devRanters, especially the linuxers, unusual request/question, especially coming from @linuxxx!

I just found two very old netbooks which still contain windows xp (I didn't even know I still had them at all) and I'm obviously going to turn them into Linux netbooks.

Does anyone know any good looking linux distro's that run well on low-end hardware? This is not my specialty since I either deal with servers or higher-end computers :).

Please pass me some suggestions!

@matsaki95 @CriticalFailure @PerfectAsshole @jpichardo @torbuntu

It's not the prettiest, but I would recommend xfce. It's very lightweight and performant as the windowmanager. Distro itself I would use debian or arch.

What would I bundle that with? (as in OS) @plusgut

Chrome OS

In all seriousness tho, I'd probablly go with xubuntu because lubuntu looks like shit 😄
If you don't care for looks then lubuntu is actually lighter

@criticalfailure was thinking that too :). I'd just rather have some kind of skin on top right away...

@linuxxx damn, I was to slow. I have editet my post.

@Froot Nice try ;)

I'll get downloading on an arch iso already so that I'll at least have something ;) @plusgut @CriticalFailure

@linuxxx Added a serious answer in an edit. Damn this thread moves fast :D

@linuxxx afaik chromeOS is quite fast (it's based on gentoo) But yea.. it's motherfucking google.

Arch + i3 gaps is basically 50% of r/unixporn
There's also openbox

Distro doesn't matter that much if you know what you're doing but arch has no pre-installed garbage which is what makes it so fast

@Froot Appreciate the actual advice!

I like elementary os, but I am not sure about the performance.

As far as I know almost any server (cli only) distribution will do, for ui id go with i3 as wm

If u want a full DE i know fhat lxde and maybe xfce run well on low end

@AlexDeLarge Arch iso is currently downloading :). Okay this is going to sound stupid as fuck but x86_x64 means both 32 and 64 bits I hope? 😅

@Torbuntu Thanks! Oh and by the way @CriticalFailure @AlexDeLarge @plusgut, does this fucker (arch) require some semi-difficult bootloader setup? I need this to work before going to bed :P

@linuxxx you can use lilo or grub, or whatever you like.
But since there is no installer, arch takes a while to set up. Better do that tomorrow, if you want to sleep today.
It's not hard, but you have to configure it yourself.

@CriticalFailure Thanks! And yeah I need something for my road to the devrant meeting and my normal laptop bag is fucked so I'll need to take a tiny one :P

Remix OS is fun (but it's basically Android and not updated anymore)...

@Lahsen2016 Ahh so I should get myself then.

YAY, I CAUGHT ME!!

arch

Arch!

The one you build yourself 😉

I mean how often do you call your own code crap... At worst it's a learning experience.

Of course from more experienced people's point of view.. It's crap...

{Insert monkey rants here}

Try Bunsenlabs, it's what I used to revive my old 32bit XP Netbook.

@billgates I need it for tomorrow and i need sleep as well 😅

Crunchbang!
There are currently two distros based on the original: bunsenlabs and crunchbangplusplus(#!++)

Both very light, both based on debian 9 (at least #!++ Is)

Debian Stretch Xfce

Looking at my latest rant, I'd say Gentoo, that is, as I understand, as lightweight as tvey come, and specifically tuned for YOUR hardware!

Xfce for sure

Lubuntu or xubuntu are both fairly light. Or you could install arch an just not use a desktop environment....

Only use the wm like i3 openbox ...

I use, install and switch tons of distros, so here's my share.

Lubuntu and Xubuntu both are very fast.

Manjaro XFCE is very fast considering the amount of features it has (also Arch based).

Pixel is also light AF.

Then again, you can use the mini linuxes like Knoppix or Puppy Linux, which are insanely fast.

Ah, I guess I'm too late now.... However, in my experience the most relevant restriction is the available RAM. Windows XP had an impressive minimum requirement of 64MB RAM (at least originally), so you'll find former XP machines between 200MB and 4GB RAM.

At 200MB it becomes really tough to get even a barebone Linux system to run smoothly (I once tried it a laptop worth 256MB,so I know what I'm talking about). According to the texts I did 1-2 years ago, ubuntu is not the best option of you have less than our equal 500MB RAM (no matter the flavor) - because even without Desktop Manager it takes up about 70-100MB more RAM than other systems (e. g. a barebone debian).

So if you have 500MB RAM or less I'd recommend debian or Arch with a simple DM like LXDE (XFCE is way too expensive for that amount of RAM), Openbox, Awesome, i3... The Raspbian DE (was it Pixel?) could be a nice option (if it's available for x86 architecture) as well.

@theCalcaholic If you have more than 500MB RAM you can install whatever you like, but you shouldn't consider Gnome, KDE or Unity with less than 2GB RAM or without proper hardware acceleration for graphics.

All my Linux devices here are headless SBCs, haven't used a Linux desktop env in decades. But back when I did I was using Damn Small Linux on a low-end notebook. Not sure though if it's still actively maintained

Edit: I guess not, last release 2008

I'm now creating a Manjaro startup USB :)

@linuxxx It gives a 64 bits error. I DEFINITELY DOWNLOADED THE 32 BITS ONE.

@Linuxxx x86_64 does not mean that it supports both 32bit and 64bit processors. It only supports 64bit processors.

@Numinex Yup I just found that out. Although i could've looked it up, thanks teachers from study.

@linuxxx, for easier install of Arch I highly recommend Arch Anywhere. It is basically Arch, but with an amazing installer that does most of the configuration for you.

@Rocket3G Will look into it, thank you!

Gotta be careful with arch, as they are in the process of fading out 32bit support.

@linuxxx https://archlinux.org/news/...

Openbox is blazing fast, needs some setting up. Very minimal
Xfce is neat and quite fast.
i3 is the shit but a netbook with a small display might not be very fun with tiling.
LXDE (like in lubuntu, also available on arch) uses Openbox, but adds a taskbar and preconfigures the menus.

Nobody mentioned Ubuntu mate. I managed to have this running on an old 2001 iMac model I found at a store

Puppy linux 🐕🐶🐾

@Fionn153 that's a lot of ram

@alexare A number of people did (including me). ;)

Crunchbang++ is pretty damn good looking and lightweight. And it uses openbox, which is just an awesome window manager

Elementary OS claims to be very fast, but your mileage may vary™.

@leo2807 E OS is a pretty lightweight distro in my experience.

Or.. “Ahem, Operating System, it’s not a distro, dont call it that, its an Operating System!” To quote Chris Fisher 🙃

Elementary OS looks decent and is lightweight as well!

@GerryMandered thanks :D

Raspbian