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Modest laptop arriving, what new Linux distribution should I try? (wiki.livingcartoon.org)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Looking for suggestions besides Kubuntu, KDE Neon, Debian, Arch Linux, or Kali. I have previous experience with XFCE, Ratpoison, Openbox, KDE Plasma. Recently started trying out LXQT.

Would be on a modest Dell Latitude with i5, 14" 1080p display with intel graphics, and maybe 16gb ram.

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[–] 2 points 3 months ago* (3 children)

I use Aurora, done by the same guys who make Bazzite (de facto PC gaming distro) Aurora is immutable, a flavor of Fedora, meant as a general purpose workstation. It comes with KDE, but UniversalBlue has some distros with other DE's built in, as your post suggests you don't like KDE

I had tried Manjaro before that, but I kept messing up the network drivers somehow. Thus, I looked for immutable distros that are harder for me to break. If you're not as reckless as me, Manjaro might do you good?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago

    i almost went with aurora here. in fact it's still on the other pc i was also testing on, sitting on a shelf unused the last several months. but after trying out pretty much everything i could get my hands on.. i ended up back 'home', on debian. where i started ~ 30 years ago.

    solus os (independent 'semi rolling') and ultramarine (fedora based) were two other non-debian based ones on my short list. i already have a manjaro desktop so it wasn't on my list at all.. i already knew i didn't want it on this box.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

    I ran Manjaro over a few years and found it just fine. I appreciate that approach to Arch. Would you recommend Aurora when the system specs listed are i5, 8 - 16gb ram and old intel integrated graphics?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    The only thing I'd hesitate on is the integrated graphics. Tbh I have no idea how that will behave. Aurora's system requirements lead me to conclude that if your laptop is later than ~2014, you should be okay.

    My Aurora desktop starts using ~2GB memory at boot, so your 16 should be fine.

    Before I forget, their GNOME workstation distro: https://projectbluefin.io/ if you're into that.

    I recommend Aurora because I already use it, and think it's cool. I've only ever used it on one machine, so if you go that route, I hope your experience is good, too. I like KDE, and Aurora is immutable so it's harder to mess up critical components. Works for me.

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