Linux Lite 5.1 experience on an older laptop

[Jason]

Since my main workstation is on the fritz, I've been utilizing Linux Lite 5.1. I've been quite impressed with its performance and how comfortable, even fun, it is to use. I'd like to share my observations.


The Specs

Toshiba Ultralite Laptop
Intel Core i3-2367 CPU @ 1.40 GHz (dual-core with hyper-threading)
4 GB RAM
Intel 3000 graphics chipset
Toshiba mSATA 128 GB drive (no idea of speed)
13" LCD screen @ 1368 x 768 max resolution
HDMI, VGA video outputs
2 2.0 USB ports, 1 3.0 port
SD card slot
802.11n wireless
Ethernet

Note that I don't like the keyboard or touchpad on this laptop. The LCD screen is okay but I'm still used to a higher resolution. So I used a wireless keyboard and mouse and used HDMI to a Samsung 24" monitor at 1920 x 1080 resolution. However, I later downgraded this resolution for better performance.

As you can see above, it's a well-used laptop with low specs. It has expectedly low performance even with CPU throttling turned off. Admittedly, I was spoiled with the now limping main computer which is an i5 quad-core @ 3.2 GHz with 12 GB RAM and a budget video card. But it works, and it's not as bad as I expected.


My Kingdom for a Distro

I began with Kubuntu 20.04 that comes with the Plasma Desktop Environment. It's what I was using before. Too awful. Looks great but takes 5-10 seconds or longer to load anything other than a text editor or the file manager. Changing video sizes on YouTube takes a couple of seconds going from regular size to full screen although it wasn't laggy except when you switched. Unworkable from my perspective. Played Netflix fine, though.

So my quest turned toward lighter distros.

I started out with Bodhi Linux because it required little RAM or processor speed. The website insisted it could run under a 1 GHz single-core processor with 512 GB RAM. A comparatively speedy 1.5 GHz dual-core processor with 2 GB RAM was recommended. As expected, it ran admirably but its look was hideous and the UI was awkward to use. It uses the Xfce desktop environment but with thinner apps. The programs included also didn't have a uniform look. It's more customizable in appearance than Plasma, which is saying a lot, with more configuration settings than any distro I've ever seen. Accordingly, you could presumably make it look lovely but I didn't want to spend the time. In the end, it was just too dissimilar from anything I've used. So I abandoned it.

Linux Lite was a frequent suggestion in articles so I decided to try it next. The installer was identical with Ubuntu thus making it effortless to set up. I configured the partitioning to use the entire drive without any separate swap or home partitions. Linux Lite, not unexpected for its name, has low hardware requirements. Their preferred requirements included a 1.5 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM and a display capable of 1366x768 resolution.


Curb Appeal

After I started up, I was greeted by a beautiful Xfce desktop. Generally, I dislike the Xfce but the Linux Lite team has made it look great. On the desktop, the default wallpaper was agreeable, if plain and the default theme was pleasant on the eyes, not like Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Maybe a dozen other wallpapers are available, many of which are just alternate resolutions of the default wallpaper but most of them are relaxing nature pictures along with an attractive cityscape. The textual appearance was excellent. The font choice along with the aliasing made it a joy to the eyes. The fonts only looked worse when I used a web browser, in this case, Vivaldi or Firefox.

When you first log into Linux Lite, you are greeted with a snazzy Lite Welcome box that tells you about the distribution and steps you through some common tasks to do right away. You can install updates, install drivers, set a restore point, install language support and choose a light or dark theme (light is the default). It also has buttons that will take you to support documents and online support sites as well as their hardware database. You can also click boxes to contribute code, go to social media or provide feedback. There are also icons that will take you to common social media sites and Youtube. This welcome box will come up with every log in unless you remove a tick from a box. You can come back to this screen anytime in the Settings area.

Linux Lite has the usual menu setup with a bar filling the bottom, a pop-up vertical menu with groupings of alike programs on the left and individual programs on the right. It has shutdown and logout buttons on the bottom of this popup menu along with a search box. One smart touch is a My Computer grouping on the menu which links directly to the sub-directories in /home such as Documents, Pictures, Downloads and Videos.


The lowdown on the Programs

It comes with all the software you'd expect so you can look at pictures, videos, play music, browse the web and produce documents using LibreOffice, 6.4.6.2, which is recent. Gimp is surprisingly installed as well as a Windows Paint-like program called gnome-paint. You can see my fantastic abstract art below. Lite comes with Timeshift for making snapshots of your OS state, a clever option and encouraged at first log-in. You lads will jump with glee when you see that it comes with Synaptic, too.

The creme-de-la-creme of Linux Lite is its own add-ons in Settings which, while simple, provide direct access to common functions. They include Lite Software, to install a best-of-the-best list of programs or remove installed apps; Lite Network Shares, to share files to Windows machines; Lite Widget, which enables/disables a Conqui-like transparent box in the bottom right that shows memory used, CPU usage, and update status. It looks at home with the screen, any wallpaper and the panel. And of course, it comes with the usual customization and hardware configuration popups common to all Xfce setting screens. It also has a button to enable/disable a simple firewall.

