A distro and desktop environment recommendation for an old laptop
(Read all of it, please.)
A distro and desktop environment recommendation for an old laptop (Read all of it, please.)
'sup? So, I am a beginner that has an old Samsung laptop from 2013 with an i3 4005U, a GeForce 710M, 500GB HDD (I will probably upgrade it to an SSD, but not for now.), 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM (the same for the HDD, will probably upgrade to 8GB some time.). It currently has Windows 10 Home but Linux is probably lighter (right?) so thats why I want to use it (+customization). I plan on dual booting the two since i might still need Windows for some cases. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
(Note: I'm planning on using Linux Mint [which version should I use?] or Pop!_OS, but might look at Zorin OS Elementary OS, Deepin and maaaaaybe Ubuntu and it's flavors. I don't really have an idea on desktop environments. need suggestions.)
(repost because wrong language)
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If you still want something lighter than XFCE you can try a window manager like dwm. It's really light and you can customize the entire things by modifying the source code. If you just wanna customize simple things (color, font, key binds, etc.) you can edit a neat little file called config.h
Hope this helps!
OP says
I am a beginner
and doesn't mention that they are a C programmer or anything. It is extremely unlikely that OP
can customize the entire things by modifying the source code
because it is extremely unlikely they would have any idea as to how to do such a thing. How many people, on earth, in total, can set up, run, and edit the source file of a tiling window manager? Now remove from that value those who are existing linux users. Functionally 0%.
This person wants to start using linux, is asking very simple questions. They are asking here which suggests they do not have a deep and rich existing network of people in their life to provide 1-on-1 support. Otherwise they'd ask one of their many sysadmin friends for individualized advice. You are suggesting to them something which takes a pretty wide diversity of skills and knowledge. And since the specific thing you are suggesting is a window manager, when they can't figure out how to use it, they will be unable to use their computer.
I wouldn't advise a beginner start with
vimon day 1, but at least if they did they'd still be able to use the computer for things other than text editing. And find a different text editor while they learnedvim.This is stunningly bad advice, verging on sabotage. Why do you want people to hate linux?
In a way I did say if he wants something "lighter" than XFCE. I should have said "You have to start with something like XFCE, gnome, etc. Just to get your the general feel of linux" Then if you wanted something lighter you can try dwm.
He can easily install dwm, or any other wm and choose it from his log-in page. If he doesn't like it he logs out and chooses another ones that suits him well.