Best lightweight Linux distro of 2024

We database nan champion lightweight Linux distros, to make it elemental and easy to tally a simpler Linux OS connected older x86 computers.

This intends you shouldn't expect these distros to supply blistering performance, but they tin let you to bring an aged machine aliases 2 backmost to life - and usage - arsenic a dedicated Linux machine.

Such a machine setup could beryllium bully for a beginner to study Linux on, aliases for much a seasoned personification to person arsenic a dedicated programming PC aliases moreover conscionable a 2nd PC for wide use.

We’ve tested nan Linux distros beneath extensively and looked astatine factors specified arsenic nan hardware requirements, documentation, simplicity of configuration and maintenance, civilization apps that travel pinch it, and support for multi booting. We besides considered whether nan distros made it easy for Windows users to migrate to Linux, among different things. 

Want to study Linux? We've featured nan best Linux online courses.

Best lightweight Linux distro for desktop use

Absolute Linux is simply a lightweight distro designed for desktop use, and arsenic specified comes preinstalled pinch nan Firefox browser and LibreOffice suite. It's based connected Slackware but dissimilar its genitor OS, intends to make configuration and attraction arsenic elemental arsenic possible.

The installer is astir 3GB successful size. It's besides text-based and there's nary Live mode to effort it out.  Nevertheless, it's incredibly elemental to follow.  The measurement Absolute is system besides intends that you tin adhd and region packages from nan instal media to create a distro which genuinely suits you, though you'll request immoderate clip and acquisition pinch Linux if you really want to make nan astir of this feature. 

Once installed, Absolute Linux is incredibly nimble. This is ensured done nan lightweight IceWM model manager, on pinch celebrated apps specified arsenic LibreOffice, making this OS cleanable for older machines. 

The distro includes galore useful civilization scripts and utilities to easiness configuration and attraction of nan installation. There's besides plentifulness of archiving accessible from wrong nan desktop itself to assistance caller users.

• ^ Back to nan top

Best lightweight Linux distro for apps

antiX is 1 of nan champion options that’ll beryllium contented connected a machine pinch very small resources. The afloat version of antiX, which uses IceWM together pinch nan Rox record manager, is 1 of nan lightest distros astir and yet ships pinch tons of apps, including some mainstream and lightweight ones, for virtually each desktop task.

The distro uses its ain repos together pinch that of Debian’s. While it bundles nan Synaptic package manager, 1 of nan absorbing aspects of nan distro is nan metapackage installer that helps make nan distro accessible to caller users. The instal process is highly speedy taking only astir 3 - 10 minutes. 

antiX boots into a pleasing looking IceWM model head pinch icons connected nan desktop. One absorbing facet of nan distro is nan home-grown antiX power sheet which you usage to modify virtually each aspects of your installation.  

For example, you tin modify different aspects of nan desktop’s quality specified arsenic themes, menus, wallpaper arsenic good arsenic configure nan antiX advertisement blocker, image a partition and tweak nan automount behaviour utilizing nan civilization modules successful nan power panel.

You'll astir decidedly want to do this, arsenic by default nan IceWM, desktop and icon taxable look very dated. 

• ^ Back to nan top

Best lightweight Linux distro for Windows users

Linux Lite is based connected nan latest LTS (Long Term Support) Edition of Ubuntu (Currently 22.04.2). It uses nan Xfce desktop and is specifically developed to easiness Windows users – peculiarly those pinch aged machines – into nan world of Linux. 

The bundled web browser is Google Chrome. This is different for a Linux distro, arsenic Chrome isn't unfastened root software. Still, nan browser useful good and tin watercourse contented from celebrated websites for illustration YouTube and Netflix. 

Linux Lite besides comes pinch VLC Media Player and LibreOffice preinstalled. The OS includes nan zRAM representation compression instrumentality which makes it tally faster connected older machines. There's besides a typical ‘Lite Upgrade’ utility. 

Despite its name, this distro isn't nan slightest assets quiet retired there, arsenic it requires some a 1.5GHz processor and astatine slightest 1GB of RAM to tally smoothly. That said, this shouldn't beryllium excessively overmuch to inquire of immoderate machine made successful nan past decade. 

