Greetings everyone, I am looking forward to install Debian on my old laptop with these specs:
2GB of RAM, 250GB of HDD and a core 2 duo CPU.
I'm looking for a Version that is relatively fast, and also relatively new.

Your reply would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.

Is the laptop 32 bit or 64 bit?

Intel Core 2 is a 64 bit CPU that dates back to 2006.

MX linux would be my first choice although you could try running debian 11.

Debian 11. See https://www.debian.org/releases/bull...h02s05.en.html

Probably best to avoid Gnome or KDE though.

I also recommend Debian 11. The machine's speed limitation will probably be the speed of the hard drive. So if the speed is too slow you could try upgrading the drive to a SSD.

These days, you'll be better off giving the system 2GB swap, as most web browser are rather heavy users of ram, but if speed is of no consequence, just install a distro with XFCE, or preferably just a Window Manager.

Most of the lighter distros will work on it OK.

I use Devuan on just about everything these days, a systemd less version of Debian.

Easiest to install from a live version of the distro of your choice.

thank you all for your great comments. based on your opinions I've decided to install Debian 10's XFCE edition. You see I really wanted a Debian, despite how good or light the mentioned alternative distributions were. again thank you for your time.

+1 MX Linux. It runs Fluxbox, which is about 2-300mb RAM than Xfce and others. The downside is that Fluxbox isn't as popular as other desktops, so help might be limited.

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debian is slow due to systemd.

Go devuan with pae 686: https://mirror.leaseweb.com/devuan/d...sktop-live.iso

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Every Core 2 Duo has EM64T, so it is capable of running amd64 OS.
Be aware that there are also mobile CPU called Core Solo and Core Duo (without 2), these are not 64 bit capable.
If you have a 64 bit capable CPU, use Debian 11 amd64.

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FUD much?

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Not really no. I have been using Debian since Debian 3.1 and don't see any performance issues post the move to systemd. There are multiple reasons why you would want to avoid systemd but a massive performance impact is not one of them. There could be a slight impact but I don't remember seeing any reports about this recently and a quick search only returns results over 1-2 years old where people complained about it.

If this was still the case, a lot more people would be complaining about it still and the non-systemd crowd would have been shouting it at the top of their lungs as a reason to avoid systemd.

Personally I think systemd is a bad idea but still...

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With only 2GB, I'd think its worth saving every megabyte. I'd go LXDE.

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I recommend a RAM upgrade. Even another 2G would allow them to browse the web for a while before swapping. 8G or better would be cake.

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On my Thinkpad X40 1.5 GiB RAM, Pentium M 1.6 GHz I use mwm (Motif Window Manager). It just needs a few megabytes.

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