> Does anyone care to suggest an ubuntu-like distribution for someone like me who wants their OS light?

What about Debian? You staying on 14.04 for so long surely means that the slightly slower moving Debian stable is not an issue for you. It supports lots of window managers. I'm using i3 with a simple xinitrc here, but also XFCE or LXDE are available.

You can install it very very lightweight and as Ubuntu bases of Debian it should be similar enough.

If you don't mind me asking a follow up:

How behind Ubuntu is Debian, and where can I read this information myself (i.e. is there an official list by either the Debian or the Ubuntu people that says "here's all the stuff that the latest stable Debian is missing from the latest stable Ubuntu"?)

It is not behind all the time: it just follows a different (and more flexible) schedule. [1]

For instance, the current debian stable release entered freeze on 2019-01-12 and was finally released on 2019-07-06. [2]. This means that most software in stable is currently at the latest versions as of the end of 2018. Hence, up until the release announced today, debian stable had more recent (by around 1 year) software than Ubuntu LTS (18.04).

Now and until the next debian stable release (which should happen around summer next year) Ubuntu LTS (20.04) will have newer software than debian stable.

There are a few software packages that do have newer versions in Ubuntu because they are developed by canonical themselves. I can only remember LXC/LXD as examples of these.

I personally run Debian on my personal Desktop, and have no complaints about it at all.

[1] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases

[2] https://release.debian.org/buster/freeze_policy.html

how well do ppa's work on Debian?

I don't like my system constantly updating (and occasionally breaking) - esp secretly behind my back like snap/flatpak

but occasionally I do need the latest version of some package and i don't want to manage manually installations tucked away in some folder with random bashrc tweaks

There is no official support for PPAs on Debian. You can configure a Debian system to use them, but you'll be installing packages built on and for Ubuntu, so you'll be risking breakage unless the package maintainer has already taken the extra time to test for problems on Debian (which is rare).

This feature request shows some community interest in Debian support, but as far as I know, it hasn't gone anywhere yet. https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad/+bug/188564

I wish Debian offered its own equivalent of PPAs.

Damn. That's a real shame. I really like Debian otherwise. It's still minimal to the point where you can understand all the pieces. I used it for years, but then 5 years ago I moved off of it just because it's so easy to get software from PPAs and b/c every instruction is Ubuntu by default. Over those 5 years being a little flexible has ended up saving tons and tons of hour. Even just the other day I wanted to install OpenJDK 14 and ended up having to do it manually. Maintaining that in some directory and having my own update-alternatives entries.. it just feels really yucky at this point

In my experience, most software offering PPAs also offers debian repositories that get setup in your /etc/sources.d/ (usually the install instructions are just to run "curl https://somesoftware/installer.sh | bash", which you should doble-check of course). Thereafter your regular apt-get update && apt-get upgrade updates that software too.

It is really not an issue in my experience. I currently have the following software installed (and updated) this way: docker, virtualbox, nodejs, yarn, skype, vscode, teamviewer and sublime text.

I've enjoyed Xubuntu 18.04 for the light-ness. I pull the taskbar down to the bottom of the screen, swap out the "Whisker menu" for the more classical "Applications Menu" and I'm happy.

It has been pointed out to me that this produces effectively a reskinned Windows98 experience, I'm not unhappy about that.

NB: Have not tried any 20.04 versions yet.

I use a 12-year old Dell laptop (upgraded to 4GB RAM) as my main computer and I’ve been using Lubuntu for the past 6 years for the same reasons you describe. I was also a little disappointed that the focus of the project is no longer to produce a light-weight and efficient desktop – though I don’t object to their new goal.

I’ve been running Lubuntu 16.04 for the past three years but I recently thought I’d update my system. The options I boiled down to were either Debian (the parent and grandparent of so many distributions) or one of the successors to CrunchBang Linux (a light-weight distribution based around the Openbox window manager), BunsenLabs [1] or CrunchBang++ [2].

In the end, I decided that since it was only a few days to wait, I’d try the new LTS version of Lubuntu †. Apparently, its LXQt desktop is just as light as LXDE so I figured it’s worth trying out.

[1] https://www.bunsenlabs.org/

[2] https://crunchbangplusplus.org/

† Not available just yet according to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes#Official_fla...

Update: I see the Lubuntu 20.04 LTS has been released [1] since I posted earlier today. :) Kudos to the maintainers!