Try it connected modern hardware and you'll beryllium amazed astatine conscionable really quickly it runs. Linux Lite tin footwear from a Live mean specified arsenic a USB instrumentality aliases CD, aliases instal to your difficult drive. It besides supports multi-booting truthful you tin support your existing OS if you wish. The distro has dropped support for 32-bit and is only disposable for 64-bit systems.

• ^ Back to nan top

Best lightweight Linux distro for Debian

Crunchbang (or #!) was a very celebrated Debian-derived distro specifically designed to usage arsenic fewer strategy resources arsenic possible. While it was discontinued successful 2013, nan organization fondly remembered its lightning velocity and responded pinch 2 Crunchbang-based distros to proceed its legacy.

However, 1 of those successors, Crunchbang++, has now been discontinued. BunsenLabs is still active, though, and its existent merchandise (Beryllium) is based connected Debian 11 (Bullseye).  It features a gorgeously configurable Openbox model manager. You tin instal other package from nan Debian repositories too. 

The distro ships pinch an assortment of themes and wallpapers, and includes a number of mundane desktop apps to supply a very usable out-of-the-box experience. 

BunsenLabs is disposable for some 32-bit and 64-bit machines, and nan developers urge moving nan distro connected a instrumentality pinch much than 2 GB of RAM. You tin trial thrust BunsenLabs successful "live" mode earlier installing.  

• ^ Back to nan top

Best lightweight Linux distro for older machines

The 'L' successful Lubuntu mightiness arsenic good guidelines for lightweight, arsenic nan distro unashamedly appeals to those Ubuntu users who are looking for an OS which requires less resources than astir modern distros, but doesn't unit you to discuss connected your favourite apps.

Lubuntu is chiefly designed for older machines. The default desktop is based connected LXQt, which is acold little assets quiet than mainstream Ubuntu's Gnome 3 desktop. It comes pinch a action of useful devices and utilities including nan latest 'Snap' type of Mozilla Firefox, Featherpad and VLC Media Player.  

You tin usage Lubuntu's "Discover" Software Center to instal much apps. Still, arsenic a lightweight distro, Lubuntu focuses connected being accelerated and power efficient, which explains why it comes pinch truthful fewer preinstalled programs. The astir caller releases person moreover reverted to utilizing LibreOffice alternatively than Abiword for connection processing. 

This doesn't mean that Lubuntu is lacking, though – it's based connected nan latest Ubuntu release, truthful it's a due modern Linux distro – it's conscionable shed each unnecessary weight, successful nan mode of a rally car having each but 1 of its seats removed.

The astir caller merchandise of Lubuntu has now lowered nan minimum required RAM to tally nan OS to 500MB. However, to guarantee soft running, effort to usage a instrumentality pinch astatine slightest 1GB of RAM. It’s disposable successful 32-bit and 64-bit incarnations.

One of nan unsocial trading points of Lubuntu is its compatibility pinch Ubuntu repositories, which gives users entree to thousands of further packages, though nan much you instal nan little lightweight your distribution will become.

The minimalist LXQt situation is besides very businesslike but if you person a high-performance machine, you whitethorn for illustration a desktop that's visually richer for illustration GNOME aliases KDE.

• ^ Back to nan top

Best lightweight Linux distro for Ubuntu LTS

LXLE is simply a lightweight type of Linux based connected nan Ubuntu LTS (long word support) release. Like Lubuntu, LXLE uses nan barebones LXDE desktop environment, but arsenic LTS releases are supported for 5 years, it emphasizes stableness and semipermanent hardware support. The astir caller type astatine nan clip of penning is simply a remaster of nan existent type of Ubuntu LTS.

Aimed chiefly astatine reviving older machines, nan distro is designed to service arsenic a fresh to usage desktop retired of nan box, specifically tailored to entreaty to existing Windows users.

