I'm using Mint XFCE on my old laptop with 8GB of RAM and an outdated CPU. It's also my media server, and I often face slow loading times with my browser. Considering how resource-intensive modern browsers are, I'm wondering if switching to a lighter Linux distribution than Mint would help improve loading speeds. Are there any specific lighter distros you would recommend for this situation?
6 Answers
Yes, going for a lighter distro can help! The main gain comes from switching desktop environments. Linux is great for that flexibility. However, once hardware gets very old, even a lightweight setup may struggle with web browsers, so keep that in mind!
Not really, I don't think switching distros will make a huge difference in your case since you're already using XFCE, which is pretty light. You might want to look into the browser and its settings instead.
I run Arch Linux with i3wm on my old desktop from 2011, and it's really snappy for web browsing. A lighter desktop environment could help, but you should also test how different browsers perform on your current setup.
Definitely consider both a lighter distro and a lighter browser. If you want to experiment, you could try Debian with LXDE or just a window manager for a really minimal setup. Testing with live USB versions of these distros could give you a good idea of what works best for your hardware.
Gentoo might be an option if you're looking for something lighter, but it comes with its own challenges on older hardware. If you want to experiment, live USBs are always a good idea to see what performs best.
If you could reduce RAM usage from, say, 1.5GB to 600MB, that frees up quite a bit for your apps. So yes, a lighter distro and even a lighter browser could help.
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