Most lightweight Linux available

Hi guys,
I was wondering what the most lightweight Linux Distro is, preferably running something with a software center. I have an old ATOM netbook that needs some more life in it.
Thanks

 

I've not met a netbook that Mint couldn't run smoothly on!

 

Since Fuduntu is no more, Mint + cinnamon (some 3d effects) or fluxbox perhaps, probably is up there on the list. At least after the last major version. Neither of those are small distros, but they are the slimmest full-featured ones, I think.

Question: does anyone know how much it actually would be possible to save in terms of power-usage, device control, turning off inactive components, etc., by compiling your kernel from scratch in.... say, Slackware, or something like that? When compared to Mint? Is this actually not that significant any longer, after mods and patches are used in the way they are? (And kernel doesn't matter as much, and so on).

 

You could also possibly consider something like Xubuntu, which is supposed to be lightweight yet full-featured as well. No 3D effects though unless you install Compiz (though then, what's the point of a lightweight distro, right?).

 

I usually use Lubuntu on older/slower computers and it runs well; faster than Ubuntu and Xubuntu since it is very light and has minimal software pre-installed.

If you want something even lighter you could try something like DSL, but from my experience atom has no problems running Lubuntu.

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I like crunchbang...

 

I haven't done benchmarks to see how lightweight it ends up being, but my guess is you'd be pretty closely to the most lightweight if you made yourself a minimal command-line-interface install of Arch Linux. And Arch does have a built-in package management system, so it meets your other requirement.

If you insist on luxuries like graphical user interfaces, Sanjiro's probably spot-on with the recommendation to look at DSL. It really is remarkably small.

For full-featured with one of the big-name windowing systems, I'd consider PC Linux OS's MiniMe Edition (scroll down to get the download links). This one I've actually used a decent amount, albeit a considerably older version. Starting around 2008 - 2009 I used a MiniMe as my main Linux (for awhile, alternately with a Mandriva). That was the last KDE 3.5 version, but if the new one is similar, it's relatively light as GNOME/KDE distributions go. I always ran it in a virtual machine and the performance was acceptable there.

If you go Mint, I'd be inclined to go MATE instead of Cinnamon, just since the hardware (and particularly graphics, an area Atom doesn't excel in) requirements are lower.

 

I'm running Crunchbang on my Dell Mini 10v. It's an original atom 1.6ghz with 1gb ram and runs Crunchbang pretty well.

some other choices to consider are:

antiX (runs extremely light, although I never cared for their network wizards)
Peppermint (based on Lubuntu)
Lubuntu (one of my usual "go-to" distros, if i need something setup fast that is light)
Bodhi (has nice pre-configured software center)

 

For light weight and full featured, this is hard to beat!





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My vote is for a Debian variant (Mint, Ubuntu or Debian itself, in that order).
I'm pretty well versed in the Linux world and 've been running several distros on my old HTPC (Atom / 9400M). So far none of the 'lightweight' distros have been great experiences, they don't do anything noticeable for performance (1-3% tops, from my findings) and are a pain in the ... with stability and maintenance, either due to stupid choices / implementations (looking at you, Arch Linux) or just a plain lack of testing capacity.
The single most impact is your choice of desktop environment and if you don't want too much fuss I suggest starting with something XFCE based, this is the most lightweight DE with a proper DE experience. The flip side is that XFCE is lacking a bit in the power management department, but they might have improved since I last tried (there were a lot of things polling, keeping your system's devices awake).

Another tip is to use a script to build an optimized kernel. I have one that builds the latest linux-stable from git if there is a new tag available. The recent kernels work very well for a balance between power consumption and performance.

 

Agreed. That's the most usable "minimalist" distro IMO.

 

Tiny Core is the most light full-fledged distro

However it is barely useable and i don't recommend this to anyone unless you have a 386 with like 8 mb of ram.

 

windows 7 forsizel in my dizel for rizel!

 

Do you have to install drivers etc for linux? I have an old dell pc that came with vista. It was tediously slow from day one. Id like to try a lightweight linux install but was wondering about sound, graphics, usb drivers etc.

 

Driver issues are more or less gone, in my experience. Tried Ubunutu 9.04 on my Toshiba Satellite L505 and didn't have any driver issues whatsoever, and with my Thinkpad X61t, I also had no driver issues (though screen rotation requires some scripting work).

 

Usually a fresh install of Windows will do wonders for prebuilt computers as they tend to be pretty bloated from the factory.

If you don't need to run newer or less supported games or programs, you should be fine with Linux; you normally don't need to install any extra drivers.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

re:

I just put Mint 15 MATE on a co-workers old Dell & Sony Vaio he had in his closet, clogged with Windoze. They both perform very well now out of the box. They even have the printer drivers for a new HP laser printer. I can not recommend Mint enough for older machines. The update manager works flawlessly (once a wireless network is connected). Mint breathes New Life into older pc's

 

I'd probably recommend mint for newer machines as well. The way it works now is that most hardware is supported either on kernel level, or with module inserts. And you really don't have to deal with any of this normally. Or, in 99% of the cases, everything works right away.

Things that need some tinkering is optimus support through bumblebee (support through primusrun.. better approach than optirun.. is very good, by the way. I run linux steam and wine through that, and get better power management with fewer hickups than in windows..). And you might need another config round to get firewall rules, windows networks, etc., to behave. There are few peripherals that aren't supported on some level as well.. ps3 controller to mice with different types of keyboard setups, that sort of thing. On the low level, you're going to see comparatively better results on cpu management and performance in general as well. Better battery life and still constant and predictable thread response, etc. Things have really happened with linux builds the last year and a half.