The developers walk a sizeable magnitude of clip making each nan basal mods and tweaks to amended performance, but they don't skimp connected niceties. Aesthetics are a cardinal area of attraction arsenic evidenced by nan number of wallpapers which are included, on pinch clones of Windows functions for illustration Aero Snap and Expose.

The distro boasts afloat featured apps crossed categories specified arsenic internet, sound and video, graphics, office, games, and more. It besides includes plentifulness of useful accessories specified arsenic a terminal-based Weather app and Bookworm for reference and managing e-books.  

The astir caller merchandise of LXLE (Focal) is disposable arsenic a Live image for 64-bit machines. You tin besides download nan erstwhile LXLE (18.04.3) for 32-Bit machines but retrieve support for nan corresponding type of Ubuntu LTS (Bionic Beaver) connected which it's based will extremity this year.  

The hardware requirements are 1GB of strategy RAM astatine a minimum, pinch 2GB recommended. 

• ^ Back to nan top

Best Slackware-based lightweight Linux distro

Porteus is simply a Slackware-based distro that is designed to beryllium wholly portable and tally connected removable media specified arsenic a USB instrumentality aliases CD, but tin conscionable arsenic easy beryllium installed to a difficult disk. The distro is incredibly accelerated arsenic it's mini capable to tally wholly from strategy RAM. 

The unsocial trading constituent of Porteus is that it exists successful a compressed authorities and creates nan record strategy on-the-fly. Besides nan preinstalled apps, each further package for nan distro comes successful nan shape of modules, making nan OS very mini and compact.

Porteus is disposable for 32-bit and 64-bit machines. If you're moving nan 64-bit type of nan OS, you tin besides get 32-bit applications to tally by installing nan applicable libraries from Porteus' package repositories. The distro provides users pinch nan prime of KDE, MATE, Openbox, LXQt, Cinnamon, Xfce and LXDE desktop environments erstwhile downloading nan ISO image.

Unfortunately nan action to build your ain civilization ISO has been removed since we antecedently looked astatine Porteus, but nan pre-built images connection a decent action of package and drivers, arsenic good arsenic an fantabulous action of tutorials to thief you get started.

• ^ Back to nan top

Best established lightweight Linux distro

Puppy Linux is 1 of nan oldest lightweight distros retired there. The task has been turning retired slim, sleek and accelerated distros for complete 15 years now, and offers different versions depending connected nan underlying environment. FossaPup64 9.5 is based connected Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04). The much caller S15Pup64 22.12 type of Puppy Linux (pictured) is based connected Slackware64 15.0.  

The distro is afloat of apps, belying its mini size – immoderate are rather unconventional, specified arsenic Homebank which helps you negociate your finances, aliases GdMap which allows you to graphically representation retired your disks. There are besides graphical devices to negociate Samba shares and group up a firewall, for example.  

The FossaPup version of Puppy Linux is compatible pinch Ubuntu's repositories, conscionable arsenic nan S15Pup version is compatible pinch Slackware's. This gives users entree to nan genitor distro's immense package postulation successful each case. There's a abstracted instrumentality for installing a much heavyweight web browser post-install.  

As slick and customizable arsenic Puppy Linux is, nan lightweight interface does look a small dated. This is decidedly a distro built for speed, not comfort. 

• ^ Back to nan top

Best lightweight Linux distro wrong Windows

SliTaz, which stands for Simple, Light, Incredible, Temporary Autonomous Zone is 1 of nan smallest distros that ships pinch a graphical desktop.

The distro uses nan Openbox model head and contempt its size allows you to alteration immoderate desktop effects arsenic well. Its menus are flush pinch each nan regular open source apps including web browsers, audio players, media editors, respective improvement devices and more. 

The rolling merchandise distro has a unchangeable and a developmental version. SliTaz besides has a bunch of civilization devices specified arsenic SliTazPanel pinch which you tin administer each aspects of nan system. You tin besides anchor SliTaz to your difficult disk and Windows users tin big it wrong a directory without partitioning their disks. 

SliTaz is disposable for some 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. Besides nan charismatic flavors, location are galore different downloadable images for SliTaz because its developers and organization supply galore variations to reside different usage cases and strategy limitations. For instance, there's a debased RAM type for systems pinch arsenic small arsenic 24MB RAM, a type pinch Firefox alternatively of Midori, a type pinch nary other applications, and truthful on.

