What is the best Linux desktop environment for old hardware?

Question

4

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Considered

24

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Recs.

Jun 1, 2020

Last
Updated

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3 Options Considered

Best Linux desktop environment for old hardware	Price	License	Programming Language
89 Xfce	-	GPL	mostly C
-- LXQt	-	LGPL, GPL	C++
-- MATE	-	GPL	mostly C

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Arch Linux

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score 12 · Answer 1

Xfce

Top Pro

Low resource usage combined with flexible configuration

Specs

License: GPL

Programming Language:mostly C

Widget Toolkit:GTK+

Available on:*nix

Top Pro

Low system resource consumption

Not just helpful for older computers where few system resources are available, but also simply for those who want to get the most out of their systems. See More

Top Pro

Rock solid stability

Xfce will never be the cause of your crash. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable

Xfce offers plenty of settings, and even things like theming XFWM is a simple task (it's just a handful of images.) Many possible permutations of window colors, borders, fonts, etc. Compositing can make it look downright sexy. See More

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score 7 · Answer 2

LXQt

Top Pro

Utilizes Qt

As the name suggests, LXQt takes advantage of the Qt ecosystem to provide a beautiful and performant user experience. See More

Top Con

Ugly

@Con: Well, have a try with Kvantum. See More

Specs

License:LGPL, GPL

Programming Language:C++

Widget Toolkit:Qt

Available on:*nix

See All Specs

Top Con

Depends too much on KDE

Even the programs/apps shipped with LXQt are from the KDE project. They don't have their own projects yet. It's pretty similar to Budgie that depends on Gnome for almost everything. @Con: Not quite true; very few KDE Plasman dependencies. See More

Top Con

Unthemeable for usual users

As all Qt desktop environments themeing is hard since you need to know C++ , there is a sideway using qss however its not as powerful as GTK, Enlightenment or Windows theming. @Con: Not quite true: using kvantum, LXQt looks like a charme. See More

Top Con

Very limited in customization

Very few themes available, especially modern themes. You've got to use Kvantum, then it's all right. See More

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Answer 3

MATE

Top Con

Not really user friendly

Some apps have really rough edges, for example: Caja: by open an SVG-file and get a Dialog with 4 Buttons(Run in Terminal, Display, Cancel & Run) at least two of them make no sense. You can also right click on them to choose the application, however your default application for that filetype is not on this list. Panel: Empty panel applets are about 1px wide so you really cant resize or move them to organize your panel. See More

Specs

License:GPL

Programming Language:mostly C

Widget Toolkit:GTK+

Available on:*nix

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What is the best Linux desktop environment for old hardware?

3 Options Considered

Xfce

My Recommendation for Xfce

My Recommendation for Xfce

Low resource usage combined with flexible configuration

Low system resource consumption

Rock solid stability

Highly customizable

LXQt

My Recommendation for LXQt

My Recommendation for LXQt

Utilizes Qt

Ugly

Depends too much on KDE

Unthemeable for usual users

Very limited in customization

MATE

My Recommendation for MATE

My Recommendation for MATE

Not really user friendly

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Arch Linux

My Recommendation for Arch Linux

My Recommendation for Arch Linux

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