[Anas Dweik]

13 minutes ago, manikyath said:

it'll get just as hot with a different OS. that's not an OS problem, that's a laptop problem.

But every time i run task manager alot of ram is being used by windows defender and some cpu as well. I think i am going for chrome OS. 

[RollyShed]

Personally I'd install Linux Mint Cinnamon which is what I put on everything (dozens of computers) I get involved with.

I run it on an ASUS TP200, with lower specs, with no problems and use that as a "screwdriver" (fix other people's problems) and as my travelling laptop. No virus checker needed.

It is easy and logical to use, plus being reliable and doesn't keep getting killed by Microsoft.