Currently, my go-to distro to install on old computers I recycle for non-tech-savvy friends and relatives is Mint XFCE. Its UX is quite similar to that of Windows XP and Windows 7, it is fast on old hardware, it is very stable, and it requires relatively little maintenance (and rarely using the terminal after the initial setup).

However, I am open to further suggestions for lightweight distros with "appliance"-like use. That is, a non-tech-savvy user switches the computer on and after a short boot sequence, can use Firefox (or Chrome), VLC, Okular, and LibreOffice easily without any OS issues or interruptions. No need for any "power user" or gaming features after the initial setup - just turn it on and use a browser and office suite, as well as media playback, with no problems. Especially if the distro is completely auto-updating with minimal issues and maintains itself for years without human intervention.

Just went two days without switching distros I think this is a good sign!! Still at nobara linux

Hi all, I just released MAS 1.0 (codename Dagger), a lightweight Linux distro based on Debian 13 with KDE Plasma.

The idea: one machine, two separate systems. Each profile has its own encrypted disk, passphrase, username and passwords, and you switch between them with a reboot.

Features

\- Live ISO, so you can try it before installing

\- Guided installer: kernel choice, graphics driver, DNS over TLS, firewall, AppArmor, snapshots

\- UEFI (Secure Boot supported) or legacy BIOS

Details

\- 2.1 GB ISO, amd64

\- Needs 40 GB disk for one profile, 80 GB for two, and internet during install

\- Checksum and GPG signature are on the install page

Limits: no offline install yet, and I've only tested it on one machine (i5-3320M, 8 GB RAM, GT 710M), so I'd really like feedback from other hardware.

Site and download: https://masgroup2000.github.io/mas-distro/

my personal github: https://github.com/masgroup2000

Happy to answer questions!

A little context about me: recently I kept switching back and forth from debian and arch Linux couldn't decide which. I was very indecisive. A lot of people told me to use fedora so I did some research and I came to the conclusion that nobara was for me because of its gaming apps and they also made proton ge. Installed it on one PC did some testing and found out I didn't have to install very many applications. I only installed bazaar distrobox and proton ge and I was good to go from there. Was happy so I installed it on the next PC. Same thing there and only took a bit of time then I was done.

Hey everyone, I have an old Acer Aspire V5-171 and I’m thinking of installing Linux on it.

What distro would you recommend for something this old?

I’m mainly looking for something lightweight and smooth for basic stuff like browsing, watching videos, and maybe some light apps.

I don’t really care about having the newest features, I just want something that runs well and doesn’t feel too slow.

Any recommendations?

What the title says

Hi everyone,

With the updates systemd and arch received my entire luks+tpm2 system broke, no luks encrypted drive wanted to accept the password or keyfile, and the aur stuff that happened sometine ago, i am looking to switch distros and i would like some of your recommendtions based on the following:

1. Lightweight and stable, i really like seeing when even a big Setup uses less tha 1 gig of ram and with stability i mostly mean fewer breaking changes

2. Control/DIY, what i really like about arch is that you basically have a blank slate you can customize and do what you want

3. Package amount, the more packages the better (but not really necessary)

4. Somewhat bleeding edge

I use my Desktop for basically everything, gaming, browsing, office and as a hypervisor

I've been thinking lately about where the Linux desktop is heading — especially when it comes to supporting older hardware.

Linux has always had one rather unique advantage: you could take an old PC, install a relatively recent distribution, and keep using it for years. Sometimes the hardware was no longer fast, but it still worked. In many cases, Linux gave old machines a much longer life than other operating systems.

But this has been changing as Wayland becomes more widely adopted. Recently I had two cases where I had to rescue computers with old NVIDIA graphics cards. That made me wonder: should a desktop environment be expected to support a 10–15-year-old GPU indefinitely?

Let's take for example old but still working GTX460SE (hey, we used to play heavy games on it!).

Basically you have three options:

- use old nvidia 390.x driver (the last one supporting that card), which means you have to read a lot how to install it on newer kernel (>7.0, are there patches in RPMFusion, aren't there?) or use older 6.8 kernel and X11 - in most distributions it's not possible anymore,

- use nouveau driver, combine it with Mesa NVK, but it limits your card a bit, and still no Wayland for older cards,

- replace old NVIDIA hardware with old AMD hardware (but >GCN3, GCN4) to run Wayland,

I went with option number 3, and I'm still wondering where all of this is heading. Will we have to replace our graphics cards every 5–8 years, even if we're not gamers? What happens if all desktop environments eventually drop support for X11? Are opensource drivers our only salvation? Add to that all the tinkering required to get such older hardware working properly, and then consider older, non-technical users.

