I'm trying to breathe new life into my old Chromebook by turning it into a functional Linux PC. It only has 16GB of eMMC storage, and I've installed Cachy OS on it, which runs fine but leaves me with less than 1GB of free space. I'm a bit new to Linux, but I'd love to find some beginner-friendly Linux distributions that can fit with a few gigs of storage left to spare. Any suggestions?
4 Answers
You might want to try MX Linux. It has this cool feature called a frugal install, which just copies the ISO without unpacking everything, allowing you to save space. After installing it that way, you can also enable persistence at boot, which lets you save your changes. I set it up on a small mSATA drive, and it worked out well for me! Just boot from a Live USB, follow the instructions to install, and you should be good to go!
Not really! It sounds more complicated than it actually is. Once you're familiar with it, you'll get the hang of the process pretty quickly.
If you're looking for space-saving options, check out antiX. It's ultra-lightweight and can fit in around 3-4GB, so it leaves plenty of room for your files. It does have a more classic interface, but it’s still very usable. Definitely a solid choice for limited storage.
For something more user-friendly, I'd recommend Linux Lite or Lubuntu. Linux Lite is designed for those transitioning from Windows and is about 7-8GB after install. Lubuntu can be even smaller if you go for a minimal install, around 5-6GB. They both should give you enough room to breathe while still being newbie-friendly!
Lubuntu sounds like a good option! Does it run well on older hardware?
Absolutely! It's lightweight and definitely optimized for older machines.
Have you considered Tiny Core Linux? It's incredibly small and perfect for low-storage machines. It's quite a unique distro, though, so you might need to spend some time getting used to it. It's worth a shot if you're trying to maximize your available space!
That sounds promising! Does it really require a lot of steps? I'm not super experienced yet.