Lightweight linux distro for MBA 2015?

[Beachguy]

Payload, I use Linux on a couple of RPis (Lubuntu or Xubuntu) I have and also a few older laptops. XFCE and LXDE are lightweight windows managers that add some speed you'll miss with KDE. I've found on my underpowered machines, they can work quite nicely with Linux.

But life with Linux is kind of the wild west. You may get into some situations where the only way out is confusing and arcane. But there is also a large base of users who will gladly help you out, just as with Mac and Windows. Personally, I'd say ignore those who tell you how they hate it because of a 20 year old experience (based on that, I don't like my 4 Macs or my older PCs with Windows either.) Ignore those who tell you it will slice your bread and make dinner and all the while it is also saving humanity. Pay attention to those in the middle.

I would also STRONGLY recommend doing your testing in Virtualbox VMs until you find what you like, IF you find what you like. You can find a bunch of pre-built and safe VMs from http://www.osboxes.org that you can test out without having to install them. Just download and play. Initially, rather than deciding between distros, check out the different desktops first. XFCE, KDE, Gnome, LXDE, etc. and then decide about the underlying distro. Believe it or not, there ARE significant differences between distros, and between windows managers.

I used to hate Linux, but now I love it. It's fun to tinker with and cheap to use- especially if you recycle your hardware. I tend to prefer the Debian based distros, but the Red Hat ones are just as good if that is what you are used to. The great thing about it is you can play all you want and invest nothing from your wallet.

 

[Osty]

Second, I have to use linux because I host my blog in DigitalOcean. All VM they have are all Linux, but still... I use terminal in Mac to ssh over there

Same here but I don't often have too tunnel into it - mostly just to do apt-get upgrades.

My blog is powered by a static site generator. The content is stored in Dropbox -- the build scripts run on my mac mini server and are scheduled via a cronjob and bash script. It builds and copies the files up to DO via rync
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Payload, I use Linux on a couple of RPis (Lubuntu or Xubuntu) I have and also a few older laptops. XFCE and LXDE are lightweight windows managers that add some speed you'll miss with KDE. I've found on my underpowered machines, they can work quite nicely with Linux.

But life with Linux is kind of the wild west. You may get into some situations where the only way out is confusing and arcane. But there is also a large base of users who will gladly help you out, just as with Mac and Windows. Personally, I'd say ignore those who tell you how they hate it because of a 20 year old experience (based on that, I don't like my 4 Macs or my older PCs with Windows either.) Ignore those who tell you it will slice your bread and make dinner and all the while it is also saving humanity. Pay attention to those in the middle.

I would also STRONGLY recommend doing your testing in Virtualbox VMs until you find what you like, IF you find what you like. You can find a bunch of pre-built and safe VMs from http://www.osboxes.org that you can test out without having to install them. Just download and play. Initially, rather than deciding between distros, check out the different desktops first. XFCE, KDE, Gnome, LXDE, etc. and then decide about the underlying distro. Believe it or not, there ARE significant differences between distros, and between windows managers.

I used to hate Linux, but now I love it. It's fun to tinker with and cheap to use- especially if you recycle your hardware. I tend to prefer the Debian based distros, but the Red Hat ones are just as good if that is what you are used to. The great thing about it is you can play all you want and invest nothing from your wallet.

Agree. It's great for tinkering with, reviving old hardware and I too love mucking around with raspberry pis. I approach Linux these days when I have something specific in mind: a server, embedded project etc. The Mac though will continue to be my daily, general purpose driver

 

[Beachguy]

Agree. It's great for tinkering with, reviving old hardware and I too love mucking around with raspberry pis. I approach Linux these days when I have something specific in mind: a server, embedded project etc. The Mac though will continue to be my daily, general purpose driver

A couple of great examples- I have a couple of old Asus netbooks. Completely unusable under Windows, yet when I install a modern Linux (not the crap they came with) both are very usable. The same with several old laptops I have with Pentium 4s or older Core 2 Duos.

As to Mac- I am completely with you on that.

 

[Osty]

A couple of great examples- I have a couple of old Asus netbooks.

Same. I've got a Atom-powered Samsung netbook from 2010 that's still chugging away nicely with Ubuntu Mate. My kids use it to learn to type.

 

[Stingray454]

Found this thread while browsing the forums, I know it's a bit old but just wanted to chip in. Or, rather, agree. I have a lot of the same views as other people in this thread.

After about 2 weeks of really trying Linux (mostly Mint in my case), I'm still a bit split. Desktop Linux has come a long way, but is still lacking in some areas. After battling some driver issues, spending time finding themes / icon sets / docks and whatnot that I like I felt really happy with the environment I put together. It worked well for both work and private usage, but there are always minor issues to fiddle with (some of mine: sound doesn't work after suspend until I powercycle my monitor, no unread badges on my commonly used app icons, can't get my keyboard remapping to stick through suspends, worse sound quality, needed to reset my sound drivers to get a working mic and so on. Screen resolution issues when unplugging / replugging TB monitor).

On the bright side, I love the customization of linux. Most apps I use are available, and the ones I'm missing usually works great through Wine. Feels snappier than OS X and could definitely work as a daily driver.

I do feel "hey this is cool, I could 100% go for this". But then there is something I need my mac for (some specific file I have there, get a Sketch file sent to me that I don't have a good app for on linux, or whatever it might be) and when booting the Mac I feel like "hey, this is incredibly similar to Linux, except that there is zero maintenance.."

So while I like tinkering, I feel that linux is a slightly worse option. It's fun to play with, and really satisfying to learn and make stuff work, but in the long run you just have to spend time on maintaining the system - the very reason I left Windows all those years ago. So, for now, I'm staying with OS X.

BUT, I do feel that it was worth the time spent. OS X is not getting a ton of attention from Apple, and the changes they do add aren't often that great. That combined with the slow updates and price of their computer lineup does weigh in. You can get a better looking, faster and more well equipped computer that works 95% as OS X for like $1k less. It's still tempting, but for now I will just see linux as "a way out" if apple don't shape up.

<end of rant>