Linux for Laptop

[SAIYAN48]

For college, I have a Dell Inspiron 15 5000 laptop with an AMD 1-10 processor and 8 GB of ram. Currently, Windows 10 is installed on it. When I use it, sometimes it just freezes up and I have to restart it. Does anyone know of a good Linux distro that won't eat up as many resources but still has nice visuals to it?

Thanks!

 

[RevPokemon]

I personally found of the MATE family as I feel it looks quite nice and it is lightweight

 

[Luckkill4u]

Not a bad school laptop for its price. I'd recommend Linux Mint 18 but you would probably have better experience with Windows 10. Installing proper drivers in a linux environment can be a pain in the ass on a AMD windows machine.

 

[RevPokemon]

Not a bad school laptop for its price. I'd recommend Linux Mint 18 but you would probably have better experience with Windows 10. Installing proper drivers in a linux environment can be a pain in the ass on a AMD windows machine.

I have to say that from my experience it was actually relatively easy but it depends on the distro.

 

[Seriel]

From experience, Arch with xfcecan give a loooadddd more performance to a laptop thats bad specs wise.
Although its a pain to setup if you don't know how to Linux.

In which case I recommend Antergos, it's Arch based but it's super easy to install. Make sure to pick XFCE as your DE during setup.

 

[Luckkill4u]

I have to say that from my experience it was actually relatively easy but it depends on the distro.

The reason I say this is because it's on a A10 APU with R5 graphics.

@XAIXER it's quite possible you have a virus on Windows...

 

[XavyrrVaati]

In my experience, I would recommend Lubuntu, it's not pretty but it's got the compatibility 'out of the box' advantages of Ubuntu, with the lightness of LXLE (or whatever the acronym is lol). If not a light Mint distro would also work well.

 

[Seriel]

LXLE (or whatever the acronym is lol).

LXDE

 

[RevPokemon]

The reason I say this is because it's on a A10 APU with R5 graphics.

@XAIXER it's quite possible you have a virus on Windows...

Thanks as I missed that part

In my experience, I would recommend Lubuntu, it's not pretty but it's got the compatibility 'out of the box' advantages of Ubuntu, with the lightness of LXLE (or whatever the acronym is lol). If not a light Mint distro would also work well.

iirc Xubuntu is less stressful on PCs but I do not have benchmarks on me

 

[XavyrrVaati]

LXDE

I WAS CLOSE LOL It's been a while.

iirc Xubuntu is less stressful on PCs but I do not have benchmarks on me

I'm *pretty* sure you're wrong. But Xubuntu uses Xfce, which is still VERY lightweight, but also looks notably more polished compared to Lubuntu's LXDE. So I would actually change my vote to Xubuntu, since I forgot about it :'v

If you're using an utter craptop though, roll with Lubuntu.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Here's a quick image grab of those DEs:
Xfce:

Spoiler

LXDE:

Spoiler

 

[Seriel]

I'd still recommend Arch/Antergos with XFCE, Arch is a super lightweight distro

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Although that said I may look further into Lubuntu

 

[XavyrrVaati]

I'd still recommend Arch/Antergos with XFCE, Arch is a super lightweight distro

But Arch is annoying to install especially if you're lazy like me and want stuff to work out of the box But if you like doing effor, then Arch is way better, and fun for some people.
Way better as in you only have EXACTLY what you put into it, nothing more nothing less.

 

[Seriel]

But Arch is annoying to install especially if you're lazy like me and want stuff to work out of the box But if you like doing effor, then Arch is way better, and fun for some people.

I will admit i'm the last type of person, I enjoyed setting up Arch the two times I did it~
But but but, Antergos is essentially Arch with a bunch of stuff already done, you just hit install and it works.

 

[Lacius]

I wouldn't jump to blaming the Windows 10 operating system for your random freezes. It might be a simple software fix.

 

[Seriel]

@Supster131 I summon thee, because kek

was supposed to merge with my previous post, well ninja'd

 

[XavyrrVaati]

I will admit i'm the last type of person, I enjoyed setting up Arch the two times I did it~
But but but, Antergos is essentially Arch with a bunch of stuff already done, you just hit install and it works.

Ahh, kinda like Manjaro Linux.

I wouldn't jump to blaming the Windows 10 operating system for your random freezes. It might be a simple software fix.

This, and if you're willing to wipe your Windows for Linux, you really should just reformat your drive and reinstall Windows first. It could also be hardware related as well.

 

[Seriel]

This, and if you're willing to wipe your Windows for Linux, you really should just reformat your drive and reinstall Windows first. It could also be hardware related as well.

You could also throw Linux onto a seperate partition and see if its any better before wiping Windows.

 

[XavyrrVaati]

You could also throw Linux onto a seperate partition and see if its any better before wiping Windows.

Or, even better, make a Live USB. No risky partition table editing required!

 

[Seriel]

Or, even better, make a Live USB. No risky partition table editing required!

Good point but
-Partition editing isn't too risky, shrink the windows one and make a Linux one, simple.
-Live USBs perform slightly differently to a proper install depending on the USB.

 

[Supster131]

uh.
I was summoned, so here I am.
Antergos is the best distro tbh. It's based on Arch (only good distro imo), but it gives you everything prepared in a platter.
Installer lets you choose what Desktop Environment you want (I recommend XFCE for performance/shitty hardware, but I recommend Gnome if you have a decent PC and want something beautiful).
Antergos is as easy as installing Windows tbh.