Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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7 Best Linux Distros For Laptops

Linux was complex to use on personal computers or laptops and used on servers or high-end cloud devices. But now the days have changed. There are various distros available for individuals wanting to use Linux on their laptops. Whether you have a high-end laptop or an old laptop, there are Linux distros that cover every device. Moreover, there are some distros available that might help the user switch from Windows or Mac systems. In this article, we will take a look at five of the best Linux distros for laptops. We will also discuss some of the pros and cons of each distro.

Best Linux Distros For Laptops


There are a variety of Linux distributions that can be used on laptops, depending on what the user plans to do with it. The most common tasks for laptop users include using office applications, watching movies and listening to music, and managing personal files. This article discusses some of the best Linux distros for laptops based on those activities.

1. Pop_OS! from System76


Pop!_OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a custom GNOME desktop. It was developed by System76, a US-based manufacturer of laptops, desktops, and servers for open source projects. The company released Pop!_OS as a free and open source operating system in 2017. Pop!_OS is one of the best Linux distros for modern laptops.

The main objective of Pop!_OS is to provide a user-friendly and efficient computing experience for software developers and power users. The distribution comes with a range of tools and features that make it ideal for developers and power users. For example, Pop!_OS includes support for multiple monitors, a custom panel layout, a range of development tools, and an easy-to-use package manager.

apps_pop__os

In addition to its focus on developers and power users, Pop!_OS is also designed to be a good choice for beginners. The distribution includes a number of user-friendly features, such as an installation wizard and a range of software pre-installed. Pop!_OS is available in two editions: a free ‘community’ edition and a paid-for ‘professional’ edition.

pop os

Pop!_OS is a relatively new Linux distribution and is not yet widely used. However, it has already gained a reputation for being an efficient and well-designed operating system.

If you’re looking for an alternative to the major commercial Linux distributions, Pop!_OS is definitely worth considering.

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2. Zorin OS


Zorin OS is a great alternative to Windows and macOS that is designed to help your computer run faster, be more powerful, and be more secure. Zorin OS comes in two versions, the Lite version and the Core version. The Lite version is ideal for older laptops as it uses less resources. The Core version is for more modern laptops and comes with more features.

Zorin OS is a Linux-based operating system that is designed to be user-friendly and secure. It is based on Ubuntu, which is, in turn, based on Linux, so it benefits from the advanced security features of Linux.

Zorin OS also comes with a range of pre-installed applications, including LibreOffice and Zoring Connect, making it easy to get started. Additionally, it does not collect personal data, meaning that users can browse the internet and use applications without worrying about their privacy being compromised.

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3. MX Linux


MX_Linux

MX Linux is a cooperative venture between the antiX and former MEPIS communities, using the best tools and talents from each distro. It is a midweight OS designed to combine an elegant and efficient desktop with simple configuration, high stability, solid performance, and a medium-sized footprint.

MX Linux comes with a wide range of software pre-installed, including an office suite, web browser, email client, media player, and much more. The distribution’s standout features include its attractive custom desktop environment (based on Xfce), ease of installation and configuration, outstanding documentation in the form of an excellent wiki, and a large and friendly user community.

MX Linux is an excellent distro for both beginners and more experienced users alike. If you’re looking for a stable, easy-to-use distro that comes with a wide range of pre-installed software, MX Linux is definitely worth considering.

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4. Linux Mint Cinnamon


Linux Mint Cinnamon is a desktop environment that is based on the GNOME 3 desktop environment with some changes and additions. The desktop environment includes a panel at the bottom of the screen, a menu bar, a window list, and a notification area.

The panel can be customized to include various applets and widgets. The menu bar includes a menu for launching applications, a menu for accessing system settings, and the user’s files.

The window list allows the user to switch between open windows and views thumbnails of open windows. The notification area includes a clock, an email client, a volume control, and other status icons.

Linux Mint Cinnamon is designed to be easy to use and familiar to users of other desktop environments, such as Windows and macOS.

The main motto of Linux Mint is “From freedom came elegance,” which provides a stable, powerful, easy-to-use, and completely out-of-the-box experience.

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5. Deepin Linux


Deepin is a Linux distro that offers a stable and user-friendly OS for the laptop, based on Debian. It uses the DDE – deepin desktop environment based on Qt 5 toolkit. Deepin created its desktop environment from scratch with the intention of providing an intuitive design for the average user.

Some of the great applications that come with deepin are the Deepin Software Center, DMusic, and DPlayer. The installation process for deepin is incredibly user-friendly and easy to follow, making it a great replacement for Windows on laptops or computers.

Deepin Linux is known for its attractive user interface and ease of use. It also comes with several features designed to make the user’s experience more efficient, such as an intelligent search bar and multi-screen display. Deepin Linux is a good choice for those who are looking for an operating system that is both beautiful and user-friendly.

