I'm looking for suggestions for a lightweight Linux distribution for my older laptop that runs Core i7 2670QM with 4GB DDR3 RAM and a slow 500GB HDD. I want something stable that will fit in a 30-40 GB space. I'm leaning towards MX Linux with XFCE or KDE, or Debian with XFCE or KDE, but I would like to avoid Arch-based distros due to issues I've heard about. Any recommendations?
6 Answers
Definitely go with XFCE or LXQt. Linux Mint XFCE or Lubuntu are both good picks. If you’re comfortable digging a bit deeper, you might even try a window manager for something really light.
If you don’t mind a command line installation, Alpine Linux is an excellent lightweight choice. It doesn’t use systemd and is really efficient. Their wiki is well-documented as well, which can help you through the installation process.
With only 4GB of RAM, it’s definitely a good idea to stick with lighter desktop environments like XFCE or LXQt. I’m running Debian with LXQt on my old laptop with just 3GB, and it works fine. Just a heads up, browsing can be a memory hog, so I find Chromium performs better than Firefox on limited RAM. Also, turning off swap can help! And MX Linux is a pretty solid choice, especially if your system has legacy Nvidia hardware.
Definitely agree! MX Linux’s installer is user-friendly for sure.
You might want to consider Debian XFCE or Mint XFCE for your setup. They’re lightweight and stable, which is perfect for older hardware. Also, if you can, upgrading to an SSD would significantly improve your performance!
MX Linux with XFCE is a great option. It’s stable and runs smoothly on older hardware, plus you get the added benefit of avoiding systemd if you want that.
I’d recommend Lubuntu 25.04 as well, which is basically Ubuntu with the lightweight LXQt desktop. It looks modern and runs fast. Just make sure to use that HDD for backup and maybe look into an SSD if you’re looking for faster speeds.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll consider using MX Linux since it seems to work well for others with similar setups.