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What are the best operating systems for old laptops?

29

Options
Considered

878

User
Recs.

Dec 6, 2023

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 28 OptionsWhy?

Best operating systems for old laptops	Price	Package Manager	Release Schedule
95 Debian	-	dpkg (Debian Package Manager)	approximately every 24 months
86 Arch	-	Pacman	Rolling
-- Puppy Linux	-	-	-
-- antiX	-	Debian Package Manager	Point
-- Peppermint Linux OS	-	Debian Package Manager	-

Debian

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Top Pro

Comes with over 37,500 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 37,500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. See More

Top Con

No default support for unfree drivers

Debian does not official support unfree software, so if you have a wi-fi 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

WonderfulNusku's Experience

Debian works surprisingly well with ancient hardware like a 32-bit Pentium 4 processor and 2 GB of RAM. It's slow but it works. See More

Specs

Package Manager:dpkg (Debian Package Manager)

Release Schedule:approximately every 24 months

Main Usage:Universal

Official Supported Architectures:amd64 (x86_64), arm64 (aarch64), armel, armhf, i386, mipsel, mips64el, ppc64el, s390x

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

Lack of updates

A brand new major release of Debian takes 2 years. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

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

Wide choice of hardware platforms

Debian has the widest choice of hardware platforms, including: amd64, armel, armhf, i386, ia64, kfreebsd-i386, kfreebsd-amd64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, sparc, s390, s390x, source, multi-arch 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

Wide choice in desktop environments

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 Con

No default support for non-free hardware

Non-free hardware will not work upon install of Debian and the user will need to search out the correct non-free software to install in order to make them work. This can be difficult if one of the things not working is the WiFi connection. 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

Buggy and non-user friendly

Top Pro

Widely supported

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

Top Con

Slow boot

Debian boots very slowly. 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 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

Rolling or Release based

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

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 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

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 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 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 Pro

Well-working team

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

Top Pro

Comes with over 37500 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 37500 packages (software that is precompiled and ready to be installed on a local machine) -- all of them for free. 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

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

27 Other Options Considered

Arch

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Top Con

Requires some background with Linux and the command-line 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

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

GraciousArgestes's Experience

it just works and compared the most other distros no bloat which slows your computer down See More

Specs

Based On:Independent

Package Manager:Pacman

Default Desktop Environment:N/A

Release Schedule:Rolling

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

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

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

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

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

Dropping support for 32 bit installations

Soon, Arch Linux will only be available as a 64 bit (x86_64) installation, which will reduce native compatibility with older hardware that does not support this. See More

Top Pro

Fast and simple package management

pacman has performance advantages over apt-get and yum in both database operations (thanks to being written for speed) and download times (by virtue of using better mirrors than other distributions tend to select by default). There are also fewer default repositories to download from, and 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

Top Con

Rolling release requires bandwidth to be constantly up to date

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

Excellent package managment with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue 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. See More

Top Con

No graphical installer

Top Pro

Helpful 3rd-party installers

There are extremely helpful 3rd-party installers such as Anarchy Linux (Formerly Arch Anywhere). 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

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

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

Highly customizable

Tailor the system to your needs. See More

Top Con

Highly egotistical community

Top Pro

Huge Repositories

Although Arch Linux only comes with around 10,000 packages, you can use the Arch User Repositories (AUR) which will add over 50,000 more packages. 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

As slim or copious as you want it

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

Cutting edge rolling release

Arch Linux follows a rolling release model which allows users to stay on the most up-to-date versions of the software they are using. See More

Top Pro

It is Linux at the core

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

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

Free and open source software

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 Pro

Excellent package management with the AUR

The AUR is a repository with a very extensive catalogue 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 usefull. See More

Puppy Linux

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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

Top Pro

Extremely low minimum system requirements

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

Top Con

Smallest software library ever

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

Top Pro

Linux distro designed for this exact purpose

Top Con

Not easy

Not a distro for beginners. 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

Top Pro

JWM used as window manager

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

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

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 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 Pro

Offers a long term support release

Puppy Linux offers an LTS release called Precise. See More

Peppermint Linux OS

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Top Pro

Lightweight and fast

Runs well on old and low-spec hardware or in small virtual machines. See More

LoyalGerra's Experience

Very lite.fast and easy to use....perfect See More

Specs

Based On:Debian and Devuan

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Init-System:Systemd (not in Devuan base)

