Lightweight easy to use Linux distro?

[TheGermanEngie]

Hi.

So I recently discovered the godly power of lightweight linux distros for old, aging hardware that simply cannot run the component sapping, resource hungry OS that is Windows. Though, there are a lot of distros out there that can breathe new life into said machines, but most of them involve quite a bit of terminal know-how, and that's not something I'm interested in learning how to do. (This is mainly for giving some of my older technology to less tech savvy people, such as my relatives who just want to browse the web, type a word document, or watch puppy compilations while also saving them from buying an overpriced Macbook or iMac)

 

Currently the ones I've used so far are Linux Mint, Lubuntu, and (in extreme circumstances) Puppy Linux (the WaryPuppy distro). 

 

Suggestions are welcome! The requirements are:

 

1. Easy to use and a friendly UI

2. Lightweight, with NO bloatware

3. Come with necessities pre-installed (Word processor, spreadsheets, etc)

4. Minimal to no user maintenance whatsoever (unlike Windows asking multiple times a day to install whatever updates)

 

 

[Zeko369]

Mint ?

 

[johnukguy]

Have you tried Cinnamon/Mint?

[Crunchy Dragon]

Mint or Lubuntu would probably be your best bets.

 

It's also worth mentioning that pretty much every distro of Linux/Ubuntu fills your requirements, just some distros are lighter weight than others.

[MrKickkiller]

Just now, TheGermanEngie said:

Hi.

So I recently discovered the godly power of lightweight linux distros for old, aging hardware that simply cannot run the component sapping, resource hungry OS that is Windows. Though, there are a lot of distros out there that can breathe new life into said machines, but most of them involve quite a bit of terminal know-how, and that's not something I'm interested in learning how to do. (This is mainly for giving some of my older technology to less tech savvy people, such as my relatives who just want to browse the web, type a word document, or watch puppy compilations while also saving them from buying an overpriced Macbook or iMac)

 

Currently my top pics are Linux Mint, Lubuntu, and (in extreme circumstances) Puppy Linux (the WaryPuppy distro). 

 

Suggestions are welcome! The requirements are:

 

1. Easy to use and a friendly UI

2. Lightweight, with NO bloatware

3. Come with necessities pre-installed (Word processor, spreadsheets, etc)

4. Minimal to no user maintenance whatsoever (unlike Windows asking multiple times a day to install whatever updates)

 

 

1. Ubuntu with Gnome, KDE Neon (Ubuntu in the back, KDE in the front)
2. Most if not all Linux'es are fairly light compared to pre-built laptops with 17 thousand pieces of software from the manufacturer
3. Why have it pre-installed? Installing things in linux is easy as eating a cake. Most will even have detailed guides on how to do it.
4. No Linux (except maybe some Arch based distros, but that's a totally different matter) will nag about updates. Especially not if you select the version with an LTS (long term support) kernel.

[manikyath]

xubuntu, and if that is still too painful try lubuntu.

 

and for both, you have the choice between downloading openoffice, downloading libre office, or run office 365 in your webbrowser at the speed of eroding rocks.

[FoxPro]

Mint, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, stuff like that really. You could also do a Debian install with the desktop of your choosing. If I remember all of these options and what you said all will install LibreOffice by default, and updates on any Linux are much, much less difficult to work with than Windows.

[Mira Yurizaki]

If you want something that's as newbie friendly as possible, Lubuntu is a great option. Mint's with Xfce or KDE is a close second to me

 

1 minute ago, MrKickkiller said:

4. No Linux (except maybe some Arch based distros, but that's a totally different matter) will nag about updates. Especially not if you select the version with an LTS (long term support) kernel.

Not really nagging or enforcing updates, but Lubuntu does tell you updates are available.

[Theguywhobea]

I like Ubuntu MATE if you're gonna watch some videos on it. I've noticed some screen tearing on XFCE recently.

[noahdvs]

Lubuntu is light and easy to use. Its desktop environment is LXDE and I think it uses OpenBox as its window manager. It comes with its own lightweight software store app. It's not very fancy, but you don't need to use the terminal if you don't want to. You might want to switch out some of the apps that come with it for more powerful/popular ones (I usually switch Gnumeric and Abiword for LibreOffice), but the default selection is pretty good for very old computers. My sister was able to use an old IBM Thinkpad (T-forty something) with Lubuntu for a few years before its parts started failing. YouTube videos were without a doubt a bit choppy with that old Celeron M, but it worked well enough for her.

