For a old laptop with Intel atom processor and I think 2gb ram.
antiX I've used this before on an old laptop (also an atom and 2gb RAM) and it's very lightweight. It just doesn't have defaults that I prefer but if you tweak it enough, it should be fine.
Might be overkill (or underkill), but Tiny Core Linux is the most lightweight I know. While having an up to date kernel (6.1.2) and glibc (2.3.6).
What are the minimum requirements?
An absolute minimum of RAM is 46mb. TC won't boot with anything less, no matter how many terabytes of swap you have.
Microcore runs with 28mb of ram.
The minimum cpu is i486DX (486 with a math processor).
A recommended configuration:
Pentium 2 or better, 128mb of ram + some swap
Okay, yeah that's a bit much lol
I want to daily driver this for fun for a while. Only problem, just installed Arch, so I need to wait a bit
Also, I'll just mention that it all means nothing as soon as you open a browser window. Then all your RAM is gonna be used up anyway.
Can I introduce you to Lynx?
Sure, play your youtube videos on Lynx.
We all know that's one of the main things people use browsers for, that's not work, these days. ;)
I oftentimes play youtube videos in mpv.
I always play youtube videos with mpv.
Do you just drag and drop into mpv or how does it work? With youtube seemingly trying to prevent the use of adblockers, I have to look for alternatives ahead of time.
I must admit I copy paste the link to the terminal, so it's not a seamless experience. I don't watch enough videos to have done anything other than write a wrapper script with my preferred settings for youtube videos and to convert invidious links to youtube links.
I just tried running mpv --idle=yes --force-window=yes from the terminal and drag a youtube link to the window. It plays like it should. yt-dlp is installed locally for my user in ~/.local/bin and that directory is appended to the PATH environment variable. I also have yt-dlp symlinked to youtube-dl for mpv to pick it up. I guess what's missing is my preferred options for youtube videos, which I could set up in ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf. Everytime some site breaks, you run yt-dlp -U to update and cross your fingers.
You can do a really slim install of Debian that should work. For DE I recommend LXQT.
If you're feeling adventurous, Alpine might be slightly lighter. It's a good distro.
Those specs are not going to get you a terribly fast experience, but my laptop runs Debian ok and it's in the same ballpark.
As other have already alluded to, any distro with a lightweight desktop environment should work on that laptop. However, we don't know if it would work out for you; simply for the fact that you haven't given any other information.
I'd go for Alpine Linux in such case.
Debian with XFCE or LXDE.
Isn't LXDE basically discontinued? It got combined with RazorQT or something back in the day and became the LXQT we know today if I'm remembering right.
Seems like you're right, I just remembered trying it a while ago and thinking it was quite decent.
Yeah it was a good middle of the road option. There's much lighter, but it gets a lot more involved at that point.
I checked this yesterday, but could not decide. So had to ask.
Then download random live iso, test DE for 10 minutes and install it if there is no major hurdles.
I've heard Puppy Linux is good, never tried it myself however.
If you want to take it to the extreme, Alpine is probably one of the best options.
It's not worth it. Ram is dirt cheap, you can get 8gb for like $30. For $150-$200, you can find an used Thinkpad that will perform 1000x better.
I would only use such a machine for playing with old software like Windows 2000 or XP, old Linux distros.
You can use whatever distro you want that you can install on it (btw it is a eeepc?), just avoid to install heavy programs and/or DE.
IIRC there should be a Debian derive distro for atoms, I used it on a eeepc, don't know of still a thing
thank you, I will check it.
With the Atom processor, I had "best" result with Puppy linux whether from USB or actually installed to hard drive. I could run Lubuntu, MX, etc., Tiny core, for me, was a little too little and certainly not "fit and forget". When I bought a new (to me) laptop with more RAM and later chipset, I still stayed with Puppy. There's very little that can't be done with it.
In my personal experience void linux ran the smoothest on all my old laptops (compared to stuff like arch and antiX, I defo didn't try everything).
I'm running it on a dual core 2.5ghz with 1800MB of ram, no complaints!
What would you use this laptop for?
I've dealt with similar hardware, using Qtile over a Manjaro base, but had to mostly use CLI/TUI apps. Anything related to web browsing is a pain.
Not sure. But I have other primary laptop. And this laptop is just sitting so I wanted try something with it.
If you just want to play around with it, I highly recommend some arch based distro (because you can find plenty of obscure TUI apps in the AUR) with a window manager (be it tiling like Qtile or stacking like Openbox).
If you want something preconfigured, I've recently found instantOS, which seems to work fine for that usecase.
