What are the best Linux distributions for an old machine?

Package Manager:dpkg with apt, aptitude or apt-build

Debian offers stable and testing CD images specifically built for GNOME (the default), KDE Plasma Workspaces, Xfce and LXDE. Less common window managers such as Enlightenment, Openbox, Fluxbox, GNUstep, IceWM, Window Maker and others can also be installed. See More

Top Pro

Wide choice in desktop environments

Top Con

Breaks if you suspend/resume

Breaks when you resume the activity on the system if you use nvidia cards. See More

MellowMushdamma's Experience

Always work See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Due to testing and patching, it is a stable and secure system for both server and desktop, nearly free from bugs and vulnerabilities. See More

Top Con

Not designed for general desktop usage

By default, Debian Stable is not that great of a distro for general desktop usage, since the packages are very outdated. You'll have to spend a while configuring the system in order to make it work. See More

CoherentHobnil's Experience

I've tried 'em all...Debian has always been the lightest and quickest. See More

Top Pro

Live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives

Debian releases live install images for CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives, for the i386 and amd64 architectures, and with a choice of desktop environments. These Debian Live images allow the user to boot from a removable media and run Debian without affecting the contents of their computer. See More

Top Con

Outdated kernel of the live system

Since the LiveCD is based on Debian stable the kernel is old, outdated but stable. See More

MotivatedIxtab's Experience

I've started in 2009 due to a friend's this-is-what-you-must-do recommendation, nowadays I use it on every computer and even some VM's, including the first laptop which still works. If you are just starting go for gnome-gdm3, if you are looking to speed-up an old machine use xfce4-lightdm, but anyhow remember: "Once debian is there that's it, no need to install anything else anymore. Just keep it upgraded and if you want to try something else, that's what grub is for". See More

Top Pro

Standard vanilla Linux desktop

Debian runs standard Gnome, XFCE, KDE - it doesn't use its own special desktop environment, which means that users benefit from the work of the whole Linux community, Debian developers can focus on the distribution itself, and any support for your desktop environment on other distributions should work on Debian as well. See More

Top Con

Systemd is everywhere

Systemd is very hard to debug by itself, and can break in very strange ways (such as not being able to mount a single partition on bootup), but the increasing number of desktops that are relying on specific functionality provided only by systemd (policy kit, dbus, etc) makes the entire system more fragile and harder to debug. See More

Top Pro

Extremely easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Con

Old software is not useful, but is stable

Certainly for the stable and old stable versions. But the testing version has quite up to date software. See More

Top Pro

Highly secure system

Known for being consistent in maintaining a highly secure system. Several other popular distros use Debian as a base or core for their own Linux OS, the security being one of the main factors why its so commonly used. See More

Top Con

No default support for unfree drivers

Debian does not official support unfree software, so if you have a WiFi card or anything else that requires an unfree driver, you will need to download the unofficial/non-advertised non-free ISO image which contains all unfree driver packages. See More

Top Pro

Install and forget

Once installed you can almost forget about it and start to use your desktop for your daily tasks. See More

Top Con

Hard to configure

After the initial installation, which is quite simple, it may be hard to configure Debian. Things like printers for example, are notoriously hard to set up on Debian for some computers. See More

Top Pro

Comes with over 55.500 packages

Because of its popularity, Debian has a lot of applications available which range from productivity programs to business software, games and development tools. It comes with over 55.500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Con

Ridiculous package splitting

Even though it makes sense to split devel and the actual binary of an application, the splitting has become as mess in debian and its derivates: for example the nvidia driver is splitted into over 40 different packages. See More

Top Pro

Big open-source project

The Debian project is one of the biggest open source projects with over 5000 active contributors. See More

Top Con

Internal quarrels harm the project

Instead of working all together to provide the best Operating System, some maintainers are just ignorant and aggressive to new ideas or new maintainers. That led to many crises and controversy in Debian's history. See More

Top Pro

Easy to find help with any problem

Debian is one of the oldest and most popular distros out there. Debian's popularity means that you will always be able to find a solution for your problem just by searching on Google, or if by chance nobody has had the problem you are having it's very easy to ask the community and quickly get a solution. See More

Top Con

No choices

Debian basically doesn't give you any choices: for example it is very hard to use a different Sound system than ALSA like OSS4, and the same goes for different init systems. See More

Top Pro

Widely supported

Almost any software that is available for Linux provides a Debian package. See More

Top Pro

The Debian Social Contract

Guaranteed commitment to adherence to values, principles, priorities, requirements and guidelines by the Debian project. See More

Top Pro

Apt-build

It is possible to rebuild the entire system and optimize it for your hardware (of course, it is not as detailed as Gentoo's USE flags). See More

Top Pro

A lot of ways to install software

You can either use aptitude, apt or apt-build to install software from the Debian package archives. See More

Top Pro

Supports SecureBoot

You don't have to disable SecureBoot if you use it, which is useful for LiveUSB or dualboot setups. See More

Top Pro

Many ports

Debian supports almost any Kernel maintained CPU instructions set. It has also a few non Linux Ports. See More

Top Pro

Great choice for returning Linux users

If you haven't used Linux for a long time, say 5-10 years, it's a great distro in which you can quickly get in the boat again. You don't have to worry about falling back. Everything is in its place. See More

Top Pro

Strict seperation of non-free software

Debian is one of the few distros that let the user choose if he wants a free system or not. See More

Top Pro

Built by an amazing volunteer community

Unlike most other distros, Debian is a completely volunteer-driven project. See More

Top Pro

Well-working team

The developer works very well so the the code is one of the best written out there. See More

Top Pro

Rolling or Release based

Every Debian Release can either use a Rolling or Release based model. See More

Top Pro

Great for gaming

As Debian is the base for SteamOS and because Ubuntu is based on it, it's almost certain that all Linux games will run properly and require no hacks like creating symbolic links because of some hardcoded paths. See More

