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Your biggest problem is going to be the 4 GB of RAM. Saving a few hundred megs on the DE will help but not much. If you run a web browser ( and I cannot imagine using a computer without one ) that RAM is going to fill up fast.
Honestly, I would use a 32 bit distro on that hardware.
Q4OS with Trinity, Antix, Adelie, and DSL are all pretty decent options.
Zram
If you don’t need a full desktop environment, check-out IceWM.
I recently checked-out Trinity ( essentially KDE 3 modernized ) and was surprised how decent it was. I used it in Q4OS but it may be available in your distro.
I use IceWM on antiX. Seems to be a good mix of low resource usage and aesthetics.
I usually go with Xfce.
In my experiments with a similar setup and integrated graphics, full-wayland Kubuntu feels much more responsive than Xorg-Lubuntu, for what it's worth
I'm running Kubuntu on less than that on a desktop and it works just fine.
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For something with that little memory, I would use a minimal window manager; you'll want every megabyte of memory if you want to have any chance at running something like a javascript-capable browser without constantly hammering swap. fvwm, cwm, jwm, and ratpoison are all small window managers I enjoy; but do your own research into what window manager is the best for you.
I love OB with tint2 and conky , no de needed.
If it was for me I could use something like that. But I don't think the person I'll give the pc to would be able to lol
If it's for someone else, I'd pick Mate or XFCE. Should feel familiar to Windows (which is what I'd guess they're coming from), and it should be light enough to work on that hardware.
ElementaryOS comes with Pantheon, which is also very light, iirc, and it might be worth trying out via a live ISO.
Could you tell me what would be lacking? There's a surprising amount of bells and whistle s you can add to the setup. Check out bunsenlabs distro for an example.
That's fast enough to run the latest Linux Mint with Cinnamon. I have two laptops with the exact same cpu speed (passmark score) and 4 GB of ram. With 2 GB swap file you will be in business.
Oh, that's pretty neat info. I'm more of an Arch user but I might give Linux mint a try now that I know that. Thanks
Does Xfce count as light? It's got plenty of features. Should fit in 4gb well enough though.
Well when I used tu it like 12 years ago it was very light. I'll have to check now. Thanks for the answer
If xfce doesnt count as light I don't know what would
Probably lxqt. https://lxqt-project.org/ Very lightweight yet a full-on DE (minus bells and whistles). Found on most Linux distros repositories.
Yeah I'll check LXQT. It's been a long time since I thinkered with distros an DEs. Thanks
XFCE or LxQT but i have a preference for XFCE if it is for normal use.
Same. Mostly because I used to run XFCE some years ago, but I might give LXQT a try. Thanks
I like MATE. It feels familiar. (I’m a GNOME user 😅)
OP asked for desktop env, and tiling window managers are... Well only window managers and not desktop environments...
I think gnome and KDE Plasma are just too heavy. And I would use a WM if it was for me, in fact that what I use in my daily driver but it is for someone not that tech savvy. I may check one from the alternative crowd tho. Thanks for the answer
Try KDE Plasma, you can strip out a ton of it, for example XOrg entirely, baloo, animations, etc.
There are many options, but I'd say on those specs anything will run more or less fine with some tweaks/settings.
Personally I would go with KDE Plasma, because I feel most comfortable with it. It can be pretty light on system ressources when configured properly. Disable all the visual stuff (animations, blur, anti aliasing) and some of it's background modules (baloo and some other stuff that you personally don't need).
But you should take the one you are familiar with and find out how you can tweak it to be more light. Cheers
I have tested KDE plasma in my main pc for a few weeks now and the ram consumption seems pretty high and have too many options. I'm looking for something light and easy to use (not many options) since the pc is going to be used by someone not very tech savvy.
Measuring RAM usage is extremely tricky, because programs will use more than they need, if there is lots of unused RAM available. Check out https://www.linuxatemyram.com if you want to learn more.
For me KDE Plasma uses over a gig on my main PC after a fresh boot. But it also ran perfectly fine on a 512MB ancient laptop.