Lubuntu

Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
1,089
Location
Reno, NV
I have two old computers I had running Linux Mint. Both were glacially slow. Yesterday I put Lubuntu on both of them. Both now run at an acceptable speed. Happy day!! The only caveat is to do your homework and make sure you have a Wi Fi adapter that will work with Lubuntu.
 
Mint....xfce here! On 2 laptops

1st one is i3 1st generation...cca 2013 era..

2nd is 300e low cost generic laptop cca 5-6yrs old...

You can try also linux lite 5.0 (lightweight Ubuntu)
 
I have found the Netis WF2116 Wi Fi adapter works with both Ubuntu and Lubuntu.
 
Running Lubuntu 18.04 on a 15-year-old laptop here and it works great. This machine is 32-bit only, so 20.04 won't run on it. If this laptop outlives 18.04 support I'll have to look for another 32-bit distro. (Also in Lubuntu 20.04 the desktop was changed from LXDE, which I've used for ages, to LXQt which I tried on another machine and didn't much care for.)
 
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I run KDE Neon on an older laptop that works really well. Very stable and fast.
 
Running Lubuntu 18.04 on a 15-year-old laptop here and it works great. This machine is 32-bit only, so 20.04 won't run on it. If this laptop outlives 18.04 support I'll have to look for another 32-bit distro. (Also in Lubuntu 20.04 the desktop was changed from LXDE, which I've used for ages, to LXQt which I tried on another machine and didn't much care for.)
I would expect Debian will continue to provide 32-bit install media for a good while yet.
 
I've found nothing to come close to straight Debian with XFCE for speed and stability. I don't understand the desire to run all these pieced together distros. Pick the foundation you like, only install what you need and turn off any unneeded services.
 
I have wondered what the attraction is for the Debian derivatives also. Perhaps people like the support forums for those distros? Support on the Debian forums can be rather brusque
I agree, for speed and stability Debian can't be beat.
 
I have wondered what the attraction is for the Debian derivatives also. Perhaps people like the support forums for those distros? Support on the Debian forums can be rather brusque

There are a few reasons:

Server-side I would expect some people like the predictable release cadence, available (professional) support, more up-to-date packages and market ubiquity of Ubuntu. Although I have no need for paid support I chose Ubuntu over Debian and CentOS for some of those reasons.

On the desktop there are myriad distros that are already set up for specific purposes that would save a user (and administrator of other users) considerable time setting up and maintaining. Compared to Debian *Stable*, Ubuntu and Mint also have some handy-dandy, easy-peasy utilities, settings and more up-to-date packages. I haven't used Debian Testing as my daily driver in over 10 years but I recall some very, very occasional breakage in library version mismatches and un-caught bugs. Debian Unstable is probably not appropriate for day-to-day use by anyone who doesn't find chaos fun. Add in Ubuntu's ease-of-use when it comes to non-FLOSS packages, PPA's, etc. and it can be very attractive for non-technical users.

And after all that, yes, the support forums and communities for Ubuntu and Mint, at least, are a lot more welcoming to non-technical users. Getting reamed out by a bunch of basement-dwelling neckbeards because you didn't already know the answer to the question you just asked can lose its novelty quickly.

I agree, for speed and stability Debian can't be beat.

CentOS. As far as "I need my packages to be from this century" and "I need to be able to find and install package X" and "I need to be able to ask questions from time to time" if you choose Debian over CentOS you can then understand why one would choose Ubuntu over Debian (Stable).
 
I use Debian for servers but I'm getting lazy in my old age and find that it needs a lot more work than Ubuntu to get it working the way I want on the desktop. For me the Ubuntu variants for the most part just work without much hassle.
 
I'm a hard core Debian/Cinnamon user but always load Mint/Cinnamon on computers that leave the house. If you want speed, use an SSD for boot, operating system and programs.
 
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