Top Pro

Debconf

Depending how it is configured debconf does the most of the hard work for you and only asks you with configuration /file conflicts. See More

Top Pro

A real installer

Unlike other distributions that just extract their Live image, Debian offers a real traditional and modular installer to customize the installation. See More

Top Pro

Standard archives

Debs are normal ar and tar archives with shell scripting and additional gz, bz, lzma or xz compression. See More

Top Pro

TUI installer

The Debian installer can still be launched as text/curses-like installer which is more compatible and keyboard-friendly than the graphical version. See More

Top Pro

Unique release cycle

The most Linux distros have one or two stages before a release, but Debian has five before a new stable version is released (experimental > unstable > testing > code-freeze/bug hunting > stable). See More

Installer and configuration tools are different and can take some time getting used to. See More

score 50 · Answer 2

MX-Linux

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Con

Installer and configuration tools are different

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable>antiX

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Init-System:SysV-init (default) & systemD

It's mainly a debian stable with some recompiled/backported debian testing packages. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Remixed debian testing

Top Pro

Easy install

Top Pro

Easy to use

Top Pro

MX Snapshot: lets you make your own distro

Can create your own ISO (snapshot) and use it either as live-session and install back when needed. With the (pre-installed) Snapshot tool you can easily create an ISO of your running system and then save it to a USB (or other media) and use "your own" distro as a live session or install back whenever you like (even on a different PC with different specs with no issues). You can even give that customized ISO to friends (selecting "non-personal" ISO when creating the snapshot; thus resetting the accounts & passwords and Home folder etc.). Also you can save that ISO directly encrypted via MX Live USB Maker tool. Again, you can install MX encrypted during installation with just ticking a box, no matter if it's the official ISO or your snapshot. See More

Top Pro

Good MX Tools and Package Installer

MX Linux comes with its own set of tools called MX Tools, designed to make life easier for users. See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

Top Pro

Supports non-free drivers

Top Pro

Can also be used as an emergency tool

It has almost all tools to repair non booting systems or recover files & folders and save them on a safe place. And when thought together with it starts quick on live-session. In addition, you can do these with "your own", customized distro (snapshot). See More

Top Pro

No systemd

pacman works much faster than apt-get or yum due to better mirrors than other distributions tend to select by default. There are fewer default repositories to download from though all package management is combined into one tool instead of being split into dpkg, apt-get, and apt-cache like on Debian distros. See More

score 103 · Answer 3

Arch

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

Top Con

Instability can be an issue

Sometimes you can have a surprise, but in most cases it can be fixed quickly. See More

cosmo's Experience

With the capability and documentation to build a beautiful and efficient CLI experience from the start, Arch is unparalleled on older hardware. See More

Specs

Based On:NONE

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

Package Manager:Pacman

Arch keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. At first installation only a bare system is set up. You can easily get the other applications through the package manager. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. That way you don't have to waste time with software you don't need or want. See More

Top Pro

As slim or copious as you want it

Top Con

Requires expert Linux and command-line knowledge to setup

Going in with zero Linux knowledge is not really recommended when wanting to install Arch, though it can be a good learning experience for those that are dedicated to trial and error as well as reading many faqs. See More

Electrux Redsworth's Experience

Not sure of Arch will be good for old systems since it recently dropped support for 32 Bit machines. See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Latest version of softwares and the OS itself. See More

Top Con

Phasing out i686 support

Due to the decreasing popularity of i686 among the developers and the community, they have decided to phase out the support of this architecture. This means old hardware will not be supported anymore See More

ReasonableAkurra's Experience

Highly customizable and lightweight. See More

Top Pro

Simplicity is absolutely the principal objective behind Arch development

The design approach of the development team focuses on elegance, code correctness, minimalism, and simplicity, and expects the user to be willing to make some effort to understand the system's operation. See More

Top Con

Manual install process

The installation process for Arch Linux is not as streamlined as it is in other distributions. You have to install the OS, Desktop Environment, Network software and configure everything by yourself. See More

ChattyJavine's Experience

Used for 4 years now love it. See More

Top Pro

Adaptability

Since the user has the freedom to build the OS in the way he/she sees fit, it can be built to run smoothly on either new or old hardware. See More

Top Con

Package manager is so naive

For example, it doesn't allow you to purge (remove package and it's configuration files). See More

leorikz's Experience

it just works great with my laptop 2012(is he old or not?) last few years, no problems, fine ricing See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of hardware

From latest wacom pads to obscure wireless cards in laptops Arch's hw support has been and continues to be good. It has worked on laptops where other leading distro's like debian/ mint/ ubuntu failed to detect and work with all hardware. See More

Top Con

Not ready out of the box

You have to install your day-to-day software requirements manually. See More

JoyfulMarqod's Experience

w/Openbox desktop See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Arch's goal of simplicity means there's usually one preferred way to get things done - through organized and well documented configuration files. This focus, combined with the community's recognition that configuration files can be intimidating, has resulted in excellent documentation that's accessible to newcomers, and very instructive about how Linux actually works. The documentation is often so thorough that, when searching for solutions to problems while using other distributions, such as with video card drivers, oftentimes you'll find the most effective solution in the Arch Linux wiki or on the forums. See More

Top Con

Problems with driver/kernel/gpu consistency

Arch has no proper desktop support, you must craft your system together. Things may work for the first but generally it takes days to configure a stable and working system. This is NOT ideal for a desktop user. See More

Top Pro

A package for almost everything

If you need to install something, chances are someone in the Arch community has already made a package for it. This makes it incredibly easy for you to install and maintain all of the non-media content on your computer. See More

Top Con

Uses Systemd

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

Arch Linux works quite well with low performance hardware like netbooks. See More

Top Con

Not so great overall

Apart from the ArchBuildSystem/AUR, which brings you very quickly newer package versions, there is not really much where Arch Linux shines. You get better package managers with other systems. The most Linux distributions are far more stable than Arch. You learn more about Linux by using LFS or a source based distribution. You can customize the system much more in LFS or Gentoo. See More