So, basically, does this mean that Wayland is ending an era?

Computer 1 AMD 7800x3d, 7900xt GPU, Gigabye B650 Aorus Pro, 32GB Ram, WD 850x 2TB, Samsung 990 Pro 2TB
Mainly Gaming through Steam, and occasionally GOG.
Mainly Play : Elite Dangerous, Skyrim, Fallout, Mix of wargames from Matrix, Cyberpunk
Need joystick support (Logitech Extreme 3d Pro, will be getting a Hotas at some point from VKB or Thrustmaster), Controller (8 Bit Ultimate 2), Razer Orbweaver, Keychron q10 Alice

I initially tried Bazzite but ran into a couple issues. I couldn't seem to get my joystick going at first for some reason. I also like making custom fan curves similar to fan control on windows. I have been unable to get CoolerControl to fully work in bazzite detecting my fans properly. I keep running into missing it87 module. I have tried a few things I found online and managed to get the fans to detect but no control over them. The discord was helpful for CoolerControl but it seems this is more a bazzite issue.

I was eventually able to get this going in CachyOS and my joystick and controllers all work, so that seems to be what I have landed on. It is a bit overwhelming for me so far but I am trying to just take it slow.
I was also able to get CoolerControl working fully in PoP OS and Pika OS (but not my joystick in Pika). For some reason I could not get it working in nobara although I followed the install method on the coolercontrol site.

I need a 2nd distro as I would like to move my partners/kids computer over to Linux
Intel 6850k, Asus x99-Deluxe II/ 32GB RAM/ 2TB WD 770 SSD
I really would like to put them on Bazzite but am open to other suggestions. All the do is game in steam and playing Minecraft, Lego games (star wars, undercover etc) and F1 2025 and F1 manager.
I probably will try Bazzite again otherwise POP OS or Pika but am open to suggestions on anything else that would be stable, easy to use for them.

Thanks!

PS sorry I thought I was posting to FindMeALinuxDistro

I'd love if someone could help me find a fast, lightweight distro that's also good for playing games and watching media. I've tried several distros at this point, and the performance from them has been slow, laggy, and I just don't know why.

So firstly, let me tell you my specs:

First, It's a Beelink mini PC.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H
GPU: AMD Radeon 680M Integrated GPU
RAM: 32GB LPDDR5
STORAGE: 1 TB NVME M.2 SSD

I have tried the following distros:

Kubuntu 26.04
Fedora KDE 44
Linux Mint 22.3

I realize the hardware is going to be somewhat limited, but it should be more than enough to run just about any Linux distro without issue. Is it the integrated GPU? Is KDE just too much for it to handle? Your help would be appreciated.

I run a 1st gen Lenovo P17 with 2 nvme drives and recently switched back to Debian after i needed something stable for an AI project. Since i have an nvidia GPU, my first try was kubuntu and Ubuntu due to the alleged proprietary driver support. Both had a lot of boot related issues and after half a day of troubleshooting, i gave up and installed Debian. Now running x11 KDE without any issues what so ever. The "boring" distro is the one that just delivers without endless bugs and weird issues that seem to be the standard with most distros nowadays. Anyways, thanks Debian team for building "the Toyota under the the distros".

heavy ones on external drive, system deps on eMMC

i got a latitude 3450 (155u, core ultra 7, 32gb of ram ddr5 and the core ultra 7 igpu, which is really good) with windows 11 ltsc on it, atleast less bloatware, and i need it for some stuff, like fc 27, and more, but i really need a linux distro that will help me with coding, browsing etc., and maybe some games that i wont run on windows, and i know a how to setup most distros easily bc i practice on a vm, so please, i need a good answer

PS:i use linux in my main pc (cachyos), on my old laptop (mint, ubuntu, arch and cachy all at the same time), and on my rog ally x (steam os bazzite) and more. so dont judge me for using windows this one time, im not glazing, i just really dont know on this one situation

Ok as the title suggests, I'm finally making THE SWITCH. I've been using Q4OS with KDE on my old laptop which has 4GB ram and an Intel celeron processor and it feels pretty good to use just for coding and basic browsing and stuff.