• ^ Back to nan top

Best smallest lightweight Linux distro

The Tiny Core Project offers up nan tiniest of Linux distros, shipping 3 variants connected which you tin build your ain environments. The lightest version is Core, weighing successful astatine conscionable 17MB, which comes without a graphical desktop – but you tin ever adhd 1 aft installation. 

If that's excessively intimidating, effort TinyCore, which is only 24MB successful size and offers a prime of FLTK aliases FLWM graphical desktop environments. It's recommended for users pinch a wired connection. 

You tin besides take to instal CorePlus, which measures a comparatively hefty 248MB. This rotation offers a prime of lightweight model managers specified arsenic IceWM and FluxBox. CorePlus besides includes support for Wi-Fi and non-US keyboards.  

TinyCore saves connected size by requiring a wired web relationship during first setup. The recommended magnitude of RAM is conscionable 128MB.  There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions arsenic good arsenic PiCore, which is simply a build for nan Raspberry Pi. There are builds for different ARM devices for illustration nan GK802 Mini PC too. 

This minimalist distro doesn't characteristic galore apps. After installation there's small beyond nan Terminal, a basal matter editor and a web relationship manager. The Control Panel provides speedy entree to nan different configurable parts of nan distro specified arsenic display, mouse, network, etc. Use nan graphical package head 'Apps' to instal further package specified arsenic multimedia codecs.

• ^ Back to nan top

Best for KDE users

Another Debian-based distro, Q4OS offers you nan prime of nan graphically rich | Plasma Desktop aliases nan trimmed-down Trinity desktop situation (pictured), which is designed to beryllium lightweight and easy to navigate. 

Q4OS boots to a invited surface that tin beryllium utilized to instal further apps arsenic good arsenic proprietary codecs. If you person resources to spare you tin moreover move connected desktop effects. You besides get nan action to switch its exertion launcher pinch KDE’s Kickoff menu, utilizing nan invited app. 

The default Q4OS installation is beautiful bare-bones, but you tin usage nan desktop profiler app to soma retired your installation pinch a azygous click based connected really you scheme to usage it. Note nevertheless that while you tin usage nan 64-bit version of nan distro arsenic an installable Live CD, nan 32-bit version is only offered arsenic an install-only medium. The distro besides has a Windows installer that you tin usage to instal Q4OS alongside an existing Windows installation without excessively overmuch fuss.

• ^ Back to nan top

We've besides featured: best Linux repair and rescue distros, best Linux repair and rescue distros and best Linux distro for Windows users.

FAQs

How to take nan champion lightweight Linux distros for you?

Different lightweight Linux distros service different purposes, truthful not each 1 of them will beryllium perfect for your needs.

If you’re migrating from Windows, you’ll want to prime a distro that eases nan migration. If you scheme to usage divers applications, it’s champion to prime a distro that has a immense package repository. Similarly, if you don’t want to walk clip manually installing apps, it’ll beryllium smart to prime a distro that comes pre-loaded pinch apps.

These are conscionable a fewer aspects to look at, truthful analyse your needs cautiously earlier you make a acquisition decision.

How we test

We trial lightweight Linux distros crossed various factors. For starters, we measure nan distro’s size, hardware requirements, installation process, value of nan documentation, and easiness of handling (including for those who are migrating from Windows). 

We look astatine really galore apps nan distro comes with, really ample its package repository is, nan scope for configuration, and whether it offers coagulated support and has an progressive forum for discussions. We besides cheque really smoothly nan distros tally connected bequest systems and modern ones. 

Read much connected really we test, rate, and reappraisal products connected TechRadar.

Get successful touch

• Want to find retired astir commercialized aliases trading opportunities? Click here
• Out of day info, errors, complaints aliases surgery links? Give america a nudge
• Got a proposal for a merchandise aliases work provider? Message america directly

• You've reached nan extremity of nan page. Jump backmost up to nan top ^