Top Pro

An opportunity to improve

The process of learning to setup and use Arch will improve your skills with Linux and computers in general. See More

Top Con

Pacman is a slow package manager

Compared to other distribution packages, the extracting of a pacman package archives is taking ages. See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

Arch is mainly aimed at experienced Linux users, there is no hand-holding and not much in a way of UI elements when trying to install or tweak settings. See More

Top Con

Systemd

Uses systems which makes it incompatible to the UNIX-world. See More

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down. its fast and you dont have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Con

Too many package upgrades that require manual intervention

Every year or so there is a update to ArchLinux that will break your system unless you first read the front page of archlinux.org. This happened with SystemD and with a few other updates that require you to do prior steps befor pacman -Syu. See More

Top Pro

Community support for ARM and 32-bit x86 CPU architectures

If you're using very new or very old hardware, the Arch community has your back with Arch Linux ARM and Arch Linux 32! See More

Top Con

Lost its way

It aimed to be KISS but it has lost its way and is getting more and more complex, for example, it uses systemd which is anything but KISS. It also has now some kind of package post configuration included. See More

Top Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalog of build/install scripts that are contributed by users. While these scripts are inherently less secure than conventional packages maintained by a distro's authors, it's still way easier to verify the security of install scripts than it would be to write them yourself. It's very useful. See More

Top Con

Occasional upstream package bugs

Most package maintainers look for issues that the packages might have ispecifically for arch. Which means if a package has a bug that applies to all Linux distros regardless of the flavor, the maintainer may not be able to: A) catch it before pushing a update or B) have to wait for the packages developers to fix it. This is a minor issue because most issues are often patched before the end of the day if many users rely on it, or if its a less used package there will be specific troubleshooting instructions on the arch site. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

This distro is barebones enough to make a new distro from. See More

Top Con

Not really for desktop

More like for posting screenshots on Reddit. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

The Arch Linux Wiki is very useful not just for Arch Linux users, but for anyone who uses Linux. See More

Top Con

No Graphical Installer

Although some derivatives such as Manjaro and ArcoLinux exist See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality

QoL of Arch is generally good. You get something more consistent and doable in Arch then you would get with most other OSes. See More

Top Con

Works only on AMD64

It is the only official supported instruction set of CPUs. See More

Top Pro

Multilib support is just around the corner

Just uncomment the according entries in the pacman.conf. See More

Top Con

Fragile package manager

Updating an Arch system is always a gamble. The problem could be as simple as a package having a bug causing a program to crash on start or it may be something bigger like the WiFi or Bluetooth no longer working. There is also the slight chance the system may not even boot at all after a large update. If the user does not plan to read the forums weekly/daily or update fairly often, things can go wrong very fast. See More

Top Pro

Incredibly easy to manage

Arch is very simple to maintain, backup and in rare cases repair and recover. For example, the manual to recover your boot manager is already in the install guide! See More

Top Con

Not for the faint of heart

Arch only holds your hand a little bit of the way. While documentation is great, you are expected to know what you're doing. The result is that when you find the solution for a problem on a forum or elsewhere, the response may be completely over your head. If you're not well-versed in Linux, what would be a minor issue on another distribution can become a drawn-out research project on Arch, as you learn all the inner workings of the operating system, until you understand it well enough to solve your problems yourself. See More

Top Pro

Rolling updates

Updating will keep the whole OS up to date (unlike Ubuntu/Debian/etc. where occasionally you will need to perform major version updates). See More

Top Con

Documentation only makes sense if you know how to adjust it

While the documentation is a very valuable reference for experts, the recipes often don't actually work on your own computer. Some articles are outdated, incomplete, contradictory or duplicated. Only if you are expert enough to know which steps to skip, to adjust or which other documentation parts to plug in, you can make it work. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Tailor the system to your needs. See More

Top Con

Rolling release requires bandwidth

Arch uses a rolling release model for updates. Unlike, for example Ubuntu where a new version is released every six months, packages are updated when they are ready. The advantage is a very up to date system and that the work of upgrading can be spread over a longer span of time to a point where it is hardly noticeably effort. However it can be difficult for people without a high bandwidth connection, or with limits on how many GB can be downloaded imposed by their internet service providers. A GB a month of downloads is quite possible. This can be somewhat offset by Arch being lightweight, besides the relatively small core, the user selects what is installed (and has to be updated). See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

If searching through the wiki or the forums for any problems turns nothing, any question on the official forums, Arch subreddit or the IRC channel will be answered within minutes. There will probably be no hand-holding however, Arch users prefer to point anyone to a resource that may help them instead of trying to outright solve their problem in a forum thread. This is quite helpful for people who want to really learn how their system works but also for other people who may stumble in that thread considering how most problems don’t have a universal solution. See More

Top Con

Multiple Aur helpers

Arch has strict reasoning behind what goes into the official repositories accessible by pacman. As a result, many other projects end up in the Arch User Repository (AUR). Effectively using Arch, and getting easy access to all of the available software, means either manually downloading and installing from the AUR, or installing an AUR helper - these work along side the main package manager (Pacman), but are a bit less standardized or heavily supported. See More

Top Pro

Helpful for understanding how Linux is installed

Arch does not come with an automatic installation process. The user is expected to walk through the installation steps published on the Arch wiki. This is very useful if, later, something happens to the installation as the user will be more familiar with the foundational steps required to get a full blown Arch installation working. See More

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd Party Installers

There are extreamly helpful 3rd party installers such as Anarchy Linux (Formerly Arch Anywhere) See More

Puppy Linux requires 128MB of RAM and 333Mhz of CPU, although 256MB of RAM is recommended. See More

score 89 · Answer 4

Puppy Linux

Top Pro

Extremely low minimum system requirements

Top Con

A bit ugly

Using puppy makes you feel like you just jumped 20 years into the past. Being that the purpose of Puppy Linux is to run or really low resource machines the software used is often on the older side, which is precisely why it has a 20 year old look. See More

