So while the base version of this lightweight Linux distro may not seem too appealing, you can definitely turn it into a proper operating system with a bit of time and effort. It’s probably best to stick with the base version if you’re a beginner but advanced users can modify Absolute Linux to their liking even before installing the OS. Ubuntu MATE requires at least 8 GB of storage space so it’s not quite as lightweight as some of the other distros on this list and won’t work on completely ancient systems. If XFCE and MATE are considered lightweight, in that case we should also mention KDE which consume only 600MiB of memory. Bei Fedora heißen die Varianten „ Spins “. The two work hand in hand to provide users with a clutter-free working environment that not only looks great but is also highly responsive. 512 mb). I was able to use my Pi as a keyboard/mouse server with synergy and it worked exceedingly well. The Cinnamon desktop environment is modern and stylish. It is a package management utility that allows you to install and manage Python software packages easily. The operating system was initially developed as an experiment and the goal was to see how many apps would fit onto a 50 MB live CD. There are two versions of this distro, which are aimed at 32-bit and 64-bit systems, respectively. If you are new to Linux and want to install Linux on your older hardware then Peppermint is a good choice for you. It goes without saying that there’s no shortage of lightweight Linux distros to choose from. What services? It is highly scriptable, has dozens of excellent features like multi-monitor support, workspace support, theme support, and is the ultimate power-user taskbar for Linux fans. Here are all of these lightweight Linux desktop environments. Lubuntu’s interface is based on LXQt, an open-source and lightweight desktop environment that requires far fewer resources than the Genome 3 environment found on regular Ubuntu. The installer comes in at around 1.5 GB so you won’t be able to fit it onto a regular CD but you can easily store it on a USB stick and boot it directly from the flash drive if you don’t want to download the installer to your hard drive. A few applications from the Standard edition are also included and you have the option of installing even more from the Open Source Lab repository. Zorin OS 15 Lite Desktop. XFCE Desktop. Unlike DSL, TinyCore is available in three different versions, each with its own features and system requirements. It is probably the least lightweight on the list but then, it gives more features and customization than almost all of the others. Meanwhile, the fourth version is the most minimalistic one of all and allows users to only install the app packages they need, without any of the other bells and whistles. This is thanks to a fairly unique feature that allows the OS to run directly from system RAM. Lubuntu is exactly what it sounds like, a lightweight version of Ubuntu. Combined with Sway you can build a fine minima workplace. DSL can boot from a business card CD as a live Linux … Whether you’re looking for a project helmed by veteran developers or a fresh one that you can watch grow and perhaps even contribute to, there’s bound to be a small distro out there that’s right up your alley. XFCE is one of the most popular lightweight Linux desktop environments around. VectorLinux is available in two different variants – Standard and Light. Windows-10-Design für Linux: Dark Theme, Light Theme & Icon Theme kostenlos downloaden! In my experience Enlightenment is much lighter than openbox, and the gap between XFCE and openbox is not nearly as big as suggested here. Kindly share in the comments and share this article with your friends. A few other notable apps and tools include Skype, Kodi, Spotify, TeamViewer, the LibreOffice suite, a password manager, and more. He also loves to write how-to articles, applications reviews and loves to use new Linux distributions. Our ongoing mission is to make the transition from Windows to Linux Lite, as smooth as possible. Despite that, the desktop still manages to look very modern thanks to the Arc theme and Papirus icons. Where does a lightweight Linux version cut me off from a possible goal? Just as its name indicates, this is merely the core of an OS, which you can then build upon by installing additional applications and extensions on top. If you need a performance-centric desktop environment without needing advanced customizations, Xfce is a great choice to go with. Core is recommended for advanced users but if you’re a novice you can check out TinyCore instead. This project has been in development for over 14 years at this point and has been downloaded over 2 million times so you can bet Elive is as reliable as an operating system can get. The first variant is known simply as Core and is the smallest of the three. Mohd Sohail is a web developer and a Linux sysAdmin. Enlightenment is a very eye-candy Linux desktop environment that is also lightweight resource use. One of the best features of this lightweight Linux distro is that it’s being developed by a very dedicated team that usually launches a new version once very year. – Some Reasons For Converting To Linux, WhatsApp New Policy And the Backlash From “Common” People Will Cooldown. However, you shouldn’t have any problems running the OS on a machine that came out sometime during the last decade. Where did they come from? A few notable examples include web browsers like Firefox and Netrik, a word processor called Ted, an image editor known as Xpaint, an email client, Windows managers, text editors, and even an AOL-based instant messaging client known as Naim. Moksha is a continuation of the popular Enlightenment 17 environment that introduces new functionality while also removing bugs and unfinished features. Synaptic Package Manager can be used to install the necessary software. You get a text editor, network connection manager, Terminal, and that’s about it. For example, “what can I NOT do with these versions?” Noting that a key reason Windows and OSX have become so slow is due to background tasks that either overwhelm old CPUs or use up RAM, do these Linux alternatives turn off any background services that heavier versions typically use? CorePlus is the only one of the three variants that support wireless installation, with the other two versions requiring a wired network connection. You can expect most of the apps that come with regular Ubuntu but as part of a smaller package that doesn’t eat up nearly as many resources. Arch Linux + Lightweight Desktop environment. This lightweight Linux distro even includes access to Steam, which now supports a plethora of Linux-based video games. Why will you like it? Powered by, Passwordless Login Vs. Lubuntu, Linux Lite, and Ubuntu MATE are some pretty good examples. Linux Lite is a lightweight Linux distro based on Ubuntu LTS, which means that each version has a 5-year support period, namely, only a major update every 5 years. Peppermint uses the LXDE desktop environment that is lightweight and easy to use. TinyCore is quite possibly the most lightweight Linux distro currently available. The