Hey everyone! I'm trying to give new life to my old laptop by turning it into a lightweight self-hosting machine for my home lab. Here are the specs: Intel Core i3 (7th gen), 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, and an Nvidia MX230. The battery is dead, so it only runs while plugged in.
What I want to accomplish is to self-host Obsidian so I can access it remotely from my main laptop and phone (ideally over the internet), sync my Obsidian files (the main vault is on my primary laptop), and possibly host my own website as well.
I'm considering a few lightweight Linux distros: Linux Mint XFCE, Xubuntu, and Debian XFCE, but I'm leaning towards something that is stable, lightweight, has a polished GUI, and is friendly to Docker. Which distro would you recommend for this? Thanks for your help!
3 Answers
I recommend trying MX Linux. It's based on Debian, which means you get stability, plus their Nvidia installer works like a charm. They also have a solid XFCE version that’s really lightweight and user-friendly.
You might want to consider Fedora or even Knoppix Linux for your setup. They both have a good reputation for being light and efficient, especially with GUI support.
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm curious, what do you think about partitioning the SSD for this kind of setup? How do you manage that for a home server?
For partitioning, it's generally a good idea to have separate partitions for your OS, your data, and maybe even your Docker containers if you're using them. That way, you can manage your files better and keep everything organized. I'd partition about 20-30GB for the OS and the rest for your data and services.