I use this small laptop mostly for ebooks (using the excellent epy) and music, using one ot the TUI YouTube frontends.
Yes I can use it for reading. thank you for the suggestion. I will try instant os.
If it's 32-bit, your options dwindle somewhat.
Armbian is lightweight, and has an x86 version.
Any modern browser will probably kill your setup anyway.
Arch, with a lightweight desktop environment. If you have time and dedication, obviously.
I was on the same boat few days ago, I pulled out my 2010 CR48, Atom processor and 2GB ram.
I end up with Archlinux with xcfe DE, a tad slow but completely workable.
I’ve tried Lubuntu on my old laptop from around 2008 and it works fine. It had more ram (4gb), but I don’t think it was using all of it.
Yeah it should be fine. But the OP needs to understand that even with a light OS setup, 2 gb of RAM really isn't much. First Firefox tab or two is going to kill that poor machine. That's why I added BunsenLabs as a lighter option. Still won't be great, but it'll be a bit better at least.
I've been using Peppermint on my garbage laptop and it made it usable again.
If you enjoy using older, less powerful computers, it's important to find a Linux distribution that can accommodate the limited resources. While extremely stripped-down distributions like Tinycore might seem appealing, they often lack the functionality and ease of use that come with more comprehensive distributions.
Instead, I would recommend learning how to use a window manager and forgoing a desktop manager. This approach allows you to maintain a lightweight system without sacrificing too much functionality.
When it comes to choosing a distribution, some are more bloated than others, so it's crucial to find one that offers a degree of flexibility during the installation process. In this regard, Debian is a great choice.
You can install Debian as a server, which will provide a minimal base system. From there, you can install a window manager and only the essential packages you need. This way, you can keep your system lean and efficient, perfect for older, low-powered computers.
DietPi is always a good option. It's designed for raspberry pi, but you can absolutely run it on a laptop and install your desktop environment (XFCE etc)
Just toss it.
I've heard Debian and Alpine are good lightweight distros
I think most distros will run fine on most hardware though (please correct me if I'm wrong) it's the software you run on it (as in, going with a GNOME desktop environment is going to be much more demanding than xfce for example)
@heehaw Use a lxqt based distro and it will run smoothly
I've heard good things about Peppermint, and I personally think Bodhi is neat.
AntiX or MX, both should work
You know those Acer mini laptops from around 2010 back when tablets weren't really a thing?
antiX I've used this before on an old laptop (also an atom and 2gb RAM) and it's very lightweight. It just doesn't have defaults that I prefer but if you tweak it enough, it should be fine.
Might be overkill (or underkill), but Tiny Core Linux is the most lightweight I know. While having an up to date kernel (6.1.2) and glibc (2.3.6).
Okay, yeah that's a bit much lol
I want to daily driver this for fun for a while. Only problem, just installed Arch, so I need to wait a bit
Also, I'll just mention that it all means nothing as soon as you open a browser window. Then all your RAM is gonna be used up anyway.
Can I introduce you to Lynx?
Sure, play your youtube videos on Lynx.
We all know that's one of the main things people use browsers for, that's not work, these days. ;)
I oftentimes play youtube videos in mpv.
I always play youtube videos with mpv.
Do you just drag and drop into mpv or how does it work? With youtube seemingly trying to prevent the use of adblockers, I have to look for alternatives ahead of time.
I must admit I copy paste the link to the terminal, so it's not a seamless experience. I don't watch enough videos to have done anything other than write a wrapper script with my preferred settings for youtube videos and to convert invidious links to youtube links.
I just tried running
mpv --idle=yes --force-window=yesfrom the terminal and drag a youtube link to the window. It plays like it should.yt-dlpis installed locally for my user in~/.local/binand that directory is appended to thePATHenvironment variable. I also haveyt-dlpsymlinked toyoutube-dlfor mpv to pick it up. I guess what's missing is my preferred options for youtube videos, which I could set up in~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf. Everytime some site breaks, you runyt-dlp -Uto update and cross your fingers.Honestly, I don't even use Lynx
You can do a really slim install of Debian that should work. For DE I recommend LXQT.
If you're feeling adventurous, Alpine might be slightly lighter. It's a good distro.
Those specs are not going to get you a terribly fast experience, but my laptop runs Debian ok and it's in the same ballpark.
As other have already alluded to, any distro with a lightweight desktop environment should work on that laptop. However, we don't know if it would work out for you; simply for the fact that you haven't given any other information.
I'd go for Alpine Linux in such case.
Debian with XFCE or LXDE.
Isn't LXDE basically discontinued? It got combined with RazorQT or something back in the day and became the LXQT we know today if I'm remembering right.
