I have an old desktop that's not very powerful—6GB of RAM, no discrete GPU, and a CPU that can't even run Terraria smoothly. I want to repurpose it into a home server for things like game servers, media hosting, and file storage. It currently has Windows 10, but I want to switch to a Linux distro. Ideally, I'd like something with a GUI since I prefer not to deal with command line interfaces all the time. I'm somewhat experienced with Linux, having used Ubuntu daily, so I'm open to more complex distros as well. If GUI isn't practical for server use, I'm also willing to consider CLI-only options that won't overwhelm me with command line tasks.
3 Answers
The lightness of a distro often depends on its desktop environment rather than the distro itself. Lightweight options like Xfce, MATE, or LXQt are good choices. Some distros like Linux Mint, Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu have versions that come with these pre-installed for convenience. A heads up: you might lean towards Xubuntu or Lubuntu for their performance on older hardware.
Honestly, you might find it tough to set everything up without using the terminal at all. Typically, servers run best without a GUI, and you can just SSH into the machine for most of your work while using the desktop of your regular PC.
Have you considered using Proxmox, Rockstor, or OpenMediaVault? They don’t come with a graphical desktop but offer remote access via a web GUI. Once you set them up, you would rarely need to touch the console, making management easier from afar. What’s your primary goal with the server?
Thanks for the insight! I suspected DEs could make a big difference. I'm leaning towards Ubuntu since I'm familiar with it, but I'll check out Xubuntu or Lubuntu as well.