What is the best Lightweight Linux Distro?

[Revolve]

1. I have an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop with 2 GB RAM. My windows 7 home basic in the laptop lags so much. Can't even open the file manager easily. If am not a Linux expert, what distro suits me?

2. Is elementary OS a good and lightweight distro? is it that lightweight it can multitask on my Core 2 Duo laptop easily?

[Fibbs]

I'd go with Xubuntu. It's lightweight but not completely barren when it comes to features.

[DiamondPugs]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Doc Holliday:

Linux Mint MATE is super lightweight i install it on all older hardware and new hardware

^^ This one!
It is very lightweight and easy to use. I could advise you to try ElementaryOS too. You can try any distro without installing it in your computer installing it in a Pen Drive (Things will take some time to load though, obviously).

Linux Mint Mate: Lightweight, Windows like features, easy to use.

ElementaryOS: Lightweight, Good looking OS, easy to use.

[DiamondPugs]

Początkowo opublikowane przez gbf:

Any distro with a DE like LXDE or XFCE should be fine, but if you want something more fast o lightweight, install a distro without a DE (desktop environment) and then install only a windows manager. For example: Debian or Archlinux + Openbox. And buy a SSD isn't a bad idea.

He said he's no linux expert. Doing what you are saying is the best way to go if lightweight is what you are looking for, but you surely need some Linux expertise for that.

[유빈]

Core2duo with 1GB of ram
running well using Ubuntu 14.04, Manjaro KDE.
i just disable some of autostart apps.
capable for steam game sreaming with 60FPS

[DiamondPugs]

Początkowo opublikowane przez gbf:

You don't have to be an expert, anyway, that's why I said "Any distro with a DE like LXDE or XFCE should be fine"

I didn't mean to invalidate your post, sorry if it came out that way. You are right, you don't need to be an expert, but when someone starts right off the start with the frase "I'm no Linux expert" I understand that that person doesn't want to get involved in console commands, and yeah, any distro with LXDE or XFCE should be fine too.

[DiamondPugs]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Fjolsvinnsmal:

Core2duo with 1GB of ram
running well using Ubuntu 14.04, Manjaro KDE.
i just disable some of autostart apps.
capable for steam game sreaming with 60FPS

KDE and Unity (Ubuntu) are the heaviest DE's. I wouldn't recommend that to someone looking for lightweight.

[sounds like a wooosh]

Początkowo opublikowane przez MadXav:

KDE and Unity (Ubuntu) are the heaviest DE's. I wouldn't recommend that to someone looking for lightweight.

I don't think this is the current state for KDE… Do you have any sources for that?

[유빈]

Początkowo opublikowane przez MadXav:

KDE and Unity (Ubuntu) are the heaviest DE's. I wouldn't recommend that to someone looking for lightweight.

by ram usage? Yes
my experience with unity or KDE consume 20-50% of my RAM while browsing using firefox
but since my old machine perfectly good communication with the software or the DE's its never slow me down for daily usage.

Początkowo opublikowane przez gbf:

L4D2 consume ~900 MB of ram
you're using swap?

im using 2GB for swap. i never playing L4D2 but when streaming game from my windows PC (usually FIFA14, Child of light, Empire Total Wars, Tomb Raider) consume about 60-80% of my system ram usage.

[Shark]

Debian Stable without Gnome is pretty lightweight. Otherwise, if you want a distro which lets you decide how light weight it is, Arch is pretty good.

[Xantas]

Początkowo opublikowane przez sounds like a wooosh:

Początkowo opublikowane przez MadXav:

KDE and Unity (Ubuntu) are the heaviest DE's. I wouldn't recommend that to someone looking for lightweight.

I don't think this is the current state for KDE… Do you have any sources for that?

http://l3net.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/a-memory-comparison-of-light-linux-desktops/
Look at the final graph. That's not the Bible, of course, but...

[Cybertao]

Memory footprint isn't a very good metric for 'weight'. Demands on the processor, GPU, and storage are all relevant - different systems will run different environments with different results.

[labyrinth]

I installed Lubuntu on a Toshiba Satellite M70 for a friend and it was very snappy considering the age of this laptop.

[DiamondPugs]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Fjolsvinnsmal:

Początkowo opublikowane przez gbf:

L4D2 consume ~900 MB of ram
you're using swap?

im using 2GB for swap. i never playing L4D2 but when streaming game from my windows PC (usually FIFA14, Child of light, Empire Total Wars, Tomb Raider) consume about 60-80% of my system ram usage.

For streaming you don't need much resources. when streaming was still in beta I was able to perfectly stream to my 8 year old laptop (CPU: 1GHz, VRAM: 250MB RAM: 512MB) with no problems, so that doesn't really mesure anything.

[TyranT⨁]

If you want lightweight, then Arch Linux is the best. Although, when it comes to distros, its the window manager or desktop environment that is what makes your Linux lightweight, not so much the distro itself.

You can, for example, go with Fedora, but install TinyWM, and you would have a system thats more lightweight then any of the recommendations I've seen so far. But, since you're new to Linux, Arch isn't the best choice, since its for advanced users. You might not even get past the installation.

As far as all these recommendations for Linux Mint, its by far the worst choice. Its not lightweight at all. Linux Mint is a fork of Ubuntu for new users. If you truly want lightweight, you can't use any of these distros, since the desktop environments they are bundled with are bloaty.

Since you're new, I would have to recommend Bodhi Linux. Its bundled with the Enlightment desktop environment, so it makes for easy installation. Enlightment is more lightweight then LXDE, MATE, and Cinnamon.

I would not recommend Ubuntu or anything related to it (Mint), because it spys on you just like Windows, and is a disgrace to the UNIX world.

[Cybertao]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/X-Window-System.png