I forgot to mention in my post above that I had purchased an SSD a while ago and this is what prompted me to consider the available options for updating/changing the OS.

[1] https://lubuntu.me/focal-released/

Just take Ubuntu Server and throw a light window manager on top. Ubuntu Server is pretty lightweight as is and there are still some very nice lightweight window managers out there.

Something like WM2 is ultra low [1], but watch out if you're running a laptop as you won't get battery monitoring!

[1] http://www.xwinman.org/

That web site is horribly out of date, and thus, their "activity rating" of projects is hilariously wrong. I was very happy to see that it claimed that my old pal fluxbox is highly active, but the last three news items on the fluxbox site are from 2015, 2008, and 2006, respectively.

But I fully agree with your general sentiment that the best way to use Ubuntu is to go with the Server install and then adding only what you actually want on top of it. I've never had anything but a good and responsive system with that approach.

> I was very happy to see that it claimed that my old pal

> fluxbox is highly active, but the last three news items on

> the fluxbox site are from 2015, 2008, and 2006,

> respectively.

Many of these projects are quite old, but still compile fine and are usable. WM2 for example still runs perfectly fine on top of X11.

> I've never had anything but a good and responsive system

> with that approach.

Fast and gives you an appreciation for what is needed for a functioning desktop.

If you're just looking for a DE/WM that's light on resources, I can definitely recommend tiling window managers like i3 [1].

I'm not sure what other changes would be in your sightlines given that you were happy with Ubuntu, but I usually go to the Arch wiki in those times to see what fat I can trim off of my setup.

[1] https://i3wm.org/

Regolith [1] is the perfect i3+Ubuntu combo for me.

It comes with sensible default for a good i3 experience but you keep the Ubuntu "universality".

[1]: https://regolith-linux.org/

I cannot recommend this enough for those looking to dip their toes in tiling managers. I would have saved a lot of time and trouble if I'd gone to Regolith directly, which I only did after spending hours trying to get i3wm into a useful (for me) DE, and realizing that Regolith was what I'd been trying to do all along.

The good stuff from Ubuntu-gnome (easy-to-use common settings GUIs, utilities etc), + the good stuff from i3, well put together and simple to customize, i3-gaps by default, and easy to install.

It also led me to discover i3blocks/i3xrocks which I didn't know I needed.

here's an example of a i3xrocks script for bluetooth status in the tray.

    #!/bin/bash

    # how hard is it to find a bluetooth symbol in common fonts...
    # more icons at https://fontawesome.com/cheatsheet?from=io
    LABEL_ICON= #ᛒ # '' # #  # ᛒ
    LABEL_FONT="Material Design Icons"
    LABEL_COLOR=${label_color:-$(xrescat i3xrocks.label.color "#7B8394")}
    VALUE_COLOR=${color:-$(xrescat i3xrocks.value.color)}
    VALUE_FONT=${font:-$(xrescat i3xrocks.value.font)}

    PANGO_START="<span color=\"${LABEL_COLOR}\" font_desc=\"${LABEL_FONT}\">${LABEL_ICON}</span><span color=\"${VALUE_COLOR}\" font_desc=\"${VALUE_FONT}\">"
    PANGO_END="</span>"

    NCONNECTED=$(expr $(hcitool con | wc -l) - 1)
    echo ${PANGO_START}${NCONNECTED}${PANGO_END}

    if [ ! -z "$button" ]; then
        /usr/bin/i3-msg -q exec /usr/bin/gnome-control-center bluetooth
    fi

Long-time i3 user here, just getting ready to try Regolith when I upgrade to 20.04. Interested to see what I get from it, and what I need to override back to my current setup.

Any pointers for an i3 user moving to Regolith?

I enjoyed reading i3's landing page, thanks for linking.

So could you clarify for me, what's the relation between being a "tiling windows manager" and being light? Is it that for some technical reason one would expect tiling windows managers in general to be lighter than non-tiling? Or is it that orthogonally to the tiling aspect, i3 specifically aims to be light?

I don't think that there's anything inherent in tiling managers that mean they have to be light, but it's very common for them to be light. Ratpoison, xmonad, awesomewm and i3 are the most well known tiling managers (unless I've missed any out?) and all of them are very minimalist and resource light.

My non-expert take on this is that the sort of person who sees value in the efficiencies from using a tiling WM are also of a kind to use system resources efficiently too, even though they are orthogonal characteristics.

DWM, too.

It's a cultural thing. Most developers of tilling WM's seem to prefer less resource-heavy setups.