CaringDziewona's Experience

Boots on my HP computer that was overheating and other distros wouldn't install. See More

Top Pro

The whole OS runs off of RAM

Since Puppy Linux is completely loaded and run off of RAM instead of HDD, it's read/write speed is not a factor. See More

Top Con

Not as light as it used to be

It's light, but not as light as it was 1-2 years ago. See More

DazzlingWhiro's Experience

It's fast on old hardware. You will get addicted to the speed of the single click setup. Installed on a small ssd this distro is a bullet. See More

Top Pro

Designed to run as a live USB/CD

A portable version, that can be carried on a thumb drive without requiring installation, weighs less than 100MB; a Live CD - less than 150MB. You can even save your settings and files for Puppy on the external device/media. Running off a live CD also has security benefits, as your system will reset to the known config after each boot. See More

Top Con

Smallest software library ever

You can barely find any precompiled packages for Puppy. See More

Ankush4135's Experience

Comes in small packet but ugly ui See More

Top Pro

Different distro based versions available

Puppy Linux offers a few different releases. The first is an Ubuntu based release called Tahrpup, by using this version the user is able to take advantage of all software and support from Ubuntu. The second version is called Slacko, which is built upon the Slackware binaries. The third is called Wary and it is built to support older hardware than the rest. And the fourth is called Quirky, which is used as a base to explore new ideas. See More

Top Con

No built in compositing

Being a low resource distro there is zero built in compositing for the JWM window manager. Though one can be added through a bit of work. See More

CaffeinatedNyyrikki's Experience

Single click, easy to restore, running as root See More

Top Pro

Linux distro designed for this exact purpose

Top Pro

Offers a long term support release

Puppy Linux offers an LTS release called Precise. See More

Top Pro

It can be the only distro that works

Sometimes, Puppy Linux is the only distro that works on an old machine: all other distros are more demanding. See More

Top Pro

JWM used as window manager

JWM is a low resource window manager that is used in most Puppy Linux installs. See More

Easy install with Calamares installer and a beautifully themed XFCE desktop. Built for speed! This is THE best Arch distribution - a perfect replacement for Antergos. And it will become even better in short time. See More

score 35 · Answer 5

Endeavour OS

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Same Cons that apply for Arch Linux

niingu's Experience

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Default Desktop Environment:Budgie, Cinnamon, Deepin, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, Xfce

Package Manager:pacman

Based on Arch, Endevour OS keeps its core repositories slim and free of unnecessary dependencies. The distro comes with no bloatware, only the necessary packages. The repositories are nearly as full as those of Ubuntu, while they are often more up to date. See More

Top Pro

As slim as you want it

Top Pro

Easy installer

Top Pro

Great XFCE implementation

Their use of themes and configuration look great! See More

Top Pro

Great for low performance hardware

Easy on the specs and still blazingly fast. See More

Top Pro

Great hardware support

Top Pro

Stripped down to the bone

Since its stripped down, it is fast and you don't have to deal with bloatware. See More

Top Pro

Good overall system quality and performance

Lean, fast and surprisingly stable. See More

Top Pro

Arch Linux Wiki

Being an "easy to install version of Arch" means it is exactly easy to use the famous Arch Wiki! See More

Top Pro

Helpful community

Great team of developers and excellent forum support on their official website. See More

Top Pro

Support for a large variety of new hardware

Rolling release means newer, up to date, mesa and kernel versions able to handle newer hardware with better performance! See More

Top Pro

No restrictive handholding, pure control over everything

The user can do whatever he wishes because the distro IS Arch - with and easy installer and great themes. See More

Top Pro

AUR support

One of the best reasons to use an Arch based distro. You can find almost every package there is in the Linux world! See More

Top Pro

Cutting edge rolling release

Exactly as Arch - allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using. See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

There can only be one Package Manager (pacman) ;) See More

Has a 70-90MB memory footprint. See More

score 34 · Answer 6

antiX

Top Pro

Extremely lightweight

Top Con

Not really free and not available for download in Iran

CaringDziewona's Experience

Installs on an old overheating computer with an old harddrive when other distros would not. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:IceWM

Init-System:SysVInit

The installation procedure for antiX is quick and painless. It installs the OS and grub in no time. See More

Top Pro

Quick installation

Top Pro

Works well on 32-bit PC

Fewer distros are available to work on 32-bit machines. This works well on old Toshiba. Quick enough on older machines not to notice any lagging. See More

Top Pro

Stats appear on the desktop

Top Pro

Works very well on ASUS 1005HA netbook

Faster than other distros tested, including many on this list. See More

SliTaz has a very small .iso size (at 30 MB) and can accommodate just about any flash drive size. See More

score 21 · Answer 7

SliTaz

Top Pro

Very small .iso

Top Con

Not much variety as to applications available in its repositories

SliTaz does not have as many applications in its repositories as the bigger distros such as Ubuntu. See More

Jean-Paul Schwab's Experience

An OS for beginners and more who want to understand a very cool way of doing and maintaining a linux distro. Very intuitive in use and build. Very customisable. You find a 'flavor' for every nose, even old and old and older... See More

Top Pro

Small Distro That Will Run in Ram

Remove CD or USB Drive after booting........will run in 512 Ram brings those eeePC701s back to life. See More

Top Con

Install instructions are in French

When first booting SliTaz from a USB or from a Live CD, the installation instructions are in French. See More

Top Pro

One of the smallest distributions with desktop GUI

The core liveCD is only 35 megabytes. The boot-from-internet option fits on a floppy. See More

Top Pro

Very customizable

SliTaz is very customizable. You can programatically edit and change anything you want on how the OS looks or behaves. See More

