Which Linux distro is the best?
Which Linux distro is the best?
You can suggest using a lightweight distribution such as Xubuntu, given the limited RAM.
Manjaro KDE stands out as my top choice. Make sure your HDD isn’t failing before switching to Linux, or you might face similar speed issues.
I am in a similar situation to you and it really depends how much time you need our you want to spend on making your os run better or have the features you want. Something i would advise you NOT to do is to run a distro that doesn't have the firmware your laptop. Wi-fi drivers dont work that often on more open distros like Debian and OpenSUSE. For Debian there's a "Non-free" version which doesn't mean you gotta pay a fee but it means that it has non-open/proprietary drivers (basically it includes drivers for wi-fi or network that doesn't work in standard debian). As a newcomer to linux, i advise you to use Pop!_OS or Ubuntu. They include a lot of things and you don't have to waste your time finding the exact driver you need for wifi, etc. If you feel a bit more adventurous then go with a different (but still popular) distro like Fedora or Manjaro. As for performance i would recommend Lubuntu or Manjaro XFCE. or anything thats not based on GNOME (bc it takes a lot of resources from my experience)
For these specifications, Lubuntu is the best choice. It may look unappealing, but it's lightweight and needs little configuration for a Linux distribution.