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

Top Pro

Peppermint9 is stable

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

Top Pro

Combines the advantages of Xfce and LXDE

Highly customizable and beautiful as Xfce, but lightweight and fast as LXDE. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable and fast desktop environment

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

Top Pro

Friendly and helpful forum

Top Pro

Looks great

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

Zorin OS

Top Pro

Partial Windows compatibility

Zorin includes WINE and PlayOnLinux to run many Windows applications and games. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu LTS

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Default Desktop Environment:Gnome / Xfce

Release Schedule:Point (2 Year)

Top Pro

Windows desktop style

The desktop UI was made to resemble Windows 7, but alternative settings are available. See More

Top Pro

Ubuntu-based

Zorin is compatible with Ubuntu's sizable repositories of Free Software. See More

Top Pro

Good Selection of pre-installed software

New users may be unaware of what software is available for Linux, but Zorin includes a good selection for everyday tasks out of the box. See More

Top Pro

Stable

Top Pro

Bundles tools for changing the look and feel of the distribution

Zorin includes look changer and theme changer. See More

Top Pro

Accessibility features

Top Pro

Low resources consumption

Top Pro

Installer can set up dual boot

Xubuntu

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Top Con

XFCE development is slow

The desktop environment used in Xubuntu has not been update in over two years and is developed at a snail's pace. See More

Top Pro

Comes with lightweight applications

Xubuntu is designed as a lightweight operating system and Linux distro. It uses XFCE by default and comes packed with XFCE applications which are generally pretty lightweight. See More

Eric Waters's Experience

I've used Xubuntu off and on for years across multiple laptops and desktops. It's a full-featured OS that's easy to install, easy to use, and has all the stuff you really need. Plus, it has all the software available in the Ubuntu repositories and can install .deb packages, so you have plenty of options. The UI is elegant, simple, and endlessly customizable. All in all, a great OS for beginners, and still pretty good for experienced users if you want a quick, no-hassle install. See More

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Default Desktop Environment:Xfce

Release Schedule:Point follows UBuntu)

Top Con

UI is pretty generic without customization

The default XFCE UI is pretty generic and sometimes ugly unless customized to suit the user's needs and liking. Customization in XFCE is easier than on Unity, but still hard for beginners. See More

Top Pro

Conservative, yet modern

It comes with all Ubuntu goodness but without bloat, a perfect mix between new ideas and usability. See More

Robert Lilly's Experience

Ubuntu base with stable lightweight desktop runs well on my old Dell Inspiron 5749. 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 Xubuntu install. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

Xubuntu is very fast and makes good use of resources. See More

Top Con

Basic Layout

Top Pro

Customizable

Official distro of XFCE, one of the most customizable desktop environments. In XFCE you can create as many tasks bars as you need and configure every one of their elements and behaviours. You can also change any icon, font, color... etc. Literally there's nothing you can't change in GUI. See More

Top Pro

Quick boot time

Boots at about double the speed of most distributions. See More

Lubuntu

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Top Pro

Explicitly intended for old computers

As Wikipedia says, “Lubuntu is intended to be a low-system-requirement, low-RAM environment for netbooks, mobile devices, and older PCs.” 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

Specs

Based On:Debian>Ubuntu

Package Manager:Debian Package Manager

Default Desktop Environment:LXQt

Release Schedule:Point (follows Ubuntu releases)

Top Pro

Easy to set up

Like with all ubuntu flavors, the setup is simple, and in the end you have a very usable system ready for anything. It also has GUI configuration tools to help you with printer, network, keyboard layouts, etc. See More

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

Lightweight

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

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

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

Top Pro

Part of the Ubuntu family

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, both on Lubuntu specifically and Ubuntu that also applies to Lubuntu. It also means that there are certain security and usability standards enforced and you can use Ubuntu .deb packages. See More

Top Pro

Ready to use out of the box

Lubuntu comes with a nice pack of pre-installed tools, and everything is snappy and looks good. If you miss something, just install it from an official repo or ppa. See More

Top Pro

Has a decent support for proprietary components

Playing multimedia, encoding your video, and using proprietary drivers is easier than in Fedora and other distros with emphasis on freedom. This makes Lubuntu a better choice for newbies and pragmatics. 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 Pro

