Need help finding a fast linux distro. (SOLVED)

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Ivan4o61

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Hello! I need a bit of help choosing a linux distro. I have an ASUS a402M laptop that has a hard drive 2gb of ram and some crappy celeron. Now I'm usually pretty tech savvy but for some reason I can't figure this out. Right now the laptop is running Chrome OS Flex and it's good, but you really can't do anything on it. I am searching for a lightweight distro for (not so daily) daily use. I have tried: Linux mint, pop! os, xfce, kali linux, lubuntu, zorin os and some more, but they all share one problem. While Chrome OS flex can open it's apps in under 1 second, the linux distros I have tried all need a lot of time. For now, I like bunsen labs the most. If anyone can tell me a distro that at least looks like bunsen labs or a way to speed that up (that is not getting an SSD) I would really appreciate it!
Thanks
Edit: Really none of the OSes I tried were as fast as Chrome OS Flex, but I ended up choosing to dual-boot manjaro XFCE and linux mint XFCE + an external hdd with bunsenlabs/ any other os I wanna try.
 
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Welcome to the forums
How old is this machine? if it is fairly recent, it will have the Intel® Celeron® N3350 Processor 1.1 GHz and 2gb DDR3
as you have found it is capable of running any Linux, but with only 2gb of ram slowly, so as it stands you will need a lightweight or mid-weight build of Linux for optimum performance something like, Puppy, AntiX, Lubuntu, and Linux Lite [to mention a few] if you increase the ram to 4gb or more, you can use any Linux build, But with the speed/power of the N3350 I would stick to a medium build, Peppermint, MX- Linux, Debian stable, Mint DE with XFCE desktop, again to mention just a few, It will never fly, but you may get it to taxi a bit faster.
 
Puppy Linux is a good choice if installed and used as a frugal as it runs in ram and ain't nothing faster than running in ram.

From what I searched online the memory is soldered in.

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Bartman said:
s from what I searched online the memory is soldered in.
Click to expand...
Seeing your reply I called up the work sheets, and you are quite correct ram is not upgradable, so restricting its use to light/medium builds
 
Brickwizard said:
Seeing your reply I called up the work sheets, and you are quite correct ram is not upgradable, so restricting its use to light/medium builds
Click to expand...
I have seen quite a few of them ebook type laptops that has soldered in memory.
 
I just want a daily driver for chrome and coding in python
Nothing cluttered like puppy linux or barebones like antix
Basically I need an OS that can compromise for the hdd speed (like chrome os flex)
 
What do yall think about manjaro? If you think its a viable option should I choose plasma gnome or xfce?
Sorry for the big number of replies
 
Ivan4o61 said:
What do yall think about manjaro? If you think its a viable option should I choose plasma gnome or xfce?
Click to expand...
Create a bootable usb media and give it a test run that's the best way to find out how it works short of installing it.
Ivan4o61 said:
Sorry for the big number of replies
Click to expand...
No worry's communication is a good thing.
 
Bartman said:
Create a bootable usb media and give it a test run that's the best way to find out how it works short of installing it.

No worry's communication is a good thing.
Click to expand...
I did create a live usb rn it has plasma and its kinda slow
Is gnome faster than plasma?
 
Ivan4o61 said:
What do yall think about manjaro?
Click to expand...
Now you're asking for personal opinions, and min is I don't like Arch based distributions [but that is strictly personal, many do] but the plasma desk top is resource hungry, so are most of the other "full-fledged" one's, The lightest [so fastest] are [in no particular order] LXDE, LXQT, XFCE, little Heavier are Mate, and Trinity
 
Use the Xfce desktop or the i3 window manager.

Manjaro Downloads

Find a suitable Manjaro edition for your hardware.
manjaro.org manjaro.org

Give this a look.

Revive that old PC! < The LXLE Desktop

LXLE Linux, Revive your old PC. LXLE is a remastered version of Ubuntu/Lubuntu LTS releases, using the LXDE desktop interface. LXLE provides a complete drop in and go operating system coupled with style, speed and capability. It's light on resources and heavy on functions.
lxle.net
 
Ivan4o61 said:
Sorry for the big number of replies
Click to expand...
no problems we rather you ask if unsure, likewise we may seem to ask a lot of you when needed,
 
How to I install xfce desktop? Or should I just go with the xfce version of some distro?
 
First download and try "live" several distributions, find the one that works best on your Kit, if it's Ubuntu or Debian based, you can install the XFCE desktop from the repository then delete whatever it came with,
you can install any desktop to most distributions, but if it's not in the repositories, it's a bit more work to do depending on what distribution you choose.
 
Brickwizard said:
First download and try "live" several distributions, find the one that works best on your Kit,
Click to expand...
Yep I agree test drive several different distros.

Xfce desktop is pretty lightweight and very configurable.

Window Managers are extremely lightweight however come with a learning curve.

With them specs you're are going to be somewhat limited on choices so best to test a few.


Ivan4o61 said:
How to I install xfce desktop? Or should I just go with the xfce version of some distro?
Click to expand...
Go with the Xfce version.
 
I would go with an xfce concentric distro like xubuntu to start with.
MX-21 xfce, Mint XFCE, ETC. But you may be better off with limited ram to use an even lighter desktop than xfce.
Look over the article I posted above and try several of those. See how the play. Lubuntu may also be a good choice.
 
You would be better off not using a DE. Instead just use a window -manager.
Regolith with i3 is fast and lightweight.
Regolith Desktop
github.com

Regolith Linux

Regolith Linux - Productivity focused Ubuntu derivative and desktop environment. - Regolith Linux
github.com github.com
 
I like KDE, and it's what I use, it's not as resource hungry as it used to be in the past, but 2 GB it's too little RAM for any DE, yes, even XFCE (if pre-installed). I second the suggestion to use a window manager, and I recommend awesomewm https://awesomewm.org/
There are a few Linux distros that ship with a WM instead of a full-blown DE:
Archbang https://archbang.org/
MX-Linux Fluxbox https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-linux/files/Final/Fluxbox/MX-21.2.1_fluxbox_x64.iso/download
Endeavoros
endeavouros.com

EndeavourOS

A terminal-centric distro with a vibrant and friendly community at its core
endeavouros.com endeavouros.com
#this one ships with xfce in live mode, but when installing you can choose a different GUI, be it a DE or a WM.
Fedora https://spins.fedoraproject.org/ they offer some "spins" that ship with different DEs and the i3 WM.
Axyl https://axyl-os.github.io/

Except for Axyl, I've tried all of those above, they work pretty well and run fast. If you have some kind of experience using Linux, I'd suggest trying Debian netinstall and install just the base system, then from the console install just what you need; a DE, i.e XFCE, this way you can get a slightly lighter XFCE experience.

Debian 10 (Buster) Net Install

This tutorial shows how to install Debian through the internet from a minimal installer called "Net Install" which allows to fetch fresh packages we want.
linuxhint.com linuxhint.com
 
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