I've got this older laptop from around 2015-2016 that I've mostly been using for Discord video calls and watching YouTube. It's been running pretty slow lately, and I'm considering switching to Linux to breathe some new life into it. I'm really just hoping to speed things up so I'm not waiting ages to change tabs in Discord (okay, maybe not 10 minutes, but you get the idea!). My main concern is how well Discord works on Linux since I've seen mixed reviews about it, and I know it might depend on the distro too. Does anyone have experience with this? If so, which distro do you think would be the best for my situation? I can share my laptop specs later when I'm back home.
3 Answers
I've been using Discord on Pop OS, and honestly, it works great! There can be some bugs from Discord itself, but they usually get fixed in updates pretty quickly.
Could you share your full laptop specs? It would help a lot! Knowing if you have an SSD, especially an NVMe, is really important for performance. Also, what processor does your laptop have? The GPU isn't super relevant, but it can help with running Chromium and Discord. For lightweight options, I usually recommend MX Linux, which is user-friendly. You also have to consider the Desktop Environment—you can choose XFCE if you prefer something simple, or go for KDE if you want something more modern. GNOME (like in Pop OS) is polished but can be resource-heavy.
I've noticed that Discord has a native Linux app. For distros, I'd recommend Pop OS, Linux Mint, or Fedora. For most users, Linux Mint is my go-to choice, especially for those who are just starting out. There's a fantastic guide on YouTube by 'Explaining Computers' that can really help beginners understand Linux better.
I'm not able to check my full specs right now since I'm away from home, but I think I remember my laptop having a 6th gen i5 processor, an AMD Radeon GPU, a SATA SSD, and 12GB of RAM. I’m not picky about the UI; I just want it to be easy to navigate to Discord or my browser.