I’m thinking of switching to linux and I’m looking for a lighter weight easy starter distro. Any tips or recommendations?
I’m currently on Fedora for a variety of reasons. It’s relatively up to date in terms of modern technology and is frequently updated, and its a bit more stable than something like arch
since i installed debian ( ??3?? i think) , on the first xbox with a self soldered chip ( sorry, its to long ago. i use debian. startet with SuSE 4.2 but then the xbox incident with debian and so, just debian. on my server, on my vm’s, on my workstation… just debian.
I’m not really a ‘starter’. I started with Ubuntu (long time ago), then used Fedora, then Arch Linux and now I settled on Debian. You can install Debian very light for example without graphical desktop or a minimal one like i3. The installation holds for a long time. No need to be scared every 6 month that a major update will break something. It does not always ship bleeding-edge software. But often that’s for good.
There’s a graphical installer. Setup usually goes quite smooth.
Fedora Budgie spin. Budgie has been my fav on my old Lenovo T510 and my Acer Ryzen 3 laptop, to the point I’m thinking of converting all my stuff to it.
Clean and light bout 600 - 640 MB RAM at boot.
Is there actually a big difference in lightweightness between distros, that does not go back to the Desktop Environment and used Software?
TL;DR: I’d say EndeavourOS.
Note that as a general rule, the more lightweight a distro is at “run-time”, the heavier it is at “configure-time”, because you’ll have to make choices depending on your needs to get better performance. As an example, probably the lightest weight distro is Gentoo, thanks to compiler optimization and USE flags. But it’s a distro with an incredibly steep learning curve. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s Ubuntu, which is one of the distros that requires least user configuration, but is also a resource hog. In my opinion EndeavourOS strikes a good balance between the two factors (Disclaimer: I don’t daily drive it. I’ve used it enough to know I can recommend it)
I’m using Endeavour and Fedora on Desktop and Laptop and love both OS. Endeavours advantage: always the newest software, no hassle with upgrading/new installation. On the downside is Archlinux (and Endeavour) not usable without AUR (and AUR is a little scary as far as security is concerned). Fedora’s sweet point is it’s professional quality (compared with Endeauvour): No AUR needed, more comfortable overall (Fedora is more userfriendly than Ubuntu), and skills in Fedora pays of when working on the webserver. Downside: Update/new installation every half year is not so fine.
Personally, I prefer Arch or OpenSUSE.
The distributions themselves are usually not the problem, but rather various programs. For example, a current browser nowadays often needs several GB of RAM.
recommendation: something simple like fedora
favourite: either NixOS or gentoo
I use and really like Fedora. But the documentation for the needed multimedia packages isn’t good.
Ubuntu (also as basis for other distributions) is more widely used. So you can find more instructions for that.
I were able to use my Nvidia graphics card and steam on both of them. On Fedora the Nvidia driver is in the repository. So you don’t need to download from the Nvidia package. Also my fingerprint sensor on my Lenovo T15 worked out of the box with Fedora.
Depends what you mean by light weight. On desktops I’m using the LTS releases of Ubuntu, or rather Kubuntu since close to 20 years. (On servers I stick to Debian for even longer, but I guess I wouldn’t use it as a desktop starter.)
I started with Linuxmint on my latop. It is easy to install and to use. But now I’m using Debian (stable) on my laptop. On my desktop I’m using Debian (testing) because of the newer hardware for gaming.
Ubuntu is very easy but is not very light. One alternative is Linux mint, fairly easy and lighter than Ubuntu.
Definitely try Ubuntu as a easy starter. Supports a lot of hardware, is a good first step.
OP said lightweight. Ubuntu is many things, but lightweight isn’t one of them.
Install the Ubuntu server. Do not install any (suggested) programs and DEs. After reboot manually install xorg, xinit and some lightweight WM (for example sudo apt install xmonad xmobar). Open terminal and write echo >> ~/xinitrc exec xmonad (for example). Reboot. At the tty prompt type startx /usr/bin/xmonad. You get an empty and fast ubuntu-based distro.
It’s more of a hassle than just installing Debian with your preferred WM. Plus doing the latter, you don’t have to scratch your head at snaps
undefined> It’s more of a hassle than just installing Debian with your preferred WM. Plus doing the latter, you don’t have to scratch your head at snaps
I think setting up wifi in Debian netinstall will be just as troublesome as fighting the dreaded and horrible snap.
Depends if you’re using the non-free firmware iso or not
There is a wifi/bluetooth module, the rtl8821. It comes with cheap or old Windows laptops, try to find an open source driver for it.
I happen to have this exact chipset in my laptop (RTL8821CE to be exact), and it has driver modules directly in the mainline kernel (
rtw_8821ce). The only possible issue would be firmware, but I honestly had absolutely no issue installing Arch, Gentoo, or Debian (with the non-free firmware iso) on it multiple times.
I took lightweight as in “easy to get into” as opposed to “write your own wireless driver”. My bad!
And I took it as “doesn’t take GiBs of RAM at idle”
Fair enough 😅
How about Lubuntu or Xubuntu? What are the drawbacks of these?
For a long time, I’m a Ubuntu LTS user. Main reasons were that I had to admin other desktops at home and at work. Both of those reasons have disappeared though, so I’m thinking of switching. However, I’m have a different profile.
As a “lighter weight easy starter distro” I still think Ubuntu is fine. You will find a lot of support for all kinds of questions online.
Ubuntu is my favourite distribution. I tried Manjaro but returned to Ubuntu because I am used to APT. I don’t like pacman…