In Conclusion...

Altogether, Linux Lite is an elegant and agreeable distribution to use. It's not as agile as Bodhi Linux but runs right away with little effort to find what you need. I noticed some sluggishness with the heftier programs but I blame that on the hardware and the particular programs, not on Linux Lite. I deem the onboard graphics might not be able to manage the higher resolution. I'll try a lower one later this week and let you know know how it goes.

If you need an OS for an old machine or just run to insanely fast on something more recent, you would be remiss if you didn't give Linux Lite a shot. Enjoy!


Update: I changed to a lower resolution and it does help with performance particularly when switching to full-screen mode on websites that use this functionality. As you'd expect, moving app windows around it also smoother.

[ssfc72]

Thanks for the detailed review of the Linux Lite Distro, on your Toshiba notebook computer, Jason.   That notebook while maybe older, does have decent specs. 4G Ram is lot better than most older notebook computers. The CPU speed is not bad either. Is the drive a mechanical or SSD?

Is the shutdown icon a 1 click operation, from the desktop?
Is the trackpad default, a one click operation to start a program or does it take a double click?
Are you using it's wireless  card to connect to the home router/internet? 

[Jason]

Thanks for the detailed review of the Linux Lite Distro, on your Toshiba notebook computer, Jason.   That notebook while maybe older, does have decent specs. 4G Ram is lot better than most older notebook computers. The CPU speed is not bad either. Is the drive a mechanical or SSD?

Is the shutdown icon a 1 click operation, from the desktop?
Is the trackpad default, a one click operation to start a program or does it take a double click?
Are you using it's wireless  card to connect to the home router/internet?

The RAM is good but 1.4 GHz on a dual-core is fairly slow. I think it's possibly more hobbled by the video processor. The Raspberry Pi 3 uses a 1 GHz dual-core processor in comparison granted it's built on an ARM platform so a direct comparison isn't entirely fair. The drive is an SSD. Not as fast as the one on my main machine but it'd be painful to use if it wasn't for that.

It's a 3 click operation to shut it down. Menu -> Log out -> Shutdown. Of course, one could use 'sudo shutdown -h now' in the terminal to skip all that keeping in mind that you'd likely lose your session and it's not saving any effort. I was looking into putting this into a script but it's not as easy as I thought.

Pressing the power button on most laptops will also power it down although you might have to configure this so it doesn't just go to sleep. A desktop should do the same. That's just one button!

I don't use the trackpad so I don't know if it's a 1-click operation. I've found with the trackpad on that when I type, the cursor bounces around the screen and I can't type properly. On the menu, I don't know to choose the group, then click and then click again to run the program. I just glide to the program through the grouping to click it. Moving around the file manager (Thunar) was double-click until I changed it.

I was using the onboard wireless to connect to my internet modem+router but it's easy enough for me to use an ethernet cable. Since I just leave the laptop on the side of the couch, it doesn't have to be wireless.

[Jason]

I should mention that it didn't come with Vivaldi. The distro included Firefox auto-installed.

I found it pretty heavy so I decided to try Vivaldi. It doesn't feel any lighter but Vivaldi is kind of a neat browser with features not unlike the original Opera web browser. It doesn't have the built-in torrent feature or VPN built, unlike Opera. Although, I'd caution anyone against using the latter. You shouldn't use free VPNs except maybe to try out how a VPN works. Data transfer costs money so how are they paying for it? Are they analyzing your usage for sale?

Vivaldi is also Open Source, unlike Opera.

[fox]

Thanks for the review of Linux Lite. It does look very nice as you noted. It shows that XFCE can be nicely customized; another good example of this is Manjaro.

You mentioned a font problem on Firefox. Try installing the Ubuntu fonts; I think they will improve its appearance. I tried that on openSUSE and it helped.

[Jason]

Thanks for the font tip. I've fallen away from Firefox but I might try it out of curiosity. Maybe I'll just see if I can duplicate the fonts I'm using in the main system on Vivaldi. Btw, Vivaldi actually uses Firefox's sync service. I still wish I could find a more featured browser that supported google or firefox extensions but still one that was lighter. Modern browsers are such pigs which you don't notice until you're using a light distro. You notice it when starting the browser compared to other light programs in a light distribution.

[Jason]

I just wanted to provide an update on my experience. I'm a week and a half in and still enjoying Linux Lite. I've gotten used to the slower performance on this laptop but I probably wouldn't have if I was using Kubuntu on this laptop. Honestly, I don't notice the lag anymore.

When I go back to my main machine eventually, it'll feel like lightning! I will likely use Linux Lite on it, too, but it won't be anytime soon so I might change my mind. The graphics card needs replacing and I discovered the power supply does, too. I also want to get a case for it that doesn't weigh a million kg. It's a nice case that it's in now, with lots of room, but if I try to move it, I can put my back out if I'm not careful. Go ahead and tell me how I'm out of shape; I know you want to.