Top Pro

Very fast

Top Pro

Can add desktop effects

SliTaz has a feature called "Desktop Effects" which can add shadow or fade effects to windows. See More

Being based on Ubuntu (which itself is based on Debian), there's a good amount of information and support to be found when searching for it. It also means that there are certain security and usability standards enforced and you can use Ubuntu .deb packages. See More

score 169 · Answer 8

Lubuntu

Top Pro

Part of the Ubuntu family

Top Con

LXQt is not as light as LXDE

Lubuntu used to be light, but it's not anymore sadly. See More

CaringDziewona's Experience

I installed Lubuntu on a laptop I bought at a pawn shop when I couldn't get Windows to reset. I was able to create a presentation and poster using beamer on Texmaker and used it for a presentation at a math conference. Although when I went fullscreen, it still showed the panel. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:LXQt

Lubuntu can run on 256MB of RAM, but 512MB is recommended. See More

Top Pro

Low minimum requirements

Top Con

Long term support not as long as other Ubuntu spins

Lubuntu has not always had LTS support. Luckily they do offer a 3 year LTS now but it is shorter than other Ubuntu spins that receive a full 5 years of support. See More

TruthfulVertumnus's Experience

slim but you can always add what you really, really need. Alas, many browsers eat up memory and the CPU. Very good updater. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight desktop environment

The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment (LXDE) used by Lubuntu performs fast and conserves resources. See More

Top Con

LXDE Interface looks bad

Xubuntu or Linux Mint MATE could be preferred. See More

ReverentHygieia's Experience

works great on my free dinosaur laptop. And is great fun for DOSBox and my old DOS games! See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

By utilizing minimal software Lubuntu is able to use less resources and power. See More

Top Con

Redundant

There is absolutely no reason to install it, since it uses the same package repositories as Ubuntu and you can transform any Ubuntu install into a Lubuntu install. See More

FantasticKurunta's Experience

I really h8 it GUI cuz it's really disgusting! See More

Top Pro

Lightweight LXDE desktop by default

Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment performs fast and conserves resources. See More

Top Con

Lacks some window management features

There's no built-in way to snap windows to the sides, re-size them by double clicking the bar, or dragging to the edges. See More

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

No composite manager

Being a modern desktop many users expect compositing, even on lightweight systems. Without compositing there will be screen tearing, a lot of it. Though there is built in support for users to add their own compositors such as Compton. See More

Top Pro

Relatively small ISO image

Top Con

Abiword can be a little buggy

Top Pro

Offers a long term support release

Lubuntu offers a long term support release with their 14.04 Trusty Tahr based version. See More

Top Con

Clock in panel is broken currently in LXDE

The clock panel applet does not work as expected in the newest versions of LXDE. If the clock is set to not show seconds in the display when waking from suspend the clock will not update until the time actually changes in the applet which means it can take up to a minute for the clock to update when seconds are not shown. The work around to this is to display seconds on the clock which allows it to update after suspend within one second. Sadly the clock does not display seconds correctly as it skips them by one to three at least once a minute, often more. This is also not the first time there have been problems with the panel clock which clearly illustrates this to be an ongoing problem for the developers. See More

Top Pro

Uses Openbox as the default window manager

Lubuntu (LXDE) uses the lightweight Openbox window manager to manage its windows. By using Openbox by default LXDE is able to remain lightweight as there is no built in composite manager in Openbox to take up resources. See More

Top Con

Clock in panel is broken currently in LXDE

The clock panel applet does not work as expected in the newest versions of LXDE. If the clock is set to not show seconds in the display when waking from suspend the clock will not update until the time actually changes in the applet which means it can take up to a minute for the clock to update when seconds are not shown. The work around to this is to display seconds on the clock which allows it to update after suspend within one second. Sadly the clock does not display seconds correctly as it skips them by one to three at least once a minute, often more. This is also not the first time there have been problems with the panel clock which clearly illustrates this to be an ongoing problem for the developers. See More

Top Pro

A lot of skins and styles to customize the DE

The XFCE Whisker menus and dark theme are well designed. Easy to move the panel to the top and add plank on the bottom. See More

score 65 · Answer 9

Peppermint Linux OS

Top Pro

Looks great

Top Con

Since it is based on Lubuntu, the double click speed needs to be slowed down

It's false that Peppermint 7 is tout court based on Lubuntu. Take a look at this: "Peppermint Seven makes use of the Xfwm4 window manager and Xfce bottom panel in the LXDE desktop environment. This is unlike other Linux distributions that use LXDE as the default desktop environment where it is common to use the Openbox window manager and lxpanel." And more: "Peppermint Seven is built on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS code base and makes use of its package repositories." Contrarily to other Linux distributions, Peppermint creators never said Peppermint 7 is based on Lubuntu, like LXLE. Using LXDE and being based on Ubuntu is very different from being simply based on Lubuntu. In fact, Lubuntu is not faster than Peppermint and has loads of lacks for a nowadays OS experience. See More

ardhill's Experience

When using an older machine, I have tried a lot of distributions. Peppermint is my 'go-to' after trying so many others. It is light, uses few resources, yet feels like a full, complete distribution. The User Interface is intuitive, especially if you have used Mate, XFCE or similar in the Ubuntu family of distros. With Peppermint, I can install and just start working, I don't have to mess about installing a load of extras just to make it useable. Sure, you may want to adjust the look and feel, we all have our own tastes, and you can do this in Peppermint. My point is there is enough already installed to be able to do most normal things without having to actually 'build' a distribution that works from a slim light base. Yet, it is still slim and light - Top Marks Mark, may you Rest In Peace :( Now it's up to the rest of the team to keep up the great work they have been doing. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian and Devuan

