I'm looking for a lightweight Linux distribution and desktop environment since my old Acer Aspire 4741Z from 2010 runs slowly. While I've tried LXQt and XFCE, I'm not a fan of either. The laptop has a Pentium P6000 processor, 6GB of RAM, and a 500.1GB HDD. My main requirements are that it should boot up quickly, open applications quickly, and importantly, must support either .rpm or .deb packages for my wired printer that doesn't have Linux drivers. By the way, I currently use Debian with LXQt and KDE, but I find KDE too heavy for my needs. I usually just use a web browser and WhatsApp Web. Any suggestions?
6 Answers
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Why not try using a Window Manager (WM) instead of a full DE? AntiX is Debian-based and has a few WMs that could help improve your boot times and overall speed. Also, investing in an SSD could be a game-changer for booting and loading times!
Your CPU is a bit slow, but with 6GB of RAM, you should be fine for light usage. Instead of LXQt or XFCE, try MX Linux or AntiX; both are Debian-based and lightweight. Also, consider checking out `zram` instead of traditional swap to improve performance. By the way, what's your deal with XFCE? It might be less resource-heavy than you think!
Have you considered using Omarchy or Bunsenlabs? They're pretty lightweight and should meet your performance needs!
You might want to look into TTY-based systems if you're really trying to lighten the load on your hardware. As for a desktop environment (DE), it sounds like you're on a quest for the 'perfect' one. Good luck with that!
Yeah, I think KDE might still work for me, but I appreciate the suggestion!
Thanks for the suggestions! I'll give MX Linux a shot.