Lightweight Linux for an old Asus laptop

[kurtgn]

What's the lightest linux version to run on an old Laptop? As for use cases, I won't need much more than an email agent and a Python console. I'm thinking Elementary OS. Am I thinking in the right direction?

 

[Dngrsone]

I am not familiar with that one, but another lightweight OS is Puppy.

 

[Crackle Zap]

If you are technically inclined, you can build your own lightweight Linux. For more info, do a Google search for "linux from scratch".

 

[Dngrsone]

Damn Small is a great Linux, but it hasn't been updated on in quite a while, which is why I recommend Puppy.

 

[jusiamchez112]

Try Small Linux, it requires just 16mb of ram,It was a best laptop....

 

[BayK]

Install Ubuntu with minimum features. It is user friendly and most likely will run on your laptop.

 

[smvim]

So just what are the specs for this old laptop?
Depending its capabilities, instead of focusing on 'lightweight' I'm going to suggest you instead opt for a distro that's more 'functional'. A solid, tried-and-true distro like Debian running a window manager like Fluxbox will give you a stable OS with a much more complete feature set while requiring a lot of system resources. If you're only looking to run a basic email client and a Python console, a fully functional networking/protocol stack running in the background is going to be a benefit. If you'll be in a situation where you need your laptop to also be doing anything like running a Samba or NFS server, you'll find it easier than using on of those smaller, lightweight distros.

 

[Dngrsone]

damn samll form linux is good

Damn Small hasn't been updated in forever, though. That's why I recommended Puppy

 

[tpjoynt]

One main variable is what UI environment the distro uses. GNOME and KDE are the two most popular, but also the most resource heavy.

LXDE or XFCE are designed to use less resources, so it may help looking for distros that contain those. Ubuntu has Lubuntu and Xubuntu, respectively.

 

[Lee_Bo]

What's the lightest linux version to run on an old Laptop? As for use cases, I won't need much more than an email agent and a Python console. I'm thinking Elementary OS. Am I thinking in the right direction?

It's going to really depend on the specs of the laptop, but Elementary has become a favorite of mine.

 

[spantch101]

elementary is good. i always find myself back on Ubuntu tho. even after the mess with gnome shell.