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6. Lubuntu


Lubuntu is a lightweight Linux distro that is perfect for older laptops or those with limited resources. It is based on Ubuntu but uses the LXQt desktop environment instead of Gnome. This makes it much lighter and faster than Ubuntu while still providing a familiar user interface.

Lubuntu comes with a range of pre-installed applications, including the Chromium web browser, VLC media player, and OpenOffice. It also has a wide range of support for different languages, making it a great choice for international users.

Lubuntu is an excellent choice for users who are looking for a lightweight and fast operating system for their laptops. It is also a good option for those who are looking for an alternative to Windows or macOS.

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7. Ubuntu MATE


Ubuntu MATE is a desktop operating system that is based on the Ubuntu Linux distribution. It uses the MATE desktop environment, which is a fork of the now-discontinued GNOME 2 desktop environment. This distro is a great operating system for all sorts of computers, from modern laptops to old machines and single-board computers.

It makes modern laptops fast and old computers usable. Ubuntu MATE provides a complete set of desktop applications, including utility software, a complete office suite, backup managers, image manager tools, video players, and more.

Newcomers to Ubuntu MATE will find it familiar because its interface looks like Windows. The MATE Tweak Tool also makes it easy to change the core interface to suit your needs.

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Finally, Insights!


Most laptops come with hardware and resource limitations. If you want to use a Linux distro on your laptop, you should focus on using a lightweight distro that won’t compromise software limitations. That way, you’ll have more power to do other productive work instead of wasting it on the OS itself. All the above-discussed distros are lightweight but compatible with modern laptops and old machines.

You’ve now seen the best Linux distros for laptops. Did you use any of them? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. And be sure to share this article with anyone else you think may be interested in using Linux on their laptop!

Mehedi Hasan
Mehedi Hasan
Mehedi Hasan is a passionate enthusiast for technology. He admires all things tech and loves to help others understand the fundamentals of Linux, servers, networking, and computer security in an understandable way without overwhelming beginners. His articles are carefully crafted with this goal in mind - making complex topics more accessible.

24 COMMENTS

  1. POP! has issues with updates. Especially with the POP! Shop. It’s said that it’s great fore gaming, but I found that this wasn’t really the case. Games work on it, yes, but games work on other distros as well, some of which aren’t even marketed at gamers.
    Zorin is great all-around. Nothing bad to say about it, but it’s also not especially gaming-friendly. Beyond that, it’s good looking and rock-solid.
    Mint was great ~8 years ago. It’s nothing but bloat now. They focus too much on the E on not enough on the actual usability of the machine. At this point, they might as well be Ubuntu,
    Deepin has next to zero customization. If I wanted to be told how to use my computer, I’d use Windows. Or Apple. Or Ubuntu.
    Lubuntu is for lightweight computers. It doesn’t belong on any list of “best distros,” period, much less a list that isn’t specifically about lightweight distros.
    Ubuntu MATE is Ubuntu for people who are still stuck in 2012 and don’t like Ubiquity. It’s outdated, outmoded, and not good to begin with. If you want MATE, use Mint. It’s terrible, but better than Ubuntu’s blind stab at it.
    MX is the best of this list and, other than Zorin, the only one worth installing. It works very well. Stable, fast, new-user friendly, and has had the best all-around gaming compatibility of any Linux distro that I’ve used,

    Which would I use? From this list, MX, then Zorin, If we include the much better options that you overlooked:
    KDE Neon -An OS from the developers of KDE, itself. This is for the newest, latest, greatest computers with modern hardware.
    Garuda Dr4g0nized – An Arch-based Linux distro with gamers in mind from the get-go. Easy to install, easy to use, even for an ARCH distro. Great looking. If your computer is remotely modern, it will like this.
    AntiX – this is a toolkit for linux users. It’s a LIVE USB distro, as well as an installable distro. This particular OS is for computers that are REALLY old (Early P4 and older), or lightweght computers, such as netbooks,

  2. Nobody seems to comment MX Linux, so here’s one from me :-).
    I’m using Linux as my daily driver both for work and home. I’ve been doing this for about two years now.
    At work I install, maintain and design network and server solutions. Mostly Windows, but also some Linux servers. I changed from Ubuntu to MX Linux this summer to get a more stable environment. I’m really happy with this. MX Linux is snappy, easy to use and rock solid! I’m spending about zero time fixing software issues after the switch and my computer boots up in about 12 seconds.

  3. Which Linux would be best for laptop Dell 3737 – has dual graphic cards (AMD RADEON 8770m) and still problems. Poor video quality (but in Windows is very good). Looking for distro to have simmilar quality of screen in graphics and video playing and sound.