I'm running Mint 15 and Cinnamon right now. Very comfortable to use. Doesn't kill my ssd with illegal writes during wake-up from suspend, is predictable on battery and standby. Causes peace of mind, that sort of thing

 

As somebody says the window manager will make one of the biggest differences in lightness/heaviness.

I usually go with LXDE windows manager, it's noticeably lighter than XFCE, even tough not as many features. The only thing that it really lacks is power management (I always solve that with some custom scripts).
I like to configure and tweak things myself, and I don't mine spending a lot of time on it

so my favourites at the moment are Salix Linux (based on Slackware) Home
and Debian with LXDE (there is an installation CD with LXDE as the default wm)

 

That is a good choice.

Still, with the intel drivers being as good as they are. While amd's drivers on apu-type hardware is very efficient when drawing simple 3d contexts and overlays -- you can actually end up saving some clock-cycles and processor load on running an efficient 3d composite manager. Basically, if you have one window with transparency, this is a situation you're going to see very quickly.

Same as with playing back video. Software rendering can be more efficient up to a point. But if you constantly have to push the cpu to do the decode, you're not actually saving either power or clock-cycles.

 

Antix with Fluxbox is very light. Just install the base image & add the software you need with the package manager. As it's based on Debian Testing you don't need to reinstall either.

 

I'll put in another nod for #! (Crunchbang), but you'd be surprised at how "light" most modern distributions are. openSUSE 12.3 with KDE ran around 512MB on my ProBook.

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I am surprised that you have not mentioned elementary OS
It is by far my favourite distro with a nice design and some unique tweaks.
elementary OS Luna Shines | LAS s28e04 - YouTube

If you are interested, check out the official site here: Home | elementary OS
And if you like to modify your distro, check out this site too: Elementary Update

 

I use Puppy and Manjaro XFCE on my old laptop.

 

I have not read every post, but toss my vote into Lubuntu. I am not a Linux guru, but for a noob like me, Lubuntu has been great.

 

Alpine Linux - "small, simple, secure"

 

Just a general question here, do all linux distros work like windows where every few years there is a new OS to install? Do any of the distros just keep allowing updates to a base OS ? TIA and Happy Thanksgiving to the NBR Linux community

 

If you run a "rolling release" distro such as one based on Debian Testing (Linux Mint Debian / Antix ) you will not need to reinstall. Other Rolling Release distros are Arch Linux / Gentoo & openSUSE Tumbleweed.

Ubuntu is an example of a non rolling release with upgrades or reinstalls once a year or so. You should always install "/home" to a separate partition so a fresh reinstall (rather than an upgrade) is possible.

I've been using Antix for about 2 years on the same install.

 

Depends on the distro. Debian has a major update every couple of years, iirc, and Ubuntu has a version update every 6 months. And most distros will have security and application updates fairly often (about as often as Windows).

 

Get something like Debian, SUSE Enterprise or Centos.

Server distribs are rock stable, even moreso than LTS distros (Mageia/UbuntuLTS/Etc) since the main developers of server distros focus 100% of their team on them, and they are backed by the same level of stability that powers the websites you visit on a daily visit. Plus they can incorporate technologies like Ksplice.

However Server distribs usually have older versions of packages, so often manual backporting is required for the latest and greatest.

CentOS is a great desktop distribution with the help of this guide:
How to pimp your CentOS into a perfect desktop
www.dedoimedo.com/computers/centos-pimpage.html‎
www.dedoimedo.com/computers/centos-pimpage-more.html‎

 

Don't forget about PcLinuxOS!

 

That used to be my favourite distro some 7-8 years ago. Still have a CD of (I think) 2005 version that I use to test *very* old laptops...

 

Bloated and slow. Opensuse level of bloat...

(not saying Opensuse is a bad distro, but you need higher end hardware to run it smoothly).

 

I am running Bodhi Linux in Oracle Virtual Box and have setup a share between my Win 7 media folder. I am able to play music files with VLC but need to execute this command sudo mount -t vboxsf Tunes2 /media/windows-share each time I start the VM.
instructions say -user can use the /etc/init.d/rc.local script - I can not seem to figure out how to edit this file, is there an alternative way to do this?
NOTE Bodhi is mini version of Ubuntu 12.04 so could it be I just need to install an editor ?? Thanks + Kudos to S.Prime for his recommendation of this Distro

Thanks to everyone who replied to my earlier Question about Distro's

 

You should be able to edit a configuration file with any of your favorite text editors. Vi, emacs, gEdit, pico, etc.

 

Thanks, I should have added no suggested applications show up when I click on and try to open the aforementioned file, I will back it up first and try leafpad .
Thanks for the rapid response

 

Yeah, I'd just install whatever editor you like, then you should be able to open it up in a manner like so:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc.local

(gEdit being my favorite editor, followed by pico if I can't use a GUI)

 

I agree, PClinuxOS is not lightweight and the regular version is bloated, however I'm running the KDE minime version (minimal apps), on a SSD and its quick and nice.

 

@JOSEA, your virtualbox shared folders should show up automatically in /media/sf_sharename

You can grant your regular user account read/write privileges on it by adding yourself to the vboxsf group:

Code:

sudo usermod -aG vboxsf youruser

(then log out and back in)

 

Thanks Allur, I did add myself to the group and I do see the sf_Tunes folder as well as windows-share, but when I click on the "share" I see nothing at all. Once I manually do the mount command I am all good and see all my music

 

That is absolutely lovely. Busybox is good enough for me.