What's the best lightweight Linux distro? Group test: There are plenty of reasons for wanting a low- resource distro running on your computer. Maybe you have some ancient hardware that you need to breathe new life into. Perhaps you want something that will fit on a modestly sized memory stick. Or it might be that you want to run 2. The important things that we'll look at here are the amount of space needed, how much processing power is required to get the distro running at an acceptable level, and the effort required to get it to work. Something to bear in mind is that one of the ways in which developers are able to create slimmed- down distros is by ditching the scripts and wizards that we've come to take for granted. This can complicate tasks that you might expect to be straightforward, such as installing software. Strict criteria. The simple truth is that you'll be getting your fingers slightly grubbier with a low- resource distro than you would with a fully featured one. In selecting our shortlist, we've left out some contenders either because they didn't support older processors, they wouldn't install in 4. GB or less of space, they simply didn't work on our hardware or they're no longer being maintained (as is the case for both RULE and U- Lite). The one exception to this is Damn Small Linux - although it has been over a year since the last release, and the homepage is as quiet as the LXF office at 9. Monday morning, this is still such a widely used and influential project that it was considered worthy of inclusion. There's still plenty of activity in the area of low- resource distros, including Watt. OS, which we hope to cover next time. We also gave Zenwalk a try, but ran into difficulty trying to run it on the low- spec system that we permitted ourselves here. But aside from this, it's a light and capable distro nonetheless and worth a look if you have the time. How we tested. The main idea of this test was to see how well these distros would run in a restrained environment. The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 18 “Sarah” Cinnamon Edition. Linux Mint 18 Sarah Cinnamon Edition Linux Mint 18 is a long term support. Section about computer hardware, software and security, with detailed guides, howtos, tutorials, tweaking tips and tricks, and reviews of different devices, operating. DistroWatch Weekly A weekly opinion column and a summary of events from the distribution world. It's been approximately two years since I've written the first article, A (cool) list of Linux tools. The article proved quite popular with my audience, as it allowed. To this end, they were tested, where possible, on an ancient Compaq laptop with 2. MB RAM, Vesa graphics, a 4. GB hard drive and a 2. MHz Pentium processor. For the sake of sanity, all distros were then also tested in a Qemu virtual environment with the same limitations, but this time using one half of a 3. GHz Core 2 Duo processor. There were no special tests other than to install these distros (which was testing enough) and attempts to do some normal desktop tasks. Damn Small Linux. The rise and fall of Damn Small Linux is one of those tales along the lines of a great concept executed well. The idea was to create a Linux distro that was small enough to fit on a credit- card sized CD- ROM. With a target size of 5. MB or less, this format certainly concentrates the developers' minds if they also want to create a hassle- free user experience. For the most part, DSL does succeed. Based on the grandfather of all Live CDs, Knoppix, DSL strips out layer after layer of non- essential stuff, while leaving a core working system. It might not exactly be replete with applications, but there's enough there to legitimise its claim to the title of a desktop operating system. Look past the rather clunky interface and the tricky- to- read text and you'll be amazed at the amount of functionality included with DSL. Apache OpenOffice includes OpenOffice Basic, a programming language similar to Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Apache OpenOffice has some Microsoft VBA. You've switched to Linux, but your video or audio files file won't play! Simply, your Linux version didn't come with the necessary codecs, so let's find out how to. More information on downloading openSUSE is available from the. Having openSUSE and MS Windows installed on the same computer is usually fairly simple if MS Windows was installed first. During installation openSUSE will detect MS. Arch Linux - KDE 4 - Qt interface, album art and simple preferences (1680x1050). Install Media Codecs Opensuse Linux Review MagazineNotes Obviously, you know this site is not the Chromium official website. As a regular user (not an expert), I created it because I did not find a simple way to. We show you how to change theme, install apps, and use (awesome) hidden features. Linspire, previously known as LindowsOS, was a commercial operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and later Ubuntu. Linspire was published by Linspire, Inc. Text editors, a PDF viewer, Firefox and other handy utilities provide a workable and stable environment. There