I have an older laptop from around 2015-2016, and I mainly use it for Discord video calls and streaming YouTube. Lately, it's been pretty sluggish, and I'm looking for a way to give it a bit of a boost without any major overhauls. I've been thinking about switching to Linux, but my main concern is how well Discord runs on it since I've stumbled upon mixed reviews. Does anyone have experience with this? If so, what Linux distribution would be best for my needs? I can share the laptop specs later, as I'm currently away from home. Thanks for any help! 😀
3 Answers
I'm running Discord on Pop OS, and it works really well! There are occasionally some bugs, but those usually come from Discord itself rather than the OS. Plus, updates tend to fix those bugs pretty quickly.
Could you share your full laptop specs? It’d help a lot in deciding on the right distro. For instance, if you have an SSD, especially NVMe, that can really speed things up. Also, what processor do you have? While the GPU is less of a concern, you can utilize it for running Discord and Chromium. I usually point people towards MX Linux because it's lightweight yet user friendly. The desktop environment is also crucial—if you prefer something more retro, go for XFCE. If you want something modern, KDE is solid, and GNOME (the default for Pop OS) is nice but resource-heavy.
I can't check the specs just yet, but I recall it having a 6th gen i5, an AMD Radeon GPU, a SATA SSD, and 12GB of RAM. I mainly use Discord and the browser, so as long as I can access those easily, I'm good with any interface.
Discord has a native app for Linux, which is great! I recommend distributions like Pop OS, Linux Mint, or Fedora. Personally, I usually suggest Linux Mint because it tends to be a good fit for a variety of use cases, especially for beginners. If you're looking for some beginner-friendly guidance, check out 'Explaining Computers' on YouTube—they have great resources for learning Linux.
How does Linux Mint compare in terms of being lightweight compared to Pop OS?
That sounds promising! How resource-heavy is Pop OS?