 

I see some people recommending Linux Mint. Mint might be lighter than Windows, but its Cinnamon desktop environment isn't a lightweight Linux DE. It's similar to KDE Plasma and GNOME in RAM usage. Not too much for a lot of PCs made in the last 10 years, but I would recommend having at least 4 GB of RAM since web browsers can easily take up 1-2 GB and you don't want the DE to be starved for memory.

 

Bloatware is pretty much nonexistent in the Linux world.

[ProjectBox153]

Mint with the MATE desktop works well even on "old" hardware.

[Linus_torvalds]

21 hours ago, MrKickkiller said:

4. No Linux (except maybe some Arch based distros, but that's a totally different matter) will nag about updates. Especially not if you select the version with an LTS (long term support) kernel.

You kidding? I use arch linux and it does not tell me anything! It ALWAYS DOES everything i tell it to do. Nothing, it tells you NOTHING!

 

If you manage to configure arch linux once it will work for decades

 

Ubuntu and it's flavors like lubuntu, xubuntu come with LOT of packages that you do not need. KDE is shit. It's anything but not lightweight LOL. You should check "arch linux + openbox"

[noahdvs]

1 hour ago, mate_mate91 said:

You kidding? I use arch linux and it does not tell me anything! It ALWAYS DOES everything i tell it to do. Nothing, it tells you NOTHING!

 

If you manage to configure arch linux once it will work for decades

 

Ubuntu and it's flavors like lubuntu, xubuntu come with LOT of packages that you do not need. KDE is shit. It's anything but not lightweight LOL. You should check "arch linux + openbox"

I think he's referring to the constant updates. If you install software that notifies you of updates, you will be frequently told you have updates. If you neglect your updates for too long, you can end up with a broken system.

 

Way to be a stereotypical Arch user though. BTW, KDE is not shit. It's lighter than GNOME and about as heavy as Cinnamon, but I wouldn't recommend it for very old computers with equal to (if you use a modern web browser) or less than 2GB of RAM.

 

Arch is only considered light because it doesn't come with much by default, but it does a poor job of splitting software up into separate packages (Arch packages usually include dev files) and having good dependency lists compared to other distros. You can make a Debian/Fedora/openSUSE/Ubuntu system that has less stuff you don't need than an Arch system with the same software installed.

[daehned]

Try elementary OS.

 

It will probably match all your requirements, it's beautiful (at least if you like a macOS-ish look), comes with some software preinstalled (but not so much to consider it 'bloat') and if you miss any application, there's an easy to use App Store.

 

In fact, it's so newbie-friendly that even my grandma use it.

[cox1000]

14 hours ago, daehned said:

Try elementary OS.

 

It will probably match all your requirements, it's beautiful (at least if you like a macOS-ish look), comes with some software preinstalled (but not so much to consider it 'bloat') and if you miss any application, there's an easy to use App Store.

 

In fact, it's so newbie-friendly that even my grandma use it.

Yep. I put elemantryOS on quite a few older family member's machines, and I get far fewer calls for help than when they were running windows. It's not the most lightweight distro in the world, but it fits the other requirements nicely. 

[vorticalbox]

On 03/01/2018 at 9:58 PM, MrKickkiller said:

No Linux (except maybe some Arch based distros, but that's a totally different matter) will nag about updates. Especially not if you select the version with an LTS (long term support) kernel.

That's not true must well nag yo u once a week you need to update.

 

Though most updates don't require a restart a simple log out and back in is enough. 

 

Guess that's better than Windows that goes "hey I'm restarting your computer soon"

[laughingtnt]

Lightweight AND Easy to Use? Probably Lubuntu since it's DE (Desktop Environment) is LXDE and I have never seen it brake 450M when nothing is running.

[doubledogdare610]

I think your best bet would be KDE Neon.

The Plasma Destop had improved a lot and has very little bugs.

Theming is fun though. (Slightly difficult and time consuming) Great little adventure to go on to learn the basics.

KDE Neon is currently built on the nice and stable Ubuntu 16.04.

Out from that, it is an easy-to-use, stable, and secure system.

It has enough bloat to keep you away from the terminal (meaning its got enough user-friendly GUIs)

Resource usage is small even with the built in desktop effects.

I think my system has around 500MB with nothing running (after reboot)

Screen attatched is the Plasma desktop running on my current Arch system.

In fact, I've never used KDE Neon. My friend actually recently converted me from the GNOME desktop to the Plasma desktop.

Happy ever since.

[Dat Guy]

"Lightweight, but with a full-blown everything preinstalled". Hmm.