I have been using Openbox exclusively since about 2005. on both laptops and desktops. It is highly customizable, super light and floating window manager. Using wmctrl wrappers around launcher keystrokes or window management keystokes I can achieve the tiling functionality that I want without committing to tiling only workflow:

* space splitting for launcher * some sticky displays in multi-display desktops

Support for i3. Just don't give up even if it feels a bit awkward to use it the first day(s).

There is also https://swaywm.org/ if someone thinks they should run wayland.

Definitely check out MX (their 19 image even fits onto a 2GB USB) - I have a crappy old netbook with only 2GB of RAM and it's surprisingly useable

Other options worth looking at - Peppermint is okay (although their focus on web apps is a little odd), or LTS Ubuntu MATE using the minimal install option

Bodhi, Peppermint and LXLE are all based on Ubuntu but use either LXDE, LXDE with elements of XFCE or (in Bodhi's case) the Moksha desktop, which is a fork of Enlightenment 17 - it's smaller and faster than LXDE.

Otherwise, go with a Debian or Devuan based distro like antiX, MX Linux, Q4OS Trinity, Refracta or EXE Linux.

I've read all the responses to this thread, and I still think MX-Linux is the distro you're looking for: https://mxlinux.org/current-release-features/

You're going to be delighted.

I'm using Lubuntu 18.04 as a desktop OS without any problem whatsoever, works like a charm.

Since I know nothing about your machine, that response doesn't really tell me anything. My laptop has 2 cores and 5GB ram.

But bigger picture my point was: Lubuntu's focus has changed, so it's not for me any more.

18.04 is the last release that comes with LXDE, wikipedia even lists the requirements

System requirements for Lubuntu 18.04 LTS included a minimum of 1 GB of RAM, although 2 GB was recommended for better performance, plus a Pentium 4, Pentium M, or AMD K8 CPU or newer.[139] The RAM requirements increased from Lubuntu 17.10.

I was very impressed with Linux Lite. The name is terrible, but the distro has worked great. It uses the Ubuntu 18.04 standard apt repos. Since I replaced the kernel, my presumption is most of the benefit is just selecting a smaller subset of default packages to install.

https://www.linuxliteos.com/

Installation on a machine with 2Gb RAM resulted in a system that works just fine, for running scripts, compiling medium-sized projects, running web browsers, media playback, etc -- all on a credit-card sized machine.

The desktop is based on XFCE. The post-installation steps I took are listed below.

    # emable swap to compressed RAM
    sudo apt-get install zram-config
    
    # log to RAM for speed, less wear on eMMC
    echo "deb http://packages.azlux.fr/debian/ buster main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/azlux.list
    wget -qO - https://azlux.fr/repo.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
    apt update
    apt install log2ram
    
    # remove icon generator that hogs machine
    sudo apt remove --purge tumbler
    
    # remove powerline garbage
    sudo apt remove --purge powerline
    
    
    # Liquorix kernel, see https://liquorix.net/
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:damentz/liquorix && sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install linux-image-liquorix-amd64 linux-headers-liquorix-amd64
    ## NEEDS linux-firmware from focal distro
    ## see https://packages.ubuntu.com/focal/all/linux-firmware/download 
    ## for latest link
    wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.187_all.deb
    sudo dpkg -i  linux-firmware_1.187_all.deb
    rm linux-firmware_1.187_all.deb
    
    sudo apt install powertop iotop
    
    # fix font rendering
    cat <<'EOF' > ~/.fonts.conf
    <!-- disable embedded bitmaps in fonts to fix Calibri, Cambria, etc. -->
    <match target="font">
       <edit mode="assign" name="embeddedbitmap"><bool>false</bool></edit>
    </match>
    EOF
    
    
    # remove spectre mitigations, make computer fast again
    sudo perl -pi.bk -e 's|splash"|splash mitigations=off"|' /etc/default/grub
    sudo update-grub
    
    # disable and completely remove AppArmor and snapd
    # https://www.simplified.guide/ubuntu/remove-apparmor
    sudo systemctl stop apparmor
    sudo systemctl disable apparmor
    sudo apt remove --purge apparmor snapd
    
    
    # suppress this language related updates from apt-get
    echo 'Acquire::Languages "none";' | sudo  tee -a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00aptitude
    
    # remove irqbalance 
    # see https://github.com/konkor/cpufreq/issues/48
    sudo apt remove --purge irqbalance