Seems like you're right, I just remembered trying it a while ago and thinking it was quite decent.
Yeah it was a good middle of the road option. There's much lighter, but it gets a lot more involved at that point.
https://distrochooser.de/
A request was made to sticky it
I checked this yesterday, but could not decide. So had to ask.
Then download random live iso, test DE for 10 minutes and install it if there is no major hurdles.
I've heard Puppy Linux is good, never tried it myself however.
If you want to take it to the extreme, Alpine is probably one of the best options.
It's not worth it. Ram is dirt cheap, you can get 8gb for like $30. For $150-$200, you can find an used Thinkpad that will perform 1000x better.
I would only use such a machine for playing with old software like Windows 2000 or XP, old Linux distros.
You can use whatever distro you want that you can install on it (btw it is a eeepc?), just avoid to install heavy programs and/or DE.
IIRC there should be a Debian derive distro for atoms, I used it on a eeepc, don't know of still a thing
thank you, I will check it.
With the Atom processor, I had "best" result with Puppy linux whether from USB or actually installed to hard drive. I could run Lubuntu, MX, etc., Tiny core, for me, was a little too little and certainly not "fit and forget". When I bought a new (to me) laptop with more RAM and later chipset, I still stayed with Puppy. There's very little that can't be done with it.
In my personal experience void linux ran the smoothest on all my old laptops (compared to stuff like arch and antiX, I defo didn't try everything).
I'm running it on a dual core 2.5ghz with 1800MB of ram, no complaints!
What would you use this laptop for?
I've dealt with similar hardware, using Qtile over a Manjaro base, but had to mostly use CLI/TUI apps. Anything related to web browsing is a pain.
Not sure. But I have other primary laptop. And this laptop is just sitting so I wanted try something with it.
If you just want to play around with it, I highly recommend some arch based distro (because you can find plenty of obscure TUI apps in the AUR) with a window manager (be it tiling like Qtile or stacking like Openbox).
If you want something preconfigured, I've recently found instantOS, which seems to work fine for that usecase.
I use this small laptop mostly for ebooks (using the excellent epy) and music, using one ot the TUI YouTube frontends.
Yes I can use it for reading. thank you for the suggestion. I will try instant os.
If it's 32-bit, your options dwindle somewhat.
Armbian is lightweight, and has an x86 version.
Any modern browser will probably kill your setup anyway.
Arch, with a lightweight desktop environment. If you have time and dedication, obviously.
I was on the same boat few days ago, I pulled out my 2010 CR48, Atom processor and 2GB ram.
I end up with Archlinux with xcfe DE, a tad slow but completely workable.
If you're new to Linux, try Lubuntu. If not, then try BunsenLabs.
I’ve tried Lubuntu on my old laptop from around 2008 and it works fine. It had more ram (4gb), but I don’t think it was using all of it.
Yeah it should be fine. But the OP needs to understand that even with a light OS setup, 2 gb of RAM really isn't much. First Firefox tab or two is going to kill that poor machine. That's why I added BunsenLabs as a lighter option. Still won't be great, but it'll be a bit better at least.
I've been using Peppermint on my garbage laptop and it made it usable again.
If you enjoy using older, less powerful computers, it's important to find a Linux distribution that can accommodate the limited resources. While extremely stripped-down distributions like Tinycore might seem appealing, they often lack the functionality and ease of use that come with more comprehensive distributions.
Instead, I would recommend learning how to use a window manager and forgoing a desktop manager. This approach allows you to maintain a lightweight system without sacrificing too much functionality.
When it comes to choosing a distribution, some are more bloated than others, so it's crucial to find one that offers a degree of flexibility during the installation process. In this regard, Debian is a great choice.
You can install Debian as a server, which will provide a minimal base system. From there, you can install a window manager and only the essential packages you need. This way, you can keep your system lean and efficient, perfect for older, low-powered computers.
DietPi is always a good option. It's designed for raspberry pi, but you can absolutely run it on a laptop and install your desktop environment (XFCE etc)
Just toss it.
I've heard Debian and Alpine are good lightweight distros
I think most distros will run fine on most hardware though (please correct me if I'm wrong) it's the software you run on it (as in, going with a GNOME desktop environment is going to be much more demanding than xfce for example)
@heehaw Use a lxqt based distro and it will run smoothly
I've heard good things about Peppermint, and I personally think Bodhi is neat.
AntiX or MX, both should work
You know those Acer mini laptops from around 2010 back when tablets weren't really a thing?
Linux Mint runs on those bad boys.
arch with i3
Fedora MATE or LxQt