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Init-System:Systemd (not in Devuan base)

light and beatiful See More

Top Pro

Friendly and helpful forum

PoliteMantus's Experience

Top Pro

Fast and light on resources

RAM consumption is the same as LxLE, but more efficient and because of Whisker Menu and other tweaks that let us feel more like we have a XFCE desktop environment, as keyboard shortcuts, for instance, it looks like we got here the fastest and lightest, globally speaking. Very good on performance. Download Respin 7 (March 2017), install Libreoffice and then compare, for example, opening Libreoffice Writer inside Peppermint 7, Extix 17.04, Lubuntu 16.10, Xubuntu 16.04, Backbox 4.7, Linux Mint 18.1 Xfce an Mate or Linux Lite 3.4 (and others). Finally, you'll find out that after opening a few apps in Peppermint it remains smooth and light. Nemo file explorer on Peppermint is incredibly faster than on Mint Cinnamon; lx terminal is very fast when opening; updating is fast. And after all this, distro keeps working and working very solidly and consistently along the time. And yet the look and feel of the environment is pleasant. See More

Lew Buckles's Experience

Using Peppermint 9 32bit on Powerspec with i3 processor works well. a couple of bugs. mostly the screen won't come back on after it goes to sleep. I have to blindly shut down and restart. The laptop won't connect to wifi after logging out or sleeping and I have to restart. :P See More

Top Pro

Comes with a variety of helpful tools

Works great with Teamviewer, Synaptic, XNview, KODI, and Pdf-Xchange editor (via playonlinux). Netflix works awesome with Chrome browser. The ICE SSB tool is great for creating web apps that run as if you installed them locally. The Software Boutique (packaged with The MATE Welcome software Center) recognizes all software and installs it with one click. See More

ArticulateDespoina's Experience

it's fast, even on an old dual core AMD machine with only 4GB mem. Claims of Lubumtu lineage or wrong. See More

Top Pro

It works well "Out Of The Box"

There are enough useful back end packages installed by default to make the system useable for normal use right after the installation of the base distro. See More

Top Pro

Peppermint 7 is stable

Peppermint 7OS (32 and 64 bit) has been updated to the Respin PPA . Kernel updated to 4.9.24 on 23-April -2017 with no issues and all software still runs great. See More

Top Pro

Peppermint 10 is Stable

Top Pro

Peppermint9 is stable

Peppermint 9OS (32 and 64 bit) has been updated to the Respin PPA. See More

Besides Debian (which was first released in August 1993), it is the oldest still maintained Linux Distribution and was first released in July 1993. See More

score 9 · Answer 10

Slackware

Top Pro

Oldest surviving Linux distro

Top Con

Dependency issues

When it comes to dependencies, Slackware shows more issues than many other distros. See More

DynamicQuirinus's Experience

The only one that doesn't lock! See More

Specs

Based On:Softlanding Linux System

Default Desktop Environment:KDE, Xfce, NONE

Init-System:SysVinit

Package Manager:pkgtool

Uses stable, plain-vanilla packages from upstream. See More

Top Pro

Stable

Top Con

Not for beginners

Installing Slackware may be difficult to those that are not intimately knowledgeable about Linux and its inner workings. While the commands necessary to install may be simple to a Linux user, someone who has never used Linux would have no idea on what to do and would be forced to find a guide. See More

Top Pro

The oldest Linux distro

Slackware project was started in 1992. It is only one of the old distros which is still active. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

4 lightweight desktop options are included, and the install process is highly customisable for lightweight installation. See More

Top Pro

Ideal to learn more of Linux

Top Pro

One more distro which is init based

Some users don't like to install systemd based distros because they increase booting and processing speed. See More

Top Pro

Package management

Uses standard tar archives with shell scripting as packages. See More

Top Pro

Strong adherence to UNIX Principals

Top Pro

No systemd

Top Pro

Oldest surviving Linux distro

You have to enter a special boot option to run Knoppix entirely in RAM. See More

score 18 · Answer 11

Knoppix

Top Pro

Powerful and lightweight

Top Con

Runs off of optical disk by default

Specs

Based On:Debian

Default Desktop Environment:LXDE, KDE or GNOME

Init-System:SysV, knoppix-autoconfig

Many computers are incapable of loading the whole 4 gigabyte DVD into RAM. There is an older CD version, however. See More

Top Con

DVD version requires a lot of RAM

PsychOS is designed for older/lighter, 32-bit, i686 hardware with plans to go even further back with i486 (PsychOS486), i386 and older (PsychDOS), and so on and so forth as opposed to always trying to run on the latest hardware, not that it could in most cases anyway since 32-bit i686 operating systems will run on most x86_64 ones. See More

score 12 · Answer 12

PsychOS

Top Pro

Runs well on older, 32-bit hardware (i686)

Specs

Based On:Devuan

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Init-System:SysVinit

Package Manager:Debian Package manager

Most GNU/Linux distributions that include IceWM as a desktop environment option don't do too much to it, if a t all. PsychOS seems to have a customized or themed version that actually doesn't feel you with dread and still uses many of the keyboard shortcuts from XFCE. See More

Top Pro

The IceWM option looks and functions nice

Top Pro

RetroGrab is really cool

It lets you install old software for use with emulators like DOSBox but run them as if they were normal programs from the normal applications menu. See More

XFCE is fairly lightweight for older hardware. See More

score 49 · Answer 13

Manjaro

Top Pro

Lightweight

Top Con

Can still be unstable

Here are the details of it. See More

jhagrid77's Experience

I've been running Manjaro XFCE on my main computer, (a laptop with 6GB of RAM now) and had Lubuntu installed on my secondary computer (a desktop with 3GB of RAM). Lubuntu has been feeling slow, and using HTOP showed that off of boot I was using near 700MB of RAM. So I booted into Manjaro XFCE and saw that off of boot, I was using ~400-500MB of RAM off of boot. Even though that's roughly 300-400MB less, that is still very important when it comes to old machines. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE, KDE Plasma, GNOME

Init-System:systemd

Package Manager:pamac

Manjaro is an Arch-based distribution with all the benefits of the Arch ecosystem and community but with the added benefit of being much more user-friendly than Arch. See More

Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

Top Con

Theme issues

Using some themes can produce graphical errors (invisible text in browsers, theme not fully working in applications). See More

CompassionateHothr's Experience

The rolling release is good AUR is awesome.Having used Linux for 20+ years it just seems to work and flow better. Having tried xfce and lxqt several times I always seem to end up back at Gnome (3). I guess there is no place like Gnome. See More

Top Pro

A rolling-release distribution

Manjaro uses a rolling release method for all updates, so once a system is installed, as long as the user regularly updates there is no need to re-install. See More

Top Con

New packages and security updates are held for testing longer

Packages are usually about two weeks behind Arch's stable repository. While some urgent security updates are released as soon as they become available, other security updates are held for testing longer. See More

Top Pro

Uses low memory

By using XFCE (or LXDE, Fluxbox, supported by community) as the default desktop on an install, Manjaro is able to have a low memory footprint. See More

Top Pro

Support for multiple kernels

Manjaro has built-in support for multiple kernels as well as a way to easily install them. See More

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

Top Pro

Good documentation and forum

The Manjaro community is very helpful, and there are lots of tutorials. See More

Top Pro

Arch User Repository access

Manjaro allows the user to access of the Arch User Repository, a very large user-maintained repository of packages for Arch Linux and derivatives. See More

Top Pro

Different editions to select from + Manjaro community

You can choose between different Manjaro editions which have their own change in features, and there is also Manjaro community editions where the community can make their own changes. See More

Top Pro

Installation is a breeze

Calamares installer and MHWD is the reason why this distribution is good for desktop user- friendliness! Audio codecs, latest packages,latest kernel and easy upgrade to the latest build makes it the best choice for new users. See More

Top Pro

Friendly community

If you ask questions of users in their forums or on other platforms, they are willing to help you. Also according to the developers, they are open to new ideas in order to make the distro better. See More

Top Pro

Stable and consistently up to date

Manjaro receives regular updates, but more importantly these updates are stable. The updates are rolled out, which means you can easily update the software without needing to re-install. See More

Top Pro

Improved stability due to a longer testing period for new packages

Packages from Arch's repositories are tested (about two weeks) longer for stability and compatibility issues. Patches are applied, when necessary, before being made available in the stable repositories. See More

Top Pro

All major desktops and even less common ones like Budgie, Lumina, LXQT, Deepin, Enlightenment, etc. can be directly installed from official repositories

Also available as independent variants. See More

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; AUR support (with the option to suppress unnecessary confirmations during the install process); update settings (frequency, whether to check for updates from the AUR, packages to ignore updates for); and a history of packages installed, updated, or removed (from the official repositories - AUR packages are not currently tracked). See More

Works great on Atom Netbooks See More

score 12 · Answer 14

SparkyLinux

Top Pro

Low resource distro

KnowledgeableTawrich's Experience

Specs

Based On:Debian stable or testing

Default Desktop Environment:LXDE/LXQt, MinimalGUI(Openbox)

Init-System:systemd

Any Linux desktop in it's vanilla form can be installed on top of Sparky, whether that be alongside a pre-existing environment, or on top of a basic command line system. Furthermore, the command line system is easy to operate due to Sparky's advanced installer utility, from which you can choose whichever desktop environment you desire, straight from the Debian repositories. Guidance is on their website. See More

Top Pro

Based on Debian

Top Pro

Rolling release

Top Pro

All vanilla desktop environments available

Top Pro

Lightweight core

Sparky is designed to be lightweight in it's core. It is based on Debian but optimised for old hardware, meaning you can run a full heavy desktop environment on a lightweight foundation, bringing greater performance compared to similar Debian or Ubuntu-based distros. See More

DSL was, along with Puppy, one of the top runners in my old computers revival challenge that allowed me to provide absolute beginners with spare machines for free. See More

score 9 · Answer 15

Damn Small Linux

Top Con

Unless you're into experimental operating systems anyway, the unique package handling and design requires some dedication to get familiar with

Top Pro

Very lightweight while reasonably usable and useful, even with really old machines

DecisiveAhauChamahez's Experience

Top Pro

Tiny footprint

The entire OS can run as a live install on 128MB of RAM, but a full install can run with as little as 24MB of RAM. See More

like its simplicity and looks works fast on older laptops See More

score 32 · Answer 16

BunsenLabs Linux

TirelessMilEspaine's Experience

Specs

Based On:Debian Stable

Default Desktop Environment:Openbox

Can't find anything not to like. Xfce is very intuitive and straightforward and Mint is very polished and stable. See More

score 26 · Answer 17

Linux Mint Xfce Edition

Top Pro

Everything works out of the box

Top Con

Late on updates

HumbleSogbo's Experience

light weight than ubuntu. More Stable in wifi connection See More

Specs

Based On:ubuntu

Top Pro

Relatively lightweight

Xfce is a relatively lightweight desktop environment. It manages this while still still looking fairly good. See More

FantasticSzelanya's Experience

It makes everything work "out of the box" on my HP Pavillion dv7. It takes about 4 minutes to boot, but once booted, it works as fast as my laptop has ever been. Not so stable, though, since it freezes sometimes. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful implementation of the Xfce desktop

Top Pro

Stable

While Xfce itself has a few scattered bugs, it does not affect the main system that much for day to day usage. See More

Linux Lite renames software it comes bundled with to be more user-friendly, it gives suggestions on what additional software the user might be interested, support on how to keep the system up to date, etc. It should especially be familiar to Windows users, since the desktop layout and the basic way you interact with it is similar. See More

score 36 · Answer 18

Linux Lite

Top Pro

Beginner friendly

Top Con

Working with local files can be messy

All XFCE distros are known for having little bugs here and there but Linux Lite takes the cake as local HTML files get executed as if they were shell scripts instead of being opened on Firefox. See More