LXDE desktop

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

Top Pro

Stable

PrimeOS

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Top Pro

Dual boot at single click with PrimeOS installer

Top Con

Windows software aren't compatible

Specs

Based On:Android

Default Desktop Environment:PrimeOS Desktop

Release Schedule:Point

Top Pro

Standalone OS, better performance than any emulator

PrimeOS is standalone OS thus provides 2x performance than any emulator as emulator runs on a host OS. See More

Top Pro

3x better performance than windows budget laptop

Top Pro

Android Gaming on PC

PrimeOS is equipped with a key mapping tool, DecaPro whihc let you play any Android game at the comfort of keyboard and mouse. See More

Top Pro

Android Ecosystem with Desktop Interface

PrimeOS provides access to the whole Android ecosystem with complete desktop interface. Now use multiple apps on single screen with minimise, maximise and close option. See More

MorphOS

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Top Pro

User-friendly

If you have used and loved Amiga, this is like classic Amiga but more stable and fun to use. See More

Top Con

Entirely lacks in security

There's no security at all. All programs share the same memory. The system can easily get hacked, even by a less skilled hacker. See More

Specs

Programming Language:mostly C

Available on:MorphOS

Widget Toolkit:MUI

Top Pro

Lightweight

Super lightweight, start up takes less than 20 seconds on 10 year old hardware. Works on most PowerPC-hardware by Apple. See More

Top Con

Lack of software

Compatible with most modern Amiga software compiled for MorphOS, but does not run modern Windows or MacOS software. See More

Top Pro

Old Amiga software compatibility

I was surprised to see most of my must have Amiga software worked without problems here like AmIrc, ArtEffect and Personal Paint. See More

Top Pro

Customizable

You can customize the GUI or download already made parts of GUI from MorphOS storage sites like this one here. See More

PsychOS

Top Pro

The IceWM option looks and functions nice

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

Specs

Based On:Devuan

Package Manager:Debian Package manager

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE

Release Schedule:Point, but no official schedule

Top Pro

Lots of command-line tools

Lots of command-line tools and I really like the CLIMax thing. It's a good tool to have if you want to spend time in the command-line but aren't that experienced. Also, it plays a quick, one-time ascii animation when you go into the tty for the first time. See More

Top Pro

TONS of Thunar Custom Actions

PsychOS comes with a lot of Thunar Custom Actions, many of which as disabled, but they are there none the less; most probably just in case. Right-click on a DOOM WAD shows there's a menu item to play it directly using LZDoom. See More

Top Pro

QuickEdit

There's a yad-based tool you do not see on any other GNU/Linux distro in which you can simply right-click pretty much any file and then use the "QuickEdit" option to quickly edit small things about a file such as size if it's an image or video, convert the file, or even render the file if it's a Blender project. It's nice not having to open an image with GIMP every time I want to resize or convert something. See More

Top Pro

No fuss - just works.

A lot of the programs are already set up for you. Just boot it and go. This is definitely one of the better SHTF distro's. See More

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

Top Pro

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

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

Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition

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Top Pro

Great user experience convenient for Windows users

IntellectualAbassi's Experience

Went from Windows 10 Pro to Linux Mint, full Cinnamon addition about a year ago. Was a slight learning curb, but other than getting my printer connecting with all features, it was a breeze. (Printer now also working great) I can't believe the difference, and regret not making the move to Linux long ago, although, I'm told it has only become as user friendly as it is now over the last few years. (Using my 11 year old laptop regularly and even older ones with Linux without any issues or lag. )Very happy, and the community of help is awesome. See More

Specs

Based On:Ubuntu

Default Desktop Environment:Cinnamon

Release Schedule:Release Every 6 months.

Top Pro

Great look & feel, polished like Mac OS X

GenuinePersephone's Experience

Great user experience, one of the best OS for computer science students who are switching from windows.For me the UI was a bit bland , but you can customize that easily See More

Top Pro

Requires zero configuration out of the box, just works

Manjaro Linux

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Top Pro

Based on Arch and user friendly

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.The overall features it provides is hard to beat. Arguably be the best desktop distro with lts kernel. Consumes very less ram. See More

ImmaculateDazbog's Experience

Great and easy to use. i3wm is a good choice for old laptops if you know how to use it. It works well and is better than Ubuntu because it uses few CPU resources. See More

Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Package Manager:pamac

Default Desktop Environment:XFCE, KDE Plasma, GNOME

Release Schedule:rolling

Top Pro

Uses low memory

By using Xfce or Plasma (or LXDE, Fluxbox, supported by community) as default desktop environments, Manjaro is able to have a low memory footprint. See More

Top Pro

Light, using very few CPU resources

It uses very few CPU resources and works well on old computers. 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

Good documentation and forum

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

Top Pro

Very good looking desktops

All desktops look good by default. See More

Top Pro

Excellent graphical package manager (Pamac)

Features include: providing notifications of available updates; mirror management; Snap support, Flatpak support and 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

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

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

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

Support for multiple kernels

Manjaro has built-in support for multiple kernels as well as a way to easily install them. Using LTS kernel makes this distro stable and less buggy. 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

Artix Linux

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Specs

Based On:Arch Linux

Package Manager:Pacman

Default Desktop Environment:Bash (Unix shell), Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and XFCE

Release Schedule:Rolling release

Ubuntu LTS

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Top Pro

Lots of support

As the most popular Linux distribution, there's a wide range of sources for support online if you ever need help, including the Ubuntu Wiki, Ubuntu Forums and the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange site. See More

Top Con

Relatively high system requirements

The default Unity desktop environment is a resource hog which requires hardware accelerated graphics rendering in order to run smoothly, making out of the box Ubuntu unsuitable for low end systems and older hardware. Even mildly aged hardware, you'll get far better performance out of a lighter desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE. See More

Top Pro

Good PPA repositories available

PPA repositories allow you to install the latest version of your preferred software while keeping the rest of the operating system "stable". See More

Top Pro

Just works out of the box

Lots of support for hardware, lots of pre-installed software, and a smooth install process means less time downloading drivers, less time digging through configuration files, and less time deciding on software to use just to get up and running. It also means less time digging through forums looking for support. See More

Top Pro

Most users are already familiar with it

Ubuntu is the go-to Linux distro for most people, so there is a sense of familiarity and comfort in using something they have used before. See More

Top Pro

Great Long Term Support release schedule (2 years)

This allows for users to always have a new supported release available without long unkown wait times in between. See More

Solus

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Top Pro

Lightning fast boot time

Specs

Based On:Scratch

Package Manager:eopkg package manager (PiSi fork)

Release Schedule:Rolling

Init-System:systemd

Top Pro

Friendly community

The only community who values the newcomers. Very helpful community. See More

Top Pro

Friendly towards proprietary codecs, firmware and drivers.

So you won't have to enable PPAs or extra repos for that. See More

Top Pro

Responsive

System boots quickly and stays responsive. Does what operating system should do, and does it really well. See More

Top Pro

Most stable Rolling Release Distro

Top Pro

Rock-solid Distro

Very stable and well curated. See More

Top Pro

Stable

The system itself is very stable. All packages in the repository seem to be carefully picked, well prepared and run stable. See More

Top Pro

Rolling release

ChromeOS Flex

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Top Con

Only really meant for web browsing

To use the software, you need to have a Google account and log in. Because it's meant for web browsing and researching, you won't find software like Steam, Office, Adobe Photoshop, Aftereffects, etc; or even a 3rd party browser other than Google Chrome. Although there are plenty of alternative web browser online, and in the Chrome Web Store, which is still supported by Chrome OS. See More

openSUSE

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Top Pro

Extremely reliable

The packaging team is dependable resulting in system updates that come in a timely fashion and systems which rarely, if ever, break due to packaging. The versions of software that are selected and the configuration of them is typically extremely high quality. See More

Top Con

Poor video card drive

Sometimes the display stops working because of the Video Card Drive. See More

ImmaculateDazbog's Experience

Sometimes the display stops working because of the Video Card Drive. But really beautiful. See More

Specs

Based On:Jurix>SUSE

Package Manager:RPM Package Manager, zypper

Default Desktop Environment:Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, LXQT

Release Schedule:Point (1 year minor releases, 3 years major releases)

Top Pro

Easy installation and administration

openSUSE makes use of a GUI tool called YaST to install and setup an openSUSE system. YaST is very easy to use and makes the process of installing and maintaining an openSUSE installation a breeze. See More

Top Pro

One-Click install

Much better system then other distros for installing any package. It is as simple as clicking on one button and typing in your password. Adds a repo to your system keeping everything updated at the same time. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Stable, reliable, rock solid. See More

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