Linux Lite is smooth, pretty and it keeps out of your way. It has customization but it's minimal so you don't waste time toying with settings. But it gives you more choices than Gnome so you can make it fit your preferences both in appearances and your work process.

The file manager (Thunar) is a bit underfeatured. For example, it doesn't have a split screen ability. And if you change folders and like the view format to change by folder, you can't do that. I tried a better file manager, PCmanFM but it has lag loading and feels heavier so I probably won't bother.

While it's light, it's not as light as you might think. Just after login, it is already using 800 MB of RAM, which is pretty close to Kubuntu. However, I think that's due to Xfce, which we've discussed before, isn't as light as people think.

This doesn't have much to do with Linux Lite specifically so skip past it if you're not interested.


Sidestep: The deep freeze

I was having periodic freezes. One just happened. It's not a total lockup when it happens. Basically, entering text in the browser slows to a crawl as does opening menus or even just moving the mouse. This time, I wasn't running a lot of programs: Brave browser with 4 tabs, Spotify, the file manager and Task Manager. Timeshift, Todoist, Tutanota, SpiderOak One Backup and Deja Dup backup were running in the background. Now that I think of it, that is quite a few programs! But I can't remember ever having that kind of freezing in Kubuntu with the same programs but I had 12 GB there and only 4 GB here. And my processor is only a 1.3 GHz dual-core here.

But I figured out the cause of the freezing, and it's not Xfce or Linux Lite. Spotify was using 2 GB of RAM! The laptop was doing a lot of disks swapping as well as the swap was up to 1.8 GB. As soon as I closed Spotify, the freezing disappeared. RAM use is 1.3 GB and the swap is 1.7 GB but it's clearly not being used much right now. The swap size doesn't go down right away. So there is a reason for Swap. The system was difficult to use but it was still running because of the swap file so I didn't have a full crash. I don't know why Spotify was using that much RAM; I'm pretty sure that's not normal. It may have just been a memory leak. I will give it a try again later.


Back to Linux Lite

I run it at 1440x900 (earlier I mistakenly wrote 1200x800) resolution instead of 1920x1080 both to use fewer video resources and because it's easier to read the text. It has a DPI setting to size-up text but I find that doing causes the text to look less sharp. I can work at this resolution comfortably. I still miss having a second screen though but I'm sure Linux Lite would support it because it does on the laptop screen and monitor screen together. But I find that awkward as I don't have a good place to set the laptop nearby.

All-in-all, it's a lovely distribution to use.

[fox]

The screenshot looks nice enough. If this is at 1200x800, it looks good enough.

[Jason]

Oops. I checked and it's actually 1440x900. I forgot that I just tried 1280x800 previously but some configuration windows need a bit more room. So, unless I want to use ALT-click and drag to them off-screen a bit, I needed a higher resolution.

[Jason]

I forgot to mention Lite Tweaks earlier.

As you can see in the attached screenshot (click to zoom), it has a lot of tweaks you can apply.

Some of the entries are actual tweaks like TLP for laptops which Fox has written about on the Forum elsewhere. And others are simple, but useful, tasks. For example, Locate Large Files. . The checkboxes don't tell if a tweak is "on"; the description does. The checkboxes are so you can pick what tweaks you want to turn on or off or run.

I read somewhere that the zRAM service is supposed to help with performance on older computers so I turned it on. I don't really know how it helps.

[buster]

I used Linux Lite on an old computer that was given to me. Enjoyed it for 2 or 3 years. Always found it good till the laptop croaked. However, as a virtual it has trouble working with win 10 using drag and drop. An xfce issue. Also missed the split screen home window.

Why do your pics show the desktop not filling the screen?

[Jason]

Why do your pics show the desktop not filling the screen?

Sorry? Do you mean that the wallpaper isn't filling the screen? I don't generally do that because I'm more of a "function over style" kind of person. The wallpapers included are lovely but they don't really show the distro features.

[fox]

Interestingly enough, Linux Lite 5.2 was just released (see here. Looking at the image with the news, I would say that Jason's version is nicer looking. One thing I didn't know about the distro was that they make readily available custom kernels from 3.13 to 5.9. That would have helped me a lot when I was having kernel problems with my 2015 iMac. I'm even tempted to test this distro myself at some point.

[Jason]

The screenshot they have looks a bit drab. I think that they just needed to show a nicer wallpaper and the text seemed to be a bit blurry. Then I noticed if you click it again, you get full quality. Other than that I used a darker theme and a pretty wallpaper it looks the same to me.

Thanks for letting me know about 5.2. I wasn't aware. One point that I should note, you can only upgrade within a series (e.g. 5.1 to 5.2). There is no upgrade path from one series to the next or even from an RC to the final release of a version.

[buster]

Just adding a bit from my few years of using it - I always found it reliable and easy to use on the old laptop. There was a lot of attention paid to detail in the production of LinuxLite. (This, of course, was on a hardware install, not in virtual.)

Because my newest hardware is so powerful and quick ( I call it Colossus! ), I use Mint.