I'm new to using Linux and recently experimented with Mint XFCE. Unfortunately, I faced issues like my computer freezing while playing videos or when I had multiple tabs open in Firefox. The video playback was also glitched. After switching back to Windows 10 (since I'm unable to upgrade to Windows 11), I wondered if my hardware might not be compatible with Mint XFCE. I'm looking for recommendations for a more suitable Linux distro for my system which includes an AMD A4-5050 APU at 1.5 GHz, a Radeon HD 8330 GPU, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 1 TB HDD.
4 Answers
If you liked Mint, consider giving the Debian edition, LMDE 7, a shot. It should work fine with your specs. Aside from that, you could explore options like AntiX or Void Linux for lightweight performance.
I suggest trying Ultramarine; it’s Fedora-based and comes pre-loaded with drivers and codecs. You can boot it from a flash drive to test it before installing. I've had better luck on RHEL-based distros with older AMD systems too! With 8GB of RAM, you could also run a modern desktop environment like KDE, which is pretty sleek.
You might want to check out Lubuntu or MX Linux; both are great lightweight distros that can work well on older hardware.
I've encountered similar freezing issues with Mint in the past, particularly with Firefox. Switching browsers resolved the problem for me. You might want to try a different one if you're leaning toward sticking with Mint.
What browser have you found works better for you?