Need a light-weight distro for laptop only used as a word processor.
 

I compose on a Dell laptop model #Latitude D505. I have Xubuntu 12.04 (it won't upgrade) on it. Here are the Dell's specs:

And it has 20 GB free space. I guess on paper it should run the Xubuntu easily but it is deadly slow. Most of the things I do in the terminal don't complete (I tried to install Dropbox--no luck.). Sometimes I can't even open the Ubuntu Software Center, let alone install stuff from there.

I have LibreOffice 4.2 something on there and that is all I need. Like I was saying Dropbox would be nice though.

So I stared checking out lighter distros. (I was told Xubuntu was one of the lightest--btw I have two desktops with Xubuntu on them as well--distros out there but was shocked when I started investigating.) (see screenshot)

So as long as I can install a relatively recent version of LibreOffice (and like I said Dropbox would be nice) I will be happy.

To reiterate: I'm just using the laptop as a word processor. Yes, I would have to be online (and can be) to use Dropbox but Dropbox is not essential.

Btw. The libreoffice on there now works well (once it gets going) as a word proccesor, but with all those distros that are so much smaller I was thinking that I could even improve on the word processor's speed.

Thanks.

I'd probably do a netinstall of Debian and install a lightweight window manager like Openbox/fluxbox/etc instead of a full desktop (although something like Cinnamon desktop might be light enough to run accpetably). I suggest Debian solely because it's my personal favorite distro, Any distro that can be customized to be lightweight and supports older 32-bit only cpu's would work though. I'm sure Slackware would work wonderfully if you didn't mind customizing it, or LegacyOS is good for older hardware.

Gregg Bell,

On the strength of this review, I would try Zorin OS 9 Lite:

http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.co.uk...best-lxde.html

Details for adding LibreOffice, Dropbox and other software are included in the review.

Quote from Linuxed reviewer Arindam Sen.

Available from:
http://zorin-os.com/free.html

I second debian net install with a super light wm. Even Xfce4 might run fine. Essentially you can run any distro; all you need is a light weight window manager.

Try Fedora XFCE or LXDE

Since you are used to ubuntu, Lubuntu would be worth a try since it (LXDE) is a little more lightweight than XFCE. Also, they have their own version of the ubuntu software center which is definitely more lightweight than the usual one.

Bodhie Linux is also good candidate.

Member response
 

Hi,

Look through this sticky; Newbie alert: 50 Open Source Replacements for Windows XP
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

the real problem is that libreoffice is not lightweight at all.
and i don't see any alternative except maybe abiword...
but check this out.

Hi all....

I would agree, except for that I've seen Lubuntu eat up almost an entire gig pretty quick depending on the software being used. I would recommend an even lighter distribution, if at all possible. :)

Regards...

Thanks ondoho. But the LO isn't slow. It's the laptop. It's the Xubuntu on it.

Thanks but like what? I'd kind of like to stay Ubuntu. And all I need is LibreOffice Writer. (I don't need the whole suite.)

Not sure why you won't try TinyCore Linux and just add what you want. You have the specs to handle it

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/install.html

http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/downloads.html

or run with one of the BBQ Linux options (Debian Based)

http://bbqlinux.org/

Edit: I also used a Ubuntu minimal Iso (50MB) and installed Icewm and whatever else I wanted and it fit the bill just fine.

Try Mint with MATE, that should be quick and easy to install and test. If you want even more lightweight, you'll have to build up from a lower level distro.

Thanks. I installed this but as I try to use it it just seems so complicated. Cloud based. Applications reappear with every reboot. Don't know how to mount or unmount flash drive. Don't know where files are stored.

For a more technically skilled person I'm sure this is great. The concept is brilliant. Unfortunately, I think I need something a little more conventional (and with a shorter learning curve).

Puppy Linux is good too - (Slacko)based on Slackware and able to use all of its packages.
Puppy Forum

There are all kinds of Puppy Linux versions Slacko is the one based on Slackware but there are debian ones if you want, and even embedded ones.

Mine is Puppy Slacko 5.7 and it boots in about 45 seconds to the desktop and has abiword as standard along with many useful bits of software. You can easily run it from a memory stick as it has a 'frugal install' which keeps personal stuff in a .sfs savefile. So, in effect everyone in the family can have a separate savefile if a computer is used by more than one person and that person can take their savefile away on a memory stick so no-one else can corrupt/add to it. If you want a full traditional install, thats available too.

It is a single user(root) system with 4 screens on the desktop. Size roughly 170Mb but that varies depending on type of Puppy. Designed to run with old hardware and little memory.