Hello all!

Using a Raspberry Pi 4B (see specs below), I would like to run an automated Python script every 24 hours at night, which takes about 2 to 3 hours and eats about 120 MB of RAM. The Raspberry Pi will have an internet connection (via WiFi or via cable connection, I don't know this yet). The Raspberry Pi OS (formlery Raspbian) is an option, but I'm thinking there might be a more lightweight alternative.
The Raspberry Pi will be turned on 24/7. I am planning to buy a case with a cooling system for this purpose.
I worked with CentOS for a while, so I have basic Linux knowledge, but nothing spectacular.
So in summary, I'm looking for a distribution, which:
- is able to run Python 3.8
- is stable and trustworthy
- is as lightweight as possible
- doesn't track user data in any way
- is free (at least that would be nice, but it's not that important)

Raspberry Pi specs:
processor: Broadcom BCM2711; 64 bit Quad Core ARM v8 Cortex-A72 @ 1.5 GHz
RAM: 2 GB LPDDR4
operating temperature: 0 - 50 °C

Thank you in advance for your help!~

Hi, welcome here, at LQ

I would try raspbian, or raspbian lite if you do not need desktop at all. But it is more or less irrelevant, every [working] distro should be ok.
Do not need to use a cooling system, although you can do that if you wish. I would try something like this: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/a...29430673178707 (but there are others) https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articl...ted-and-ranked

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RaspberryOS is tailored to the RPi4, so likely to be the most stable, size on disk probably doesn't matter, is Debian based, which has been ultra reliable in my experience, (though not so with systemd, but that is a personal preference).

(If you don't need a GUI, use the text version.)

I've tried a couple of other distros on my RPi, but return to RaspberryOS each time.

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Thank you so much for your answers @pan64 and @fatmac!
And thanks for commenting on the cooling system topic

Welcome to LQ.

Like the previous suggestions I would recommend Raspberry Pi os lite i.e. no GUI. However there few other possibilities...

https://elinux.org/RPi_Distributions

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