Maintaining your laptop's performance during online classes
Maintaining your laptop's performance during online classes
I own a vintage laptop matching those specs, and both Linux Mint Mate and ZorinOS Lite perform well on it.
Running on idle uses approximately 600 to 800 MB of memory.
It's almost hitting the mark for a contemporary device, yet even a zero result won't cause a failure. You'll simply move into an entirely different pace of speed.
they prefer open source options over the ones mentioned. your system has lower specs, so consider using a lightweight core if Linux Mint (XFCE) feels sluggish. I own Intel Gold Pentium processors with 8GB RAM and it works well on Linux Mint (Cinnamon) edition. I also have Fedora 34 running on i3 with 4GB RAM—it performs nicely. Fedora (LXQT) or XFCE could also fit, though they’re more suited for workstations and are newer. Linux Mint to stable is available, but some packages might be outdated. Use the official package installer; Snap is not officially supported by most distros and can cause issues if used on Mint. Installing Snap packages on Linux Mint may damage your system.
It works better than Windows 11 and requires more than 2GB of RAM when idle.
Never used Win11 before. My trials with Win10 didn’t go well after an update—it damaged my monitor. I miss having access to Win 8.1 again. That means giving up on GoG. Ugh. Updated July 26, 2021 by Bombastinator
4Gb storage paired with an SSD works well with Linux Mint. Mate is definitely the most minimal among Mint variants. Ubuntu Mate might be even lighter, though you might not prefer its interface. Other options exist, but with 4 Gb you should still function properly. Regarding the advice to run BSD and the old Unix stories, it's accurate—but the real challenge isn't the operating system or UI. Today's performance drops mainly because many sites load in-browser instead of on servers, thanks to JavaScript. You can still improve significantly, but ultimately what websites need drives up power requirements. Opting for a lighter interface like Mate gives a bit more RAM, though not much. Picking BSD won't noticeably boost speed unless you have it. A reminder about MS Teams: it's quite resource-heavy. It looks like your machine likely lacks a dedicated GPU. The best fix is to turn off GPU acceleration in the settings. This might seem odd, but GPU acceleration only helps with real GPUs, not integrated ones. Also remember: keep your laptop fans clean. That simple step can prevent throttling and improve stability.
It looks like GNOME uses up all the memory the system has, meaning even with plenty of RAM it can take up more space.
Gnome performs better in terms of memory lately. It sacrificed that for higher CPU consumption.