10-26-2017, 08:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-27-2017, 02:56 PM by bermudalite.)
First-timer here.
I wanted to add my two cents on the topic of lightweight Linux distros.
First of all, I'm not "Linux proficient" by any stretch. However I have used Linux off and on for 8 years...predominantly Linux Mint Cinnamon. Lately Mint has been a bit slow on my old laptop and I thought I'd test drive some other distros to see if they were any faster. To my delight this is how I discovered Linux Lite (hmm...maybe the name should be Linux DeLite instead.) Anyhow here's a list of the distros I recently tried (in no particular order) with a brief description of my experience/impression.
Linux Mint - Cinnamon is great, but a little resource heavy for an older machine. (I tried Mate, but it was not noticeably faster and I wasn't a fan of the layout.)
Anteros, Cinnamon - It worked and I considered it (because Cinnamon is a familiar place), but it was not super-fast and had a few style and layout quirks that bugged me.
Manjaro - It worked, but it too was not much faster and frankly in some ways it was just ugly. I don't understand it's popularity....but I admit I am a Linux simpleton.
Solus, Budgie - Looked cool and seemed very quick! Unfortunately it had glitches. My wifi quit connecting and rebooting was a big issue. I really wanted it to work, but could fix it. Maybe next year.
Gecko, Budgie - After Solus I wanted that Budgie style, but Gecko didn't look as slick and had it's own glitches. After a troubleshooting/reinstalling a few times I gave up.
SparkyLinux, Budgie - Again wanting the Budgie style...but had installation ISSUES!
Vector 7.1 - It worked and it was fast...but way too simplistic.
Bodhi - It worked. It was sufficiently quick, but the look and feel just wasn't right...and I was not too fond of the default Midori browser.
antiX 17 - It worked. It's simple and quick. It was certainly a consideration, but it felt a little too vanilla. [Modification - OK, vanilla maybe a little harsh because this distro was a close 2nd for me.]
Linux Lite 3.6 - Finally sweet bliss. It worked right out of the box. It is quick, but not too skinny. I wasn't sure if I'd like Xfce, but I found it super-easy to customize. I was sold. I've been playing with it for over a week and now I have it on 2 machines. Really really happy.
Last thought: This is probably sad to say, but I think I would have tried Linux Lite a lot sooner, if they had simply had a more stylish background image on the Distrowatch website.
I wanted to add my two cents on the topic of lightweight Linux distros.
First of all, I'm not "Linux proficient" by any stretch. However I have used Linux off and on for 8 years...predominantly Linux Mint Cinnamon. Lately Mint has been a bit slow on my old laptop and I thought I'd test drive some other distros to see if they were any faster. To my delight this is how I discovered Linux Lite (hmm...maybe the name should be Linux DeLite instead.) Anyhow here's a list of the distros I recently tried (in no particular order) with a brief description of my experience/impression.
Linux Mint - Cinnamon is great, but a little resource heavy for an older machine. (I tried Mate, but it was not noticeably faster and I wasn't a fan of the layout.)
Anteros, Cinnamon - It worked and I considered it (because Cinnamon is a familiar place), but it was not super-fast and had a few style and layout quirks that bugged me.
Manjaro - It worked, but it too was not much faster and frankly in some ways it was just ugly. I don't understand it's popularity....but I admit I am a Linux simpleton.
Solus, Budgie - Looked cool and seemed very quick! Unfortunately it had glitches. My wifi quit connecting and rebooting was a big issue. I really wanted it to work, but could fix it. Maybe next year.
Gecko, Budgie - After Solus I wanted that Budgie style, but Gecko didn't look as slick and had it's own glitches. After a troubleshooting/reinstalling a few times I gave up.
SparkyLinux, Budgie - Again wanting the Budgie style...but had installation ISSUES!
Vector 7.1 - It worked and it was fast...but way too simplistic.
Bodhi - It worked. It was sufficiently quick, but the look and feel just wasn't right...and I was not too fond of the default Midori browser.
antiX 17 - It worked. It's simple and quick. It was certainly a consideration, but it felt a little too vanilla. [Modification - OK, vanilla maybe a little harsh because this distro was a close 2nd for me.]
Linux Lite 3.6 - Finally sweet bliss. It worked right out of the box. It is quick, but not too skinny. I wasn't sure if I'd like Xfce, but I found it super-easy to customize. I was sold. I've been playing with it for over a week and now I have it on 2 machines. Really really happy.
Last thought: This is probably sad to say, but I think I would have tried Linux Lite a lot sooner, if they had simply had a more stylish background image on the Distrowatch website.