are task- specific add- on packages available to download as well, and it's difficult to fault the level of hardware support. DSL may look clunky, but it has an amazing array of shoe- horned- in- applications. Unfortunately, the story of DSL doesn't have a happy ending at the moment. The community developing it seems to have split rather fractiously over demands made by some of the contributors, so it's been a year since any of the main contributors has even posted on the project's website. The future of development seems uncertain. We've included it here (in spite of the exclusion of other defunct systems) because it still holds up surprisingly well to some of the other options, and remains widely used. If you need further testament, DSL was selected is one of the few systems supported by the boot. BKO) project. That said, obviously as time wears on, DSL slowly becomes more and more out of date, and may eventually become something of a liability. Our verdict: The original and still one of the best, but getting a bit long in the tooth now. Crunch. Bang. Long before there was an official Ubuntu- lite project, the ground had been contested by the likes of Xubuntu and U- list. Crunch. Bang ('#!', get it?), or Hash. Pling as one might decide to call it, evolved some time later, but before there was official support for the Lubuntu project. The head- start seems to have worked out for the developers, though, because Crunch. Bang is pretty much there. It comes in more than one flavour, but we decided to test the lite version because it fits in better with the theme of this particular group test. The installer was one of the easiest to use, but it didn't work on our decrepit hardware, only the virtual machine. The graphics driver seemed to be causing difficulty, so your mileage may vary. Although this is a lite version, it still includes useful applications, including the Leafpad editor, VLC and Firefox 3. One of the major selling points is that this distro is built around Ubuntu, to the extent that the included Synaptic Package Manager will happily fetch anything from the Canonical repositories to bung on your box. But as soon as you start installing big things, it comes tumbling down as dependencies spiral into gigabytes of space. Although it looks minimal, Crunch. Bang takes up a lot of space. Crunch. Bang also takes the unusual but welcome step of stuffing a whole load of keyboard shortcuts into the desktop - quite literally, because the list is displayed on the screen via the Conky system monitor software. They mostly make use of the 'special key that should have a penguin on it', so they won't interfere with normal operations. Crunch. Bang is small, stylish and performs well. It'll be interesting to see what happens here when Lubuntu is released publicly, but it seems that Crunch. Bang has a pretty solid proposition ready to go. Our verdict: Stylish, compact and plenty of Ubuntu software available. Lubuntu. Early in 2. Mark 'Space' Shuttleworth gave the nod to an Ubuntu project that would create a lightweight variant of the world's favourite distro. Based around LXDE, Lubuntu was on its way. Well, getting a new distro sorted out takes more than a few months, so we shouldn't be too harsh. It's also worth noting that at the time of writing, the current release was still an alpha version, so we're giving it extra latitude. As with most of the other distributions here, the install media runs as a live CD first, which is a useful way to check that the system is going to work with your hardware before you go to the trouble of installing it. If you imagine that Lubuntu is going to look anything like Ubuntu, that idea will be destroyed the minute the desktop loads. Lubuntu has more in common with the other LXDE distributions, with the LXPanel running at the bottom of the screen and a more KDE 3. Gnome. The chosen apps aren't quite the usual - Firefox, Abi. Word and Gnumeric are among those included, which seems to suggest that not everything in this distro is going to be pared to the bone. It might be a shock for Ubuntu users, but the Lubuntu desktop is fast and functional. Of course, the main selling point of this distro is that it will have access to the Ubuntu repositories for easy upgrades and plenty of extra packages to install if you need them. We did have a couple of problems installing this to disk, so the figures in the table on page 3. However, since this is still an alpha release, you couldn't really rely on them anyway. Lubuntu is definitely one to watch for the future. With the backing of Canonical, it'll have the developer resources to make the other lite distro projects rather jealous. Our verdict: Although it looks nothing like Ubuntu, this is one to keep an eye on as it moves towards a stable release. Puppy Linux. This sounds as though it ought to be based on Yellow Dog, but in fact, Puppy is a built- from- the- base- up independent distribution from down under. This is a middleweight offering - not as stripped back as some of the distros, but not bloated out to a full CD either. Memory usage is low to average and a recent kernel gives a good