I have an old Subnotebook (at least 10 years old I think) which runs Windows 7 atm. I would like to run Linux on it. I‘m a Linux noob, but would like to try and learn a few things. Any recommendations?
Being lightweight or not doesn’t depend on the distro but the desktop manager (the graphic interface). Unlike Windows, the graphic in Linux is separated from the system so you can use different desktop managers on the same distros.
The lightest DE is LXQT but it’s pretty barebone, XFCE has more features while still being very light, avoid GNOME and KDE.
That being said, I suggest you try Linux MX XFCE or Mint XFCE first, if that’s not light enough for your liking, try Lubuntu, that’s Ubuntu with LXQT as default DE.
Mint XFCE or Lubuntu. I would try Mint Cinnamon first, to see if it runs properly. If not, try one of the above.
Mint xfce! Its a res spell for old hardware
Mint XFCE
This is first stop, if this is slow than try something else.
My guess is it will be too slow, but it is worth a try.
exactly the way I see it too it’s the lightest of the no compromise linux environement, after that you’re starting to see the gears
Debian XFCE
Debian with LXQt. Good luck.
something that runs xfce
Manjaro XFCE ftw
Thank you for all the suggestions, I don’t have access to the laptop right now, so I can’t get the specs, I’ll try to post them tomorrow
I daily drive a netbook and I use Debian 12 with KDE Plasma on it. The netbook is a 2014 ThinkPad 11e with a Celeron and 4GB of RAM. I find it comfortable for writing and even some Python and JavaScript development. I remote into my servers/cloud infra for more intense development tasks.
+1 for upgrading whatever you can before installing linux. An SSD in particular will go a long way to make it feel snappy.
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Artix or archbang. For the debian side, antix linux.
You can use quite a number of “underlying” distributions, it mainly depends on what you like (Arch-based ones, Debian-based ones, etc).
As a desktop environment, have a look at XFCE or LXDE.
I spent a few weeks learning the arch installation for my old laptop and it’s had the same installation now for about four years. It’s awesome and I have only the packages I need, no more, no less.
- Lubuntu
- Linux Lite
- Zorin OS Lite
If that is still not enough you could try Chromeos Flex. It’s not Linux but it could at least maybe make your old Laptop usable again for casual web browsing.
I recomend you to max out the ram, replace hdd with ssd and thermal paste while cleaning the dust with compressed air. It’ll work with Linux faster than ever.
You can try out different distros in Live-mode (no installation/format requirements) if you just format your biggest usb stick with Ventoy2Disk and drag and drop any .iso-file you want to try: https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_ventoy2disk.html
I don’t say what distro you should use. But if you’re considering Linux Mint then try LMDE5 instead and here’s why: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=374128
Thank you for your recommendation, but I really don’t want to spend any money at all on it. I’d like it to be a toy to learn a bit about Linux, not a daily driver 😁
then void linux would be the perfect fit for you
its highly tinkerable and has a smooth learning curveThe 128 gb ssd’s are like 20-30 bucks and used probably even cheaper. Used ddr2 or ddr3 ram sticks are like 5-10 bucks each.
Thermal paste should be replaced every 2-3 years into every computer. Because the cpu isn’t modern nor fast in today’s standards, cleaning the dust and replacing the thermal paste will make cpu to thermal throttle way less which means faster run overall.
But obviously the choice is yours and I’m not forcing you. Happy Linux learning times!
Thanks 😁
ZorinOS Lite
