Background: I am a lifelong Windows user who is planning to move to Linux in October, once Microsoft drops support for Windows 10. I use a particularly bad laptop (Intel Celeron N3060, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 64 GB eMMC storage).

I do have some degree of terminal experience in Windows, but I would not count on it. If there are defaults that are sensible enough, I’d appreciate it. I can also configure through mouse-based text editors, as long as there is reliable, concise documentation on that app.

So, here’s what I want in a distro and desktop environment:

  • Easy to install, maintain (graphical installation and, preferably, package management too + auto-updating for non-critical applications)
  • Lightwight and snappy (around 800 MB idle RAM usage, 10-16 GB storage usage in a base install)
  • Secure (using Wayland, granular GUI-based permission control)

I have narrowed down the distributions and desktop environments that seem promising, but want y’all’s opinions on them.

Distributions:

  • Linux Mint Xfce: Easy to install, not prone to randomly break (problems: high OOTB storage usage, RAM consumption seems a little too high, kind of outdated packages, not on Wayland yet)
  • Fedora: Secure, the main DEs use Wayland (problems: similar to above except for the outdated packages; also hard to install and maintain, from what I have heard)
  • antiX Linux (problems: outdated packages, no Wayland)

Desktop Environments:

  • Xfce: Lightweight, fast, seems like it’d work how I want (problems: not on Wayland yet, that’s it)
  • labwc + other Wayland stuff: Lightweight, fast, secure (problems: likely harder to install, especially since I have no Linux terminal experience, cannot configure through a GUI)

In advance, I thank you all for helping me!

I appreciate any help, especially in things like:

  • Neofetch screenshots, to showcase idle RAM usage on some DEs
  • Experiences with some distributions
  • James R Kirk@startrek.websiteEnglish
    61·
    6 days ago

    Fedora Kinoite.

    • You will basically never need the terminal.
    • Highly tweakable, but out of the box is very similar to windows
    • It’s immutable (impossible to break)
    • App “store” makes sense and is not weird.
    • Extremely fast.
          • James R Kirk@startrek.websiteEnglish
            3·
            6 days ago

            LOL yes I try not to speak like a FOSSite when talking with newbies. “Arch Linux does not yet have an adequate solution for the hammer problem (when your computer is hit with a hammer) so I can’t recommend it.”

        • timroerstroem@feddit.dk
          21·
          6 days ago

          Nah, rollbacks are a feature to save you when it has broken. A good one indeed, but it’s more akin to a fire extinguisher. It doesn’t prevent the problem, but it does prevent everything from being a pile of ashes.