This lightweight Linux distribution is the best way to revive your old computer. Here’s how to do it

ZDNET Key Points

• Linux Lite 7.0 can be downloaded and installed for free from the official website.
• This lightweight Linux distribution has everything you need and is extremely efficient.
• The default wallpaper looks a bit plain but is quite easy to customize.

Recently, a friend of mine wanted to revive an old laptop. Her old Intel MacBook was no longer supported by Apple, and rather than let it sit in a landfill somewhere, she decided to install Linux, an operating system she had never used before.

She started her journey with Linux Mintthis is always a good place to start. Unfortunately the installation process failed for her (mostly due to the slow nature of the machine), so she reached out.

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With her hardware, there is only one reasonable suggestion that can be made — Linux Lightweight. This setup went fine for her, except that the keyboard layout that was automatically selected was incorrect. Luckily, that’s an easy fix.

After this experience, I realized that I hadn’t looked into Linux Lite in a while, and it was time to fix that. So I downloaded the ISO, fired up a virtual machine, and in less than five minutes I was logged into the desktop.

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Whenever I look at a lightweight Linux distribution, I know what I’m getting into. They tend to be pretty generic, lacking in flash and glamour. They get the job done and nothing more.

That’s why Linux Lite strikes me as unique in its “genre”. No, it doesn’t offer a lot of effects or beautification. It’s a very stripped-down (albeit customized) version of the Xfce desktop, meaning you can always customize it further to suit your needs. It took me just two minutes to configure the desktop the way I like it to look (with a dock-like panel, no desktop icons, and a lighter theme).

I can even configure the Whisker Menu (the desktop menu) to better suit my preferences.

As is often the case with lightweight Linux distributions, Linux Lite performs as well as any desktop operating system I’ve tried. It’s fast. I gave the virtual machine I’m using 3GB of RAM and two CPU cores, and the distro ran as if it had four times the power. Anyone with a machine that doesn’t have the resources to run the latest version of Windows can use this distro, especially if speed is your thing.

Out of the box, Linux Lite comes with Chrome, LibreOffice (including Base, for creating databases), GIMP, Photo Manager, Deja Dup Backups, VLC media player, USB image recorder, on-screen keyboard, Timeshift (for restore points), and more. In other words, Linux Lite is not light on applications. You can install this distro and get on with your work without having to install much else. If you need to install anything else, use the Synaptic Package Manager.

One thing I find lacking in Linux Lite is a general package manager, like Snap or Flatpak. No problem. From within Synaptic, I can quickly find and install both.

Of course, performance is at the heart of any lightweight Linux distribution, and Linux Lite exceeded my expectations. Applications open instantly; in fact, I’ve never seen Chrome open so quickly.

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If my friend, who has never touched Linux in his life, can easily install and run Linux Lite, then you probably can too. As I tell people… if you can install Windows apps, you can install modern Linux. It really is that simple, and Linux Lite proves that theory.

This lightweight Linux distribution is ideal for anyone new to open source operating systems or needing to restore an old machine.