Lightweight Linux Distributions for Older PCs
freecodecamp.org
freecodecamp.org
It works even better if you disable Wayland and some of the other desktop infrastructure stuff, and use a power-user window manager like around XMonad or i3wm. But the stock Debian Gnome-y desktop performs OK too.
This also fits with using Debian Stable by default everywhere. There's little "scrappy small team" efficiencies when you default to having the same thing on your workstation/laptop, your servers, your RasPis projects, old utility laptops, etc.
Even better: Devuan with XFCE
If Linux isn't a requirement, OpenBSD is super lightweight as well.
Frankly, something that resembles more or less modern desktop with some multimedia capabilities, and more or less modern browser to be used to look something up on the Web starts much later, at 2+ core CPU comparable to a fast Core 2 Duo, and 2 gigs of RAM, which is not outside of range of many general purpose distributions. (Yes, quite a lot can be done on a fast single core CPU with just 1 GB, but there are gotchas and pitfalls.)
I started by installing a Debian Stable with Xfce on an old Core 2 Duo, then I switched to Testing and slowly got ride of everything from Xfce to i3wm, dunst, jgmenu...
Seeing that my old hardware was more fast, fun and just as useful (even for games) that the recent hardware on a slimed down Windows LTSC was a revelation.
The advantage is that Debian has a very large package repository, is actively maintained (with security updates) and is often supported by externally packaged software.
I still find this site terribly useful, and parse through distros probably once a month. https://distrowatch.com/
For explicit hobby use, I prefer tinkering with software common at the time these systems were new. Then I get to play with different UI and some apps/games/peripherals which do not work with emulators, or are better on the real thing.
"Newer old hardware" might be different, but it's also less likely to need special distros. I have a 2013 Macbook Air running Sonoma thanks to Open Core Legacy Patcher. Everything works fine with patched stock OS. But practicality of Pentium 4 is a stretch.
My MBA early 2017 (i5/8GB/256) is always nagging me to upgrade to Big Sur, but I did that once (via clean install) and it was terribly slow.
Within a few days I was clean installing 10.15 again, back to a fast snappy experience.
Brew started compiling everything recently though so migrated most things to macports...
It's also not a given that post Big Sur versions would be even slower, Apple's optimization efforts can fluctuate release by release.
There are many places in the world where this isnt true.
The vast majority of energy used and environment damage caused by computers happen when they are manufactured. The lifetime energy use afterwards is a tiny fraction.
the carbon footprint of producing a new car can hardly be offset through the efficiency of a new one. substitute an old pickup truck for a new three-door ev, totally worth it for the environment.
The real bottleneck is a web browser that can render the modern web and there is no real solution for that.
I think ChromeOS solves that problem quite smartly, by starting the bare necessities to launch the browser and nothing else. No more moving parts, just the web, which is what 99% of computer use seems to be these days anyway.
ChromeOS Flex seems to work pretty well for giving old laptops a second life. It won't run on your Pentium II but there are plenty of computers out there that'll work great.
With Microsoft's plans for Windows 12, I can imagine a cloud-based Windows that you can use any old laptop with. As long as you have decent WiFi and a thin client loaded, you'll end up with laptops where hardware h264 decoding will matter more than CPU power and RAM.
Non-UNIX systems like KolibriOS, Haiku or Aros tend to fly on hardware where UNIX does not.
On an old enough system, FreeDOS, ELKS or Fuzix.
Both support binary third party packages.
But building on Linux will also take just as long, so really a non-issue :)
I did install pkgsrc on Ubuntu to get around snap but building anything took such a long time even on modern hardware. But that was building all the dependencies from scratch. After that it should take less time.
But note, if OpenBSD is installed on a "very" lightweight PC, you may need to disable re-linking of the kernel :) I thought I saw issues with this in the mailing lists if less than 1G memory.
I think NetBSD is the champion with OpenBSD a rather close 2nd.
An odd comment. Isn’t that the case for all these distributions?
Edit to add: I would say a more interesting factor is being able to test drive from a USB drive without having to install anything.
The article reads to me like it was (partially) written by AI.
I would advise to go in the opposite direction. Choose an LTS release of a popular distribution, a DE that is not designed with transparencies and shadows in mind, and a software-oriented window manager if you have an anemic card released before the era of hardware compositing in desktops. If it works fine, enjoy using supported software, then test zram, schedulers, spectre+meltdown-enabling kernel patches, and other options to boost performance if you like.
By the way, everyone knows that SSD is the first component needed by a slow PC. A second one is a dedicated GPU instead of integrated one. Even if it's completely mediocre, it still has plenty of VRAM and more than enough bandwidth for display controller to waste (unlike your main memory). And any kind of hardware acceleration integrated GPU pretends to do natively usually seems to result in 2× or 3× more memory transfers than needed to get things on screen.
The first? Hmm.. my usual list for old PC's:
1. Max out the RAM
2. SSD
3. Still not *feeling* snappy? Throw lean(er) OS and/or apps at it.
All my current desktops are ~8 year old corporate cast-offs.
The earliest C-MS!
Sometimes I crack me up
NetBSD runs great on old hardware. Indeed, supporting old hardware is one of the main goals of the project.
Of course, the real question is what to do with such machines once you get an OS running on them.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/07/dos-b...
Would definitely suggest to anyone trying to squeeze another few years out of an old machine.
Either written by ChatGPT or author is quite confused.
I find performance heavily dependent on specific quirks eg puppy Linux running from ram (great), zero optimisation of the woeful gma950 graphics found in old netbooks (deal breaker)
You need some modern level of hardware acceleration for that, though, and platforms like gma950 just don't have the hardware to run that stuff. llvmpipe can fix a lot of compatibility issues but your CPU and GPU score will end up very close together.
Both support modified Chromium for OOTB hardware video acceleration, known laptop backlight tweaks and fit on 1GB flash drive with 40% free space.
I can repurpose even an 8088 if needed, but what will I do with it? Getting Linux to run just for the sake won't be enough to the end user if he can't browse the modern web anyway.
OTOH, I always wondered how big difference would it have with LXDE, IceWM, MATE or Enlightenment instead.
I will not buy a new laptop anymore, when this laptop will die I will probably an used Thinkpad. For my usage (coding, SSH, browsing and ham radio support) it's enough.
I think unless your are SERIOUSLY limited there is really no reason to use some minimalist DE (OS) and it all comes down to DE mostly, so I would if anything rather use some very established Linux like Lubuntu, Arch with a smaller DE over all these niche specialized minimalist distros.
I have a feeling everyone and their grandma starts a linux distro and sells it based on a screenshot on how the default desktop looks and how much ram is used after boot. There are like 1000 Linux distros based on Ubuntu and I think most of them make no sense. Official flavors do make sense Kubuntu/Lubuntu/... I never got Mint, clinging so hard on Gnome 2. There are plenty of gnome 3 extensions that make things exactly as you like it. I use Material Shell and its the best DE experience I ever had, even though its pretty buggy. I am exited for the authors new project veshell https://github.com/free-explorers/veshell a Wayland compositor that does the same thing without Gnome.
1 electron or chrome session and you're done.
I use arch btw