- #Best lightweight linux distro for laptop apk
- #Best lightweight linux distro for laptop install
- #Best lightweight linux distro for laptop software
Positioning itself as a turnkey OS for aging machines, LXLE aims to be the perfect substitute for those familiar with Windows XP, Vista and 7. It is designed to be simple, familiar and elegant. LXLE is based on Lubuntu and also uses the LXDE desktop environment. The website for LXLE sums up their philosophy in four words: Revive that old PC. RAM: 28 MB (Micro Core), 46 MB (Tiny Core) (128 MB recommended).CPU: Intel i486DX* (Pentium 2 recommended).
#Best lightweight linux distro for laptop install
Because of its barebones approach, almost all users will require Internet access to install additional software. Core Plus is the largest at 106 MB and is essentially Tiny Core with additional functionality like WiFi support.ĭesigned to run completely within a system’s RAM, Tiny Core is the definition of minimalist computing. Tiny Core weighs in at 16 MB and comes with a graphical desktop environment. It is notable for its incredibly small size across three different Core “types.” Core (aka Micro Core Linux) comes in at only 11 MB however, it is without a graphical desktop. No list about small Linux distros would be complete without Tiny Core Linux.
Puppy Linux is a fairly robust and complete OS, despite the fact that it is designed to run entirely from a system’s RAM. CPU: Pentium 4, Pentium M, AMD K8 or newerĪ build of Linux that is so small it doesn’t even require a hard dive to be installed on, Puppy Linux can be run comfortably on dated hardware.While Lubuntu isn’t as tiny as some of the other distros on this list, the fact that it’s based on Ubuntu should make troubleshooting fairly easy.
#Best lightweight linux distro for laptop software
Don’t fret, though you can still install software from the Ubuntu repositories.
Lubuntu also trims the fat when it comes to bundled software in order to cut down on size. Lubuntu comes with LXDE, a more lightweight graphical desktop environment than Ubuntu’s Unity interface. Despite their similarities, Lubuntu differs in a few key ways. If Lubuntu sounds familiar, it is probably because it is based on the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu. It updated to the musl libc library a few years back too, so is right on point when it comes to the kind of stability and robustness you’d expect from a modern Linux distro. It may not be as feature-rich as other distros in this list, but Alpine is right at the peak when it comes to security. You can choose whether to install Alpine to disk or whether to just run it from RAM, making it perfectly portable, and it’s very security-focused thanks to a hardened kernel.
#Best lightweight linux distro for laptop apk
It has a sensible and accessible update cycle, and its package format, APK (no, nothing to do with Android!) is convenient for flagging issues and making iterations. Weighing in at under 130MB, Alpine was designed originally to be used for virtual servers, so you won’t find any cruft or unnecessary software baggage here.
One of the lesser-known but nevertheless brilliant lightweight Linux distros is Alpine.