chance of hardware support, although it'll run on i. It runs direct from RAM on the initial boot and reveals a packed desktop with some thoughtfully selected apps scattered about. There are loads of helpful scripts to guide you through things such as setting up display preferences and installing to disk, but you still need to perform some stages manually. As is so often the case, less bloat means less complete and helpful apps that do everything for you, so you will need to put a little bit of effort in. Puppy manages to pack a lot of programs in to a small space. For graphics, there's a lite version of Inkscape, a few camera tools, MTPaint and Gxine. Browsing and mail is taken care of by a full version of Sea. Monkey rather than separate apps, while Gnumeric and Abi. Word should suffice for most office purposes. Puppy Linux has a fast, responsive and tweakable UI. Packages available for additional install include Ice. WM and Openbox if you don't like the default window manager, plus a selection of other tools. Of course, the distribution also has GCC, so you can build your own software - which may be necessary since the repositories only hold a few dozen extra apps. While it may be restrictive in the number of programs available, there's still a lot to recommend Puppy - it runs like a solid, modern distro but in a fraction of the space. However, if you have specific application needs, it may be easier to look elsewhere. Installation - Howto Install open. SUSE on Your Computer. Installation. This is just a brief description of open. SUSE installation. For more thorough help see the official documentation. Before Installation. Before starting there are a few things you should be aware of. System Minimum Requirements. CPU: AMD6. 4 or Intel. RAM: 1 GB physical RAM (2 GB recommended)Disk Space: 5,0 GB for a normal installation (more recommended)Sound and Graphics Card: Most modern cards are supported. Burning the ISOs to a DVD. When you burn the downloaded ISO files to a DVD it's important to remember to burn them as ISOs/images with your CD/DVD writer software, or the media won't be bootable. Creating a USB stick. The ISO can also be put on an USB stick, see instructions for this on these pages depending on which operating systems you have available: 4. BIOS Setup. If your computer won't boot from the DVD or USB media, check that the computer BIOS is configured to boot from CD/DVD or USB. Dual Boot (open. SUSE and MS Windows on the same computer). Having open. SUSE and MS Windows installed on the same computer is usually fairly simple if MS Windows was installed first. During installation open. SUSE will detect MS Windows and the bootloader will display a menu on each startup letting you choose whether to boot open. SUSE or MS Windows. SUSE needs to be installed on a separate partition/disk. It's recommended to free up space beforehand using a partitioning tool that you're familiar with. But you can also let the open. SUSE installer resize your MS Windows partitions - it's strongly recommended to defragment the MS Windows partition before doing so. Connect Network Cable and Turn on Peripherals. If you connect your network cable and turn on your printer and other peripherals before commencing the installation, there's a good chance of them being autodetected and configured. The Installation Process. When you're ready, insert the DVD or USB stick and (re)start the computer. Start Installation. You're presented with a menu. Here you can select your desired language and a few other options, afterwards begin installation. Language, Keyboard and Licence. The licence agreement is only to inform you of your rights. It doesn't require your acceptance, since it doesn't limit your use. Check that language and keyboard layout are as desired. Installation Options. Partitioning. By default open. SUSE will propose to create three new partitions / (root) for system files, /home/ for personal files of users and swap which is used as a supplement for RAM, similar to the page file in MS Windows. Don't worry about all the subvolumes created, these are just technicalities of the Btrfs filesystem, and not . Partitions that will be formatted are written in red text. Clock and Time Zone. Set the timezone here. If you have only GNU/Linux it's recommended to set the hardware clock to UTC, if you dual boot with MS Windows set it to local time. Desktop Selection. Various different graphical user interfaces (desktop environments) exist for GNU/Linux. KDE is preselected and is preferred by about 7. SUSE users and is also the focus of this guide. Under . Note that by default the root user (administrator) password will be the same as the password for the normal user. If you want the added security of a separate root password, consider unchecking that checkbox. You may also want to consider disabling autologin to prevent people from easily accessing your system and data. Installation Settings. Actual Installation. Now the actual installation is performed. When it's done the system will reboot and be ready to use. Have a lot of fun with open.
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