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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What's the best light desktop env to install in a Linux distro? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I want to revive an old Lenovo laptop with an AMD A6 2.6GHz and 4GB ram, what would be the best option for a DE?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (5 children)

            
              the big guns: Gnome or Plasma
the middle tier: Xfce or LXQt
the lightweights: tiling window managers (and there’s a LOT to choose from)
the alternative crowd: Mate, Cinnamon, Regolith

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I think gnome and KDE Plasma are just too heavy. And I would use a WM if it was for me, in fact that what I use in my daily driver but it is for someone not that tech savvy. I may check one from the alternative crowd tho. Thanks for the answer

[–] Jumuta 5 points 1 month ago

plasma is surprisingly performant

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I seem to remember hearing about Plasma having similar memory usage to XFCE. Don’t quote me on that lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Try KDE Plasma, you can strip out a ton of it, for example XOrg entirely, baloo, animations, etc.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Got any guides on how to strip plasma down to the bare necessities? I have it on a machine with 4 GB RAM, but I don't know how to optimize it for such old hardware.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I updated this project once. This is a very good start on what packages you need.

There are metapackages different for each distribution, like plasma-meta on Arch or plasma-workspace on Fedora.

This may be too bloated, but leaving out some core components (like infocenter or display) may result in random Systemsettings pages missing.

Also on Fedora, the "Netinstall" "minimal" variant is impossible to include wireless packages ("hardware support" group) so it is easier to start from a normal KDE install and just remove things you dont need.

Some things are also settings like balooctl disable && balooctl purge

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

OP asked for desktop env, and tiling window managers are... Well only window managers and not desktop environments...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I like MATE. It feels familiar. (I’m a GNOME user 😅)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

the alternative crowd: Mate, Cinnamon, Regolith

Middle tier too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

not sure, if cinnamon still qualifies as alternative considering the massive Linux Mint crowd.