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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.

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What distro should I use on my potato? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 7 months ago by AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I have an HP Stream 11 that I want to use for word processing and some light web browsing - I'm a writer and it's a lightweight laptop to bring to the library or coffee shop to write on. Right now it's got Windows and it's unusable due to lack of hard drive space for updates. Someone had luck with Xubuntu, but it's been a few years and it seems like Xubuntu is no longer trying to be a lightweight distro for use cases like this.

My experience with Linux is very limited - I played around with Peppermint Linux a bit back when it was a Lubuntu fork and I used Ubuntu on the lab computers in college. I can follow instructions to make a live boot and I can do an apt-get (so something Debian-based might be best for compatibility and familiarity) but I mostly have no idea what I'm doing, lol. I used to do DOS gaming as a kid so having to do the occasional thing via command line isn't going to scare me off but I'm not going to pretend to have knowledge I don't. I'm probably going to go with Mint on my gaming laptop next year but I suspect it's not the best choice for my blue bezeled potato (although I might try it anyway).

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[–] t0mri@lemmy.ml 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I use arch (btw) and always lie around tty. Id recommend the same for you, coz most my work, i.e programming (writing), anime and youtube can be done in tty itself. Id recommend highly any terminal based text editor. I enter GUI environment almost only for web browsing (if you guys know something for web browsing from tty, pls mention it) im gonna assume you need it more as a writer, and you are familiar with debian and not that familiar with dirty works on cli, so i cant recommend u to go with window managers like hyprland or something but if u want ram usage under 250M thats what u shuld use (i can help with setup and everything, if you want). So you may use debian with kde, ig.

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I've done that on my potato, I installed Debian without a DE. It's great, but I needed an insane amout of time to make it actually usable.

[–] t0mri@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean by "make it usable"?

[–] zloubida@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

For example : I write in French. It wasn't easy for me to have a way to type É or Ç. Tmux wasn't easy to configure. It took time to understand how to use USB drives. And now I didn't use it for some time, and I'd have everything to learn again if I had to turn it on.

I'm no computer scientist. All these things may be trivial for someone who works with computers, but it's not my case 😅.

[–] t0mri@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago

Totally understandable. 👍

[–] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Someone else mentioned the browser issue so I went looking for what was available (and I'll probably try Firefox first), but I found Lynx, maybe that's what you're looking for?

[–] t0mri@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Thanks. So u chose anything?

[–] AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

Not yet, I'll try live booting some of the suggestions like Lubuntu, AntiX, and Debian (probably LXDE) and see which one works the best. Debian is about as much of a challenge as I'm willing to take on for this project, but I figure I'll learn something at least, and if I do get it running it's probably going to be solid. If all else fails I'll look at a Puppy.