Xfce4me's Experience

I've used Linux Lite on a few old dual core 2GB-4GB laptops and it worked great. It's also easy for Linux newbies to navigate. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Top Pro

Windows-alternative

It is extremely easy for a Windows user to get along with this OS. See More

Top Con

Not compatible with UEFI

Linux Lite is not compatible with UEFI. You have to enable Legacy Mode to install Linux Lite. Which makes this OS a little behind latest OS. See More

FunnyPollux's Experience

I use this for old netbooks and whatnot that have very low specs. Typically 1 Gb RAM. After my latest install on an HP mini, I have full-screen daily motion videos. It is very good for people coming from the Windows world as XFCE is easy to learn. See More

Top Pro

Based on XFCE

Linux Lite is based on XFCE. It makes Linux Lite extremely appropriate for old hardware without any compromise in features. Linux Lite is also loaded with lightweight apps which ensure smooth workflow. See More

PhilosophicalAchuguayo's Experience

The best Linux distro, i love it. See More

Top Pro

Good performance

Even on an old machine Linux Lite perform most everyday operations quickly and without stability issues. See More

Top Pro

Works well with under 4 Gb RAM

Linux Lite seems to bring to life machines with 2-4 Gb RAM. There must be something that adjusts when it sees lower specs. See More

Top Pro

Active forum and helpful community

The forum is pretty active and community is very friendly and helpful. The creator of Linux Lite itself is active on the forum and helps to get problem sorted out. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Linux Lite is a highly customizable OS. Background, icons, panel location, panel appearance, menu appearance and almost everything else you can imagine. See More

Top Pro

Has an efficient Update Manager

Updating Linux Lite is made a breeze by Update Manager. See More

It uses a 3rd party downloader site for distro. See More

score 13 · Answer 19

LXLE

Top Pro

Extremely lightweight and fast

Top Con

Slow download of ISO

EagerNuYing's Experience

With 64 bit ten year old sony it works excellent. Fast, simple and it still allows user to run swf files and add needed apps and wine and use snap. Does everything I need and does it excellent so far. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:LXDE

LXLE appears to have a very small user base. As a result, the community support is not as good as with other distributions that have a larger community. See More

Top Pro

Extras over Lubuntu

Top Con

Small user base

Top Pro

Complete with a lot of software to reduce additional download requirements

Mate is a great light weight desktop environment that uses an up to date and forked Gnome 2 DE, with an old school feel that s current and very fast. Mint first came out offering proprietary software with an ease of use (Graphics/WiFi/Codecs/Adobe etc. included out of the box). It has become a standard of a common sense approach. See More

score 54 · Answer 20

Linux Mint

Top Pro

Common and popular light weight OS

Top Con

The Update doesn't work sometimes

Sometimes the update failed to configure a package. See More

PleasantCantzicnal's Experience

p4 512ram good working See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce

Mint is highly recommended for both users coming from Windows, as well as users coming from Ubuntu, but unhappy with Ubuntu's recent, rather dramatic interface changes. Mint provides an updated interface with a look and feel similar to Gnome 2, with an application menu reminiscent of the Windows 7 Start Menu, with categorization and search. See More

Top Pro

Familiar user interface

Top Con

System updates can lead the system to being unstable

While a new installed system is stable, after an update, there is a slight chance of something not working. See More

Top Pro

MATE desktop (as an option)

MATE is a classic desktop as opposed to the newer "Unity" desktop. For people who prefer the classic style this is one of only few modern distributions with still active MATE desktop development. See More

Top Con

Security may be an issue

Linux Mint by default does not have auto updates turned on for things such as xorg or the kernel, thus leaving users with potentially insecure software. See More

Top Pro

Too many kernel crashes

Top Pro

Complete and stable

Top Con

LinuxMint tries to force people to use less powerful custom package management system

The custom package management system is slow, frustrating, and forces you to select and install one package at a time. Can't select a whole load of packages and then run the installations in one go. See More

Top Pro

The OS is great for both beginners and advanced users

The OS has different update settings for different users and has easy manual within the OS. See More

Top Con

Looks ugly

The default theme and wallpaper looks outdated and bland. Luckily that is easy to change in the settings. See More

Top Pro

Not from a big company

Linux Mint is not Canonical, while based upon Ubuntu. See More

Top Con

Does not handle multiple languages well

Top Pro

There is a "system restore" tool to restore the OS if something breaks

This tool backs up the core OS files to an external drive with an option for full encryption. See More

Top Con

The Linux Mint website once provided malware

The website for Linux Mint was hacked in 2016 and its download links led to a modified ISO, which contained malware. See More

Top Pro

Provides LTS (long term support) versions

Top Con

Very boring

Top Pro

Dedicated upgrade process

The Linux Mint team are very dedicated to upgrading and improving Mint, to the point where their releases are fairly predictable. They are also dedicated to their users, meaning that they are responsive to critiques, suggestions, etc. See More

Top Con

Cheap Windows substitute

Mint tries to be like Windows when it could be different and provide options. See More

Top Pro

Easy installation and configuration

Top Con

UI of most applications are impossible to use

Top Pro

Compatibility with Debian and Ubuntu software builds and repositories

Mint and gains the very strong package ecosystem and software manager of Debian, including more than 30,000 packages available from the Debian repositories. See More

Top Pro

Full multimedia support out of the box

Linux Mint focuses first on usability, and thus provides proprietary multimedia support out of the box. This makes it a good choice as a distro if you're installing it for a novice user that is unable to install full multimedia support themselves. See More

Top Pro

Good community support

Top Pro

Already functional out-of-the-box

Mint comes bundled with software for browsing the web, editing pictures, browsing files, watching videos and even a full office suite (LibreOffice). An average user can use Mint right away after a fresh install, using all the software that comes with the distribution to complete most of their daily tasks. See More

Top Pro

Supports proprietary software

Linux Mint does maintain a free software environment, however, it does offer full support to proprietary software (Chrome, Skype, Teamviewer). See More