I recently got my hands on a 5-year-old laptop equipped with a Celeron N4100 processor running at 1.10 GHz and 4 GB of RAM. It also has a 58 GB SSD. I have some experience with Ubuntu from about 15 years ago. Given the limited space on the SSD, what lightweight Linux distributions would you recommend for me to try?
3 Answers
I totally agree with going for LXQT! I have a Nanote P8 with the same processor, and I'm running Debian 13 with KDE Plasma without issues. It's light but can still be pretty. Just don't expect it to be lightning fast—pick what you like!
You should be good with the 58 GB SSD for most distros! If you don’t plan on using heavy apps or features like Flatpak/Snap packages or system snapshots, a standard install of Debian should work just fine for you. Choose any desktop environment you prefer!
Honestly, you can pick just about any distro. A fresh install won't take up much space at all—probably less than 15 GB. But if aesthetics matter to you and you want something snappy, consider using a lightweight desktop environment like XFCE or LXQT to keep it smooth.
For a beginner, would Zorin or Mint with XFCE perform comparably to KDE Plasma?