developers stress the fact that Elive is much more than just Debian paired with Enlightenment. We also give value to other Linux distributions. * By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. Down below you can find a few other examples of small distros that also work very well on older systems. A major selling point of this distribution is that it can boot up in just 15 seconds when running locally or around 25 seconds when running from a flash drive. All applications have been chosen for the best balance of functionality, size, and speed. This is the follow-up project of Robert Shingledecker, the developer who also brought us Damn Small Linux a while back. Porteus takes up less than 300 MB of storage space and supports both 32 and 64-bit architectures, which makes it ideal not just for old systems but also for modern ones. LXDE stands for lightweight X11 desktop environment which is yet another popular desktop environment for Unix-like systems. These desktop environments are characterized as lightweight because they consume lesser resources than other popular desktop environments with feature-rich experiences. Consequently, you can expect the operating system to come equipped with everything you need, including a browser, multimedia apps, and office suite, right out of the box. Despite requiring very few system resources, this lightweight Linux distro is very powerful and its Moksha desktop environment looks just as good as those of modern operating systems. Perhaps even more importantly, the distro has very low system requirements and is lightweight enough to run on systems that are more than a decade old. Don't want something in LXDE, or don't want to use LXDE but only part of it? MATE has been... 3. You can choose what you like. One of the most famous lightweight GUIs over there, LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) was first released in 2006, it was programmed to work on Unix-like platforms like Linux & FreeBSD, LXDE is the default GUI for many Linux distributions like Lubuntu, LXLE, Knoppix any many others. MATE has been popularised mainly as an alternative to Cinnamon DE on Linux Mint. Wow; here’s an article to write… Tuning Linux to match your resources. Bei der Suche nach einem passenden Linux-System für einen nicht mehr taufrischen Rechner ist die Wahl des Desktops mitentscheidend. Enlightenment and Sway Works with Wayland. Do you own an old PC, like the ones that came with Windows XP? While some of the other distros on this list can run without problems on fairly old systems, Damn Small Linux can be installed on completely ancient ones. LightDM (Light Display Manager) ist ein Displaymanager, der ab Ubuntu 11.10 den lange Jahre von Ubuntu und Xubuntu genutzten GDM ablöst hat. Xfce and Mate ARE NOT lightweight but more middleweight DE. Ever since I learned that, I’ve been working tirelessly to make Linux as easy to understand as possible for everybody who wants to give it a chance, which I strongly suggest you do. This is because it seeks... ​2. Kali Linux 2016.1 Light (Xfce 4.12) That's a nice looking Xfce desktop, but it is nowhere near as customized as the Kali Gnome desktop was. Right out of the gate you get access to the Mozilla Firefox browser complete with built-in support for Netflix along with the popular VLC media player for running videos and music offline. It is a Linux system, that uses the minimal desktop LXDE/LXQT, and a selection of light applications. True to its name, the operating system is completely portable and can run from any type of bootable media, including CD, USB flash drive, and hard drive. It *works* in the barest sense of the definition, but actually doing anything useful will take way too much time. Desktop users can choose between seven different flavors of Porteus, each of its own desktop environment. However, there’s also an application browser that gives you access to a repository featuring plenty of useful apps you can install manually. You can install them on some bleeding-edge hardware and get the ultimate performance. Next to the desktop names there are numbers (i.e. The 5th lightweight Linux for old computers is Peppermint. Unlike other lightweight Linux distros on this list, however, Absolute doesn’t have a 32-bit variant as the operating system was specifically designed for 64-bit machines. LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) has been designed with very low resource usage. Basically, you’ll need to use specific tools in order to create a bootable USB drive of Elive, otherwise, you may run into certain problems. LXQt ist eine ganz frische Portierung von LXDE, die im Hintergrund auf Qt statt auf GTK setzt … Like most other people who grew up using Windows, I always thought of Linux as a very niche operating system that seemed needlessly complicated. Absolute Linux is a lightweight distro designed for desktop use, and as such comes preinstalled with the Firefox browser and LibreOffice suite. iceWM is not exactly a desktop environment. With that out of the way and in no particular order, let’s take a closer look at the best lightweight Linux distros of 2020. LETS CHECK INSTANT OS! ​Did I leave out any lightweight distro? We'll assume you're ok with this. If you’re running a very old machine, on the other hand, the Legacy edition is for you. The base version of Absolute Linux comes with a pretty impressive variety of apps. Thanks for your article. Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). Lubuntu used to run on an LXDE desktop until late 2018 so the switch to the more modern environment is fairly recent. As a result, you may need to install some additional programs in order to tailor the Linux distributions we’re going to talk about in this article to your specific needs. The only real drawback of this lightweight Linux distro is that is hasn’t been updated in many years, as the lead developer went to work on a different project. However, the installation kit itself comes in at only a little over 600 MB and fits perfectly on a standard CD. At the same time, advanced users can take advantage of powerful built-in tools that can be used to compile programs or transform the system into a server. True to its name, this lightweight Linux distro is incredibly small, coming in at only around 50 MB in size. The installation instructions for Elive are a bit more complicated than those of other lightweight Linux distros but you shouldn’t run into any issues if you follow the steps listed here. It is less user-friendly than MATE and Xfce but comes with all the features you would expect from a modern desktop environment. Damn Small Linux is a Debian-based operating system, however, it also includes applications that don’t usually come with that distro. Best idea from years I have seen. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The latest version of Absolute Linux takes up a little over 2 GB of space while the image size is just small enough to fill up a standard 700 MB CD. If you’re looking for distros that can run even on ancient hardware, however, there are few choices better than TinyCore, Damn Small Linux, and even Porteus to some extent.