I don't see anything that makes it more suitable than Mint or any other distro.
this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
26 points (93.3% liked)
Linux
56359 readers
508 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
If it's true that it uses only 250 MB of RAM as it claims, then it had advantages on old computers over Mint which uses 950 MB (htop). My mom's computer only has 2 GB of RAM for example (an old, converted-to-linux Chromebook), so we need a distro that really doesn't use much ram. Thankfully she only uses 1 tab at a time on the browser (she doesn't know how to open more), so that makes it just enough with something heavy like YT or FB, so she doesn't hit the swap and slow things down.
In that case you might try TinyCoreLinux @64MB
No, that thing is unusable. It has no niceties to help a user do basic things. The best OS I've found that has enough GUI tools to do stuff, is Q4OS. Uses 350 MB of RAM, but it has enough stuff to get you going. I looked more into FunOS btw, and it requires quite some terminal work to even get tap-to-click to work. It's missing some GUI tools for basic things. It doesn't even save screen resolution changes without editing X11 files. If they get these things implemented, then sure. Same goes for all the other lite OSes, like AntiX, DSL, etc. Lightweight, yes. But not really usable by an ordinary user. They are missing GUI tools, of if they have them (like in the case of antix and puppy), they are a complete and utter MESS. I've used all of them, and they have left me very, very underwhelmed. Until then, Q4OS is the best of the lightweight distros. It's well put together.
Lubuntu and Xubuntu have entered the chat....
Not nearly as low in memory usage. Xubuntu requires 1.1 GB of RAM on a clean boot for example. Lubuntu close to 700 I think.
Ah the older version could run a lot less. Like 256 and 512. I haven't used it since 4GB - 8GB was the standard.
I like Bunsen labs for this. I installed it on a 1 gb ram pentium m laptop and it was pretty good. Idled at 300 mb iirc. Only downside is that it uses openbox as a window manager so if that's not your thing idk.
Has a decent bit of GUI tools
For 60+ I might recommend ChromeOS Flex, Mint, or Ubuntu.
Can't say that I have but for your use case I would like to mention elementaryOS, I tried it a few years back and I found it quite nice and intuitive
I haven't used Synaptic before for an app store I dont think, any recommendations there?
Yeah, mint uses synaptic. Works well in my experience.