  4. Just wasted 4 hours trying to install Mate, downloaded from the above link. First time from the demo, tried the install option, selected keyboard, WLAN and was presented with the disk format options. Saw too many devices and no decent options for keeping Windows in dual boot so quit and did a backup of my data so that I could just use the whole disk w/o dual boot. Second and successive installation attempts, using various options, never got as far as the disk selection screen. Always just a rotating cursor. F’n pissed me off, really, I have better things to do with my time. Restarted Windows and now going to try a Cinnamon Mint.

  5. I’m surprised by not seeing Elementary OS (Ubuntu based) in the list. I’ve been using that for probably 3-4 years now and it’s been really good.

  6. Mint 19 is slow as a 3 legged dog. Mint 17 took 20 seconds to boot to login screen, Mint 19 takes 1:10minutes. Starting up firefox went from 3 seconds to 8 seconds. Timeshift, systemD and Flatpak integration may have caused the bloat in Mint 17, dunno, but I am giving up after 4 years of Mint and going to another distro. Best of luck to the Mint team.

  7. Running Linux Mint Cinnamon 19.2 on an eight year old Dell Latitude E4310 with 4 GB / 120 GB SSD. Runs like a dream, faster than Windows. Took a while to set up with docking station and internal / external monitor/TV, but now it’s “Mint”. 😉

  8. But do they hibernate? I used to have Mint (18, I think) with Mate and it was fine but I thought I should upgrade. Clean hard drive, fresh install of Mint 19.1 Mate, and everything is nice EXCEPT I can’t hibernate! It’s a laptop, surely hibernate is a requirement! I have to shut it down to get on the bus or whatever, it might be a while (days in some cases, depending on what I’m at) before I come back to it. Not good if the battery dies.

  9. Mate 18.04.2 horrible destop icons that do not shrink correct
    using xubuntu right size desktop icons
    low resource

  10. KDE Plasma has become a lean, mean desktop environment. OpenSUSE Argon and KDE Neon are some good choices.

    Totally agree with Deepin 15x. I use it also and really like it a lot. It has been very stable and ever since 15.6 has become much less resource intensive.

    Another distribution that works well on laptops is Ubuntu Budgie. It’s fast and polished. Ubuntu has done a fantastic job with their implementation of the Budgie desktop. I like it more than Solus.

  11. Linux Mint Cinnamon surely does NOT deserve rank 2!!

    Its default install hides away any scrollbars (as if they were taking up too much space on a 4K screen), so you have always to push your mouse around to have a clue how much content there is. Standard UI actions are too used to be used by Mint. Click in the scrollbar, and you get hundred pages down, not pagewise scrolling like it is used to be !! (Hey we’re sooooo cool, we do it our way !)
    Cinnamon is really full of memory leaks. After 2~3 hours, if have to restart cinnamon, otherwise I have a stall of up to 15 secs, then max.5 secs, untill the next stall stops me from being “productive”.

    Not really convincing. My 30 year old Ultra-80 is running now with an uptime of 8 years, with no such hassle, and I am logged in all the 8 years…. (And thats on sub-GHz !! and just 4GB RAM !!!)

    • Your comments are great, but as someone looking to figure out what I should install on this POS, you offer nothing as to the answer we most are here for, what is the best distro for a laptop??? BTW you still running Solaris 2.5.1 on that Ultra-80? 🙂

      What distro would you suggest for a laptop and why as i am truly interested?

  12. Guys, if we discus a choise for a common laptop (not high-end hardware stuff), then the ulimate way, I’d say, is ubuntu-based X-DE (Mint xfce, Lite, Xubuntu). Especially, for Asus Eee and X-models. All the other DEs described$oferred above in the article might be rather heavy for a laptop. Even Ubuntu Mate the latest LTS, not to mention Deepin, Mint Cinnamon or Zorin.

  13. You can choose what you like. I configured once this 130e. I installed also an SSD on this machine. Works well. The only thing was the power consumption. But thats was a common issue on this machine. So when you use an SSD and and ligthweight OS 32 bits, the system has less to do ….. Don’t forget the new KDE plasma 5.13 to try!

  14. Which one of these distros recommended for AMD based machines? Please guide. I have Lenovo X130e AMD E450 CPU.

    • Thanks for the comment. You can try Linux Mint Cinnamon and Ubuntu Mate. Both are very good and compatible for Laptop machine.

    • I have a Think pad T460 a me it struggled to run Cinnamon. I ended up installing eithee MATE or Xfce. I can’t recall which.

  15. I’ve been using Lubuntu w/XFCE interface on my Asus Eee for the past few months. Lxce has some severe limitations, but when I checked the memory of XFCE vs LXCE there was only a slight difference and the impact was also gentle.

    On my Asus Eee you need as many resources as possible so I’ve finally found the balance between performance and usability. (I tried DSL, and Puppy, and they too was far too limited.)

  16. I’ve been using Mate for the past 6 months with great joy. In my office machine, with an i3 processor and a 1TB HDD, It works smoothly and so in my Core 2 Duo personal laptop.
    And I’ve installed it in two other family members laptops.

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