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Best lesser-known distribution/DE for low-end machines?

I know Debian and others can breathe life into older machines. But i wonder if there are any distros with serious optimizations that I haven't heard of. I've already tried MX Linux on an old Thinkpad SL400, and didn't see any difference from plain Debian.

Update: thanks for the great suggestions. Forgot to say many distros feel zippy and fast until you open a web browser. Appreciate your thoughts on which web browser to use too. So far I've had a positive experience with Thorium and Chromium.

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  • Just install Arch without a desktop environment.

    • It's kinda surprising how much you can do in just a tty, the only thing I can't think of a method for rn is viewing/editing documents.

      • I can’t think of a method for rn is viewing/editing documents

        What is the extension of document? I bet you money it's possible in terminal. PDF? docx?

        • I mean any kind of document, so yes, PDF, docx, rtf, etc.

          Thinking about it, isn't lesspipe able to view documents?

          • Literally all the extensions you mentioned can be viewed and edited in terminal by various tools.

            • I don't know the tools, but that means you can probably do everything* in a tty without ever installing a graphical environment

              *I almost forgot spreadsheets and presentations

              • Do you actually want to know the tools for each of the extensions you mentioned or just having a conversation here?

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