Looking for guidance on choosing or setting up a Linux distribution?
Looking for guidance on choosing or setting up a Linux distribution?
I received an old HP prebuilt from my grandfather after he passed away, and it’s just gathering dust since it still runs XP. I want to turn it into a garage PC for browsing the web and streaming music while working on my car. The system seems to be an Allendale Core 2 Duo with dual cores at 2.4GHz, which matches the timing. I only have 2GB of RAM. I’m searching for something lightweight that runs faster than slow paint drying without spending a lot of money on waste.
Most distributions supporting GNOME use minimal memory, needing only about 1.5 GB RAM. Even systems with KDE can run smoothly, using roughly 800 MB.
Puppy Linux is a very minimal operating system. The site you mentioned is a good resource for it. DSL might be outdated, but I’m not sure it supports all the needed hardware.
If you're looking to explore the web and listen to music, I suggest using FreeBSD or GhostBSD for a solid desktop experience, especially on budget hardware. The choice of desktop environment often matters more than the operating system itself when it comes to how much resources it consumes. KDE Plasma 5 is great for efficiency, but if you prefer lighter options, LXQt or Enlightenment are better choices. If you decide to go with FreeBSD, consider using UFS instead of ZFS because of limited RAM; ZFS can still work but some features won’t function properly.