Good fast Linux?

[Seriel]

My laptop isn't exactly the best and while Windows work, it's a little bit slow. I was thinking about setting up a dual boot with linux, and was wondering which one was nice and fast while still working fine with most things?
Thanks for any and all help.

 

[daxtsu]

Linux Mint is probably a good one to ease into Linux with. It's always been pretty light on resources from what I know.

 

[Seriel]

Linux Mint is probably a good one to ease into Linux with. It's always been pretty light on resources from what I know.

Mmmhmm okay.
And i'm not toally new to Linux itself, I used Ubuntu on a different PC for a while.

 

[The Catboy]

Linux mint XFCE4 version, Peppermint OS, Bodhi Linux, Puppy Linux, Lubuntu, and Manjaro are there the fastest distros that I have used

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

Depends what you mean by 'most things'; any program with a Windows equivalent will generally work fine on the same machine running a Linux kernel.

In most cases the distro itself won't matter, unless your hardware's really old; it can help to find something without a lot of bloat or programs you won't use to cut down on HDD space, but for the most part it'll come down to your desktop environment to cut down base RAM and CPU usage. XFCE is fairly lightweight and modern-feeling, although I feel like any machine that can deal with Windows Aero won't have a lot of trouble with anything else. It would help a bit to know the specs of your laptop, but for the most part it's up to you.

Personally I don't like Ubuntu just because of how bloated, integrated, and out-of-touch Unity is, but if you're comfortable with Ubuntu you might as well use it. Mint was originally a fork of Ubuntu and as far as I know still uses the same package manager, has PPA compatibility, etc., so it shouldn't be a difficult transition.

 

[Deleted User]

I use Lubuntu (basically just Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop environment) and I find it to be pretty fast.

 

[Seriel]

Depends what you mean by 'most things'; any program with a Windows equivalent will generally work fine on the same machine running a Linux kernel.

In most cases the distro itself won't matter, unless your hardware's really old; it can help to find something without a lot of bloat or programs you won't use to cut down on HDD space, but for the most part it'll come down to your desktop environment to cut down base RAM and CPU usage. XFCE is fairly lightweight and modern-feeling, although I feel like any machine that can deal with Windows Aero won't have a lot of trouble with anything else. It would help a bit to know the specs of your laptop, but for the most part it's up to you.

Personally I don't like Ubuntu just because of how bloated, integrated, and out-of-touch Unity is, but if you're comfortable with Ubuntu you might as well use it. Mint was originally a fork of Ubuntu and as far as I know still uses the same package manager, has PPA compatibility, etc., so it shouldn't be a difficult transition.

1. Windows Aero works but even as im writing this, it's lagging behind by tlike 5 seconds (GBAtemp seems to do that).

2.

Spoiler

3. I had ubuntu on a different computer, it was alright. I tried on this one but it just totally crapped out and lagged like hell, hence why i'm asking this.

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

Okay, yeah, despite the 4GB of RAM your CPU is pretty much netbook-tier. Since you're already familiar with Ubuntu, what I would recommend at the moment is to download some live CDs of Linux Mint, both the Cinnamon and XFCE versions, and try them both out. XFCE is more lightweight while Cinnamon has more of a standard Windows desktop feel to it, but may chew at your resources more. If you feel comfortable with either of them, take your pick; if not, try something else.

 

[froatsnook]

If you're already comfortable with linux, check out arch. So good.

 

[daxtsu]

You could also check out Debian, Arch, and Gentoo, if you want to have more control over what gets installed (I listed them in order of least-to-most difficult in my opinion when it comes to this). Gentoo has you install the entire system from source code, Arch has you pick compiled packages individually, and Debian's minimal install will leave you with a command-line that you can install GUIs from and such.

Just throwing those out there too.

 

[gungunra]

Have you ever run Xubuntu yet?

 

[DinohScene]

Linux mint XFCE4 version, Peppermint OS, Bodhi Linux, Puppy Linux, Lubuntu, and Manjaro are there the fastest distros that I have used

I second Puppy.

 

[Joom]

CRUX is pretty fast. Arch is based on it.

 

[rileysrjay]

Ive put Linux mint on almost 10 different windows xp machines (literally) in the last couple of weeks. I'd recommend it if you're used to Linux.

 

[Joom]

Ive put Linux mint on almost 10 different windows xp machines (literally) in the last couple of weeks. I'd recommend it if you're used to Linux.

Mint is as slow as molasses (at least with Cinnamon/MATE) compared to other distributions. If you have a Windows XP machine, I'd recommend a distro that revolves around Openbox like BunsenLabs Linux aka CrunchBang. It's incredibly lightweight and with it being based on Debian, users of Ubuntu (Mint, elementaryOS, etc.) should feel comfortable with it.

 

[_112]

Arch linux is what I use and it is very lightweight

 

[Luglige]

I use Kali Linux and Ubuntu. Ubuntu is for my website and Kali Linux for my... certain needs.

 

[SlappyTheDummy]

Debian 8 netinstall + MATE. Actually I installed on a Intel celeron 2.6 GHz + nvidia MMX 400 (so really old PC ) and it is really fast. If you have a PC faster than that give it a try.

 

[Joom]

I use Kali Linux and Ubuntu. Ubuntu is for my website and Kali Linux for my... certain needs.

Kali is for skiddies. "Ethical Hacker". I chuckled. Have fun with your automated SQLi tools and Air suite that aren't even remotely useful in a practical sense.

 

[FaTaL_ErRoR]

@OP just pick one. They are all pretty much the same. (all mostly based on the same linux kernel)
If you want something fast then go for the most stripped down version of -insert linux distro you choose-.
KDE versions are heavier distros and for older cpu not recommended. XFCE is probably one of the lighter weight distros and will seem to operate faster on older hardware. Same goes for mint/cinnamon distros. As far as most developed distro goes ubuntu is probably the most stable.
I prefer debian myself. I just get the server end and build my desktop environment. It really doesn't matter which version of ubuntu you get as you can just download a different environment from any of them to try out. (XFCE, Lubuntu, KDE...ect)
Personally I like one with nothing so I can build and download what suits my needs.

I use Kali Linux and Ubuntu. Ubuntu is for my website and Kali Linux for my... certain needs.

Lol, Kali is a pretty good looking desktop environment from debian linux. (that's about all it is) It's loaded with outdated (AKA already patched) scripted for pen testing. Kali was built to give you general already heavily publicized exploitation tools. It is good for mom and pop sites to pen test their website to make sure the general exploits wont allow hackers to gain access/ shut down site.
I swear everyone who downloads Kali thinks they are some great hacker.
Kali as a default distro really sucks as it is not too stable. Hell, half of the "tools" it comes with don't properly work.
They really should have charged when they released this distro. All the kiddies would have paid to download it so they could flex their leetness.