The default desktop is based on LXQt, which is far less resource hungry than mainstream Ubuntu's Gnome 3 desktop. Lubuntu is primarily designed for older machines. The 'L' in Lubuntu might as well stand for lightweight, as the distro unashamedly appeals to those Ubuntu users who are looking for an OS which requires fewer resources than most modern distros, but doesn't force you to compromise on your favorite apps. The distro has dropped support for 32-bit and is only available for 64-bit systems. It also supports multi-booting so you can keep your existing OS if you wish. Linux Lite can boot from a Live medium such as a USB stick or CD, or install to your hard drive. Try it on modern hardware and you'll be amazed at just how quickly it runs. That said, this shouldn't be too much to ask of any computer made in the last decade. There's also a special ‘Lite Upgrade’ utility.ĭespite its name, this distro isn't the least resource hungry out there, as it requires both a 1.5GHz processor and at least 1GB of RAM to run smoothly. The OS includes the zRAM memory compression tool which makes it run faster on older machines. Linux Lite also comes with VLC Media Player and LibreOffice preinstalled. Still, the browser works well and can stream content from popular websites like YouTube and Netflix. This is unusual for a Linux distro, as Chrome isn't open source software. The bundled web browser is Google Chrome. It uses the Xfce desktop and is specifically developed to ease Windows users – particularly those with old machines – into the world of Linux. Linux Lite is based on the latest LTS (Long Term Support) Edition of Ubuntu (Currently 22.04.2). You'll most definitely want to do this, as by default the IceWM, desktop and icon theme look very dated. One interesting aspect of the distro is the home-grown antiX control panel which you use to modify virtually all aspects of your installation.įor example, you can modify different aspects of the desktop’s appearance such as themes, menus, wallpaper as well as configure the antiX ad blocker, image a partition and tweak the automount behavior using the custom modules in the control panel. The install process is extremely quick taking only around 3 - 10 minutes.ĪntiX boots into a pleasing looking IceWM window manager with icons on the desktop. While it bundles the Synaptic package manager, one of the interesting aspects of the distro is the metapackage installer that helps make the distro accessible to new users. The distro uses its own repos together with that of Debian’s. The full edition of antiX, which uses IceWM together with the Rox file manager, is one of the lightest distros around and yet ships with lots of apps, including both mainstream and lightweight ones, for virtually every desktop task. There's also plenty of documentation accessible from within the desktop itself to assist new users.ĪntiX is one of the best options that’ll be content on a computer with very little resources. The distro includes many useful custom scripts and utilities to ease configuration and maintenance of the installation. This is ensured through the lightweight IceWM window manager, along with popular apps such as LibreOffice, making this OS perfect for older machines. Once installed, Absolute Linux is incredibly nimble. The way Absolute is structured also means that you can add and remove packages from the install media to create a distro which truly suits you, though you'll need some time and experience with Linux if you really want to make the most of this feature. Nevertheless, it's incredibly simple to follow. It's also text-based and there's no Live mode to try it out. It's based on Slackware but unlike its parent OS, aims to make configuration and maintenance as simple as possible. Absolute Linux is a lightweight distro designed for desktop use, and as such comes preinstalled with the Firefox browser and LibreOffice suite.
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