Now I feel like I want to switch to linux on my main laptop tooo. It's a Redmi Mi-book 15, with Intel core i5 10th gen H series processor, 8 GB RAM with Intel Shared VRAM thingy. And before y'all tell me, I know it was a poor choice of a laptop I've learned my lessons.

I have a partition in that laptop with all my college stuff and Games. I intend to keep and be able to play those as well. I play games like GTA san Andreas, FIFA 16, Far Cry 3, etc. I tend to push the limits with the laptop too at times.

So anyone got a distro in mind?? I also want it to be pretty customizable. Thanks in advance.

System Configuration: · CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G (Stock settings, no overclock) · Motherboard: MSI B450 Pro (BIOS version updated for 5000G series support) · Power Supply: Gamdias Aura GP450 Pro - 450W (80 Plus White) · UPS: Digital X 850VA · OS: Debian Linux (Latest stable) and later tried Fedora (Latest stable)

I purchased my PC 3 months ago with all brand-new parts. It worked flawlessly for the first 90 days with zero issues. Using Debian.

The trigger: I went on a 1-week trip and left the PC completely unplugged. Upon my return, after one month the problems began immediately.

Detailed progression of failures: · Day 1: Was using Chrome for about 30 minutes. PC suddenly powered off instantly (like a power cord was pulled). No UPS beep, no error logs in Debian (journalctl showed nothing—it didn't even boot far enough to log). · Day 2: Powered on the PC and it worked perfectly for 7-8 hours without a single crash. Shut it down normally at night. · Day 3: Tried to boot the PC. It booted to the login screen, but instantly died while I was typing my password (very low load). Ai night Powered it on again and it worked for 2 hours before I shut it down normally.

Specific Symptoms & Observations: 1. Instant Power Loss: When it crashes, it is an absolute, instant blackout. No blue screen, no freeze, no kernel panic—just a hard cutoff. 2. No UPS Involvement: The Digital X UPS makes no beep and does not trigger its overload circuit when the PC shuts off. 3. No OS Logs: Debian has absolutely no crash logs. This indicates the power is being cut at the hardware level before the CPU can even execute code to write a log. 4. Temperature Dependent: The PC seems to work perfectly fine once it has been running for a while (e.g., 7-8 hours on Day 2). The failures are most prominent on a "cold start" (first boot of the morning) or when a sudden load spike occurs (like opening Chrome + updating). 5. Bypass Test: I bypassed the UPS and plugged the PC directly into the wall socket. The issue persists, ruling out the UPS.

Then I take it to the service centre they said they can’t provide support for linux. Installed Windows 11. The problem was solved. I used windows for 2 weeks there was no problem all was fine. But windows is not for me. So I downloaded Fedora gnome. 3-4 days later same problem happens. Boot up pc 1-2 minutes later shutdown. Full black screen and power off. Just like Debian. Now I am just back to windows 11. I used Linux for 5-6 years in my old laptop which is now used by my brother. I miss the linux.

Yes you can!

Hello everyone,

A few years ago, I became interested in the Linux ecosystem and tried both Ubuntu and Linux Mint. At the time, I was using an older computer, and I had quite a lot of trouble with Linux Mint, especially when it came to finding the right drivers. It was a frustrating experience and required a lot of tinkering. This was around 3–4 years ago.

Recently, I've started getting tired of all the bloatware and unnecessary software that comes with Windows, so I'm considering switching to Linux again.

My main uses are browsing the internet, watching videos, everyday tasks, and occasionally playing games through Steam. From what I've seen, Steam and Proton seem to have made Linux gaming much more accessible and compatible than it used to be, so I'm not too worried about gaming anymore.

At the moment, I'm stuck somewhere between Linux Mint and Zorin OS.

Mint seems more stable and straightforward to me, while Zorin OS looks more polished and aesthetically pleasing. I'm wondering how much of a difference there really is between them in terms of stability, hardware support, gaming, and everyday use.

Which one would you recommend for my use case, and why?

My PC specifications are:

• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4060
• Motherboard: MSI B450
• CPU: Ryzen 5 5600G
• RAM: 16 GB (2×8 GB)

I'd especially appreciate input from people who have used both Mint and Zorin OS, particularly with NVIDIA GPUs and Steam/Proton.

Hello i have been trying to use windows for 3 months now after going back from arch but my pc isnt making it easier. I am looking for anything that will let me play basic games (like cs global offensive minecraft etc) or do basic stuff. Ive used arch before for 2 months as my first distro got it riced and working but got tired of trying to make my distro look better and better. If any of you had an better idea then arch i would be great full :D