What it the best lightweight Linux OS (smaller than 1gb)

[Deleted User]

Over the last few days I have been looking for a good lightweight Linux OS that has a pleasant GUI while being powerful but after much searching of the web I have discovered many different Linux distributions so many in fact that I am unsure of what to pick I was hoping that I could get some recommendations on what Linux distribution I should use thanks in advance for any suggestion you are willing to provide

 

[Ryab]

Over the last few days I have been looking for a good lightweight Linux OS that has a pleasant GUI while being powerful but after much searching of the web I have discovered many different Linux distributions so many in fact that I am unsure of what to pick I was hoping that I could get some recommendations on what Linux distribution I should use thanks in advance for any suggestion you are willing to provide

I would say arch but that requires a lot of knowledge of the OS you could try one of the minimal Manjaro builds

 

[Deleted User]

I would say arch but that requires a lot of knowledge of the OS you could try one of the minimal Manjaro builds

Okay thank you

 

[Ryab]

Okay thank you

also heads there are very very few distros that are going to be less than 1gb I mean the most lightweight distro arch is a 700mb install iso

 

[PityOnU]

When it comes to Linux, you shouldn't think of the different distributions as different operating systems. Linux itself is really just a collection of (mostly) free and open source software (FOSS) - there is no "default" Linux OS (yes, yes, apart from the kernel).

A "distribution" of Linux is just a tailored collection of a specific subset of these FOSS applications. The version and combination of these applications are selected by a panel/community of experts s.t. they will all work together relatively reasonably. So, for example, "Fedora" is only different from "Ubuntu" in that a different committee of people have selected different versions and combinations of FOSS applications to include. In most cases, the FOSS in both distributions actually ends up being identical.

So, which is the "best" distribution? Well, it depends what you want to do. Ideally, you should probably pick one s.t. the stated goal of the maintainers of the distribution aligns with what you are trying to do. In reality, you can accomplish literally everything that is possible on any distribution with any other distribution, the only difference between them being how difficult that becomes.

Returning to the main question here, given all of the above, the distribution you select really doesn't matter that much when it comes to install size. Almost all distributions come with a "text mode" or "minimal" installer that will only install the bare minimum in order for you to boot the system to a terminal prompt. From that point, you can yourself select the only the FOSS applications that you absolutely require and install them on your system one at a time.

TL;DR - Just download the Ubuntu MinimalCD installer.

 

[Deleted User]

also heads there are very very few distros that are going to be less than 1gb I mean the most lightweight distro arch is a 700mb install iso

The reason for my quest for finding a small Linux distribution is I accidentally formatted my HDD and left my PC without a OS after this incident I did some research on my 2DS and found a deathtrap known as Linux Porteus so with a few blank CD's in hand I went to my local library to burn the image to the disk turns out the computers at this Library did not allow you to install software and the disks I brought with me were somehow write protected luckily on the way to the library I had gotten a blank USB as a fail-safe well then I burned the Linux Porteus disk image onto the USB and excited about reviving the computer I headed home and tried it on my PC and of course being that my PC is a Lenovo Thinkpad t410 (old as dirt) it has a BIOS security feature that prevents some Linux distributions from being booted from a USB and of course Linux Porteus just so happened to be one of them and so a little while later I finally got Linux Porteus on a CD but then it did not install to my HDD and then the package manager broke lets just say some bad $#%@! happened and long story short I have found a good OS called Linux Kubuntu 18.04 LTS it also is very popular and so searching the internet for solutions to problems is easy and not a wild goose chase thus ends the tale

 

[PityOnU]

Huh, KDE.

They really need to fix the size of the text in their default system tray clock. The fact that its so oversized throws off visual continuity of the entire UI. It's been like that for ages, as well.

I'm guessing you can change it in settings pretty easily, though.

 

[Deleted User]

Huh, KDE.

They really need to fix the size of the text in their default system tray clock. The fact that its so oversized throws off visual continuity of the entire UI. It's been like that for ages, as well.

I'm guessing you can change it in settings pretty easily, though.

Yes you can shrink down the size of the default system tray clock easily

 

[Ryab]

Huh, KDE.

They really need to fix the size of the text in their default system tray clock. The fact that its so oversized throws off visual continuity of the entire UI. It's been like that for ages, as well.

I'm guessing you can change it in settings pretty easily, though.

KDE is by far the most customizable Desktop Environment

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Damn small Linux or Puppy Linux depends on what your looking for.

 

[Deleted User]

Damn small Linux or Puppy Linux depends on what your looking for.

I heard that Damn Small Linux has been discontinued

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

I heard that Damn Small Linux has been discontinued

Probably its been so long since I bothered with any of the light distributions... I think it boils down to even the lowest cheapest new laptops can run a full distro at good speed kind of hard to bother with the out dated hardware.

Used to be computers where so expensive that it made sense to try to keep them in working order for as long as possible. But now that 7+ year old PC or Laptop that would normally be a perfect candidate for a light distro is just so out dated that even a 89 dollar chromebook on newegg or Amazon out classes it.

Another distro I used to fascinated with.

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

 

[Deleted User]

Probably its been so long since I bothered with any of the light distributions... I think it boils down to even the lowest cheapest new laptops can run a full distro at good speed kind of hard to bother with the out dated hardware.

Used to be computers where so expensive that it made sense to try to keep them in working order for as long as possible. But now that 7+ year old PC or Laptop that would normally be a perfect candidate for a light distro is just so out dated that even a 89 dollar chromebook on newegg or Amazon out classes it.

Another distro I used to fascinated with.

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

Cool thank you for the link I am running a Thinkpad T410 which is fairly old (2002) and hopefully in February I will be getting a newer laptop

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

2002... eeek That Slitaz Linux may be your best bet for good performance than. Well any computer is better than no computer

 

[Deleted User]

2002... eeek That Slitaz Linux may be your best bet for good performance than. Well any computer is better than no computer

Yeah this computer used to be my parents but they now have newer computer a HP so I use this one and after I get a new computer this one will be used by my younger brothers it is like a ancient artifact that gets passed around the family one thing I have discovered with old computers is when playing a PC game they can get hot and so you can be happily building a house in Mintest and then the screen will go black warn you about the core temperature getting to hot and the shut down good times right

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Yeah this computer used to be my parents but they now have newer computer a HP so I use this one and after I get a new computer this one will be used by my younger brothers it is like a ancient artifact that gets passed around the family one thing I have discovered with old computers is when playing a PC game they can get hot and so you can be happily building a house in Mintest and then the screen will go black warn you about the core temperature getting to hot and the shut down good times right

Sounds like it could use a good cleaning inside and maybe new thermal paste?

 

[bodefuceta]

Consider using Alpine. It is not only one of the smallest distros, but also very safe, which probably comes into play with a computer so old that probably has unpatched cpu vulnerabilities.

 

[Deleted User]

Sounds like it could use a good cleaning inside and maybe new thermal paste?

Worth a try the computer is caked in dust I think it may have been the reason for the keyboard failure thanks for the suggestion

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Consider using Alpine. It is not only one of the smallest distros, but also very safe, which probably comes into play with a computer so old that probably has unpatched cpu vulnerabilities.

That was my original idea but the BIOS on this computer has a security feature that will not allow it to be booted from a live USB thanks though

 

[AmandaRose]

Puppy linux is a good linux distro and is only 264 mb. You should check it out.

 

[Deleted User]

Puppy linux is a good linux distro and is only 264 mb. You should check it out.

Okay thank you