Should I change distro (from LM)?

[Halvor Raknes]

I have an ASUS laptop from 2012 with Linux Mint MATE with an End-Of-Life approaching in a couple of months. It works just fine. Boot takes a couple of minutes.

I wonder if I should upgrade to the most recent version of Linux Mint MATE or go for a different distro altogether? The underlying question is whether Linux Mint in its most recent iteration has become significantly more consuming of CPU and memory?

Also, I haven't done a manual OS upgrade before, so I am concerned about the risk of screwing up the process.

 

[kc1di]

I would upgrade to mint after making good backup of my important files. And give it a try. I did not notice any problem here when I upgrade to 22.1 Cinnamon on my Lenovo laptop. You could also run 22.1 mate from live disc or usb and see if everything works first.


Good Luck.

 

[Brickwizard]

As the machine is now 13 yrs old I would consider using something a tad lighter than Ubuntu based mint, there are plenty of slightly lighter options [Mint LMDE, Parrot Home,MX Debian Stable for example] or lighter still [Linux Lite, Kubuntu, Labuntu, Bunsen Labs & etc]

 

[Halvor Raknes]

As the machine is now 13 yrs old I would consider using something a tad lighter than Ubuntu based mint, there are plenty of slightly lighter options [Mint LMDE, Parrot Home,MX Debian Stable for example] or lighter still [Linux Lite, Kubuntu, Labuntu, Bunsen Labs & etc]

Would there be things I couldn't do with those lighter distros? (other than less bells and whistles). Would they tend to be lagging when it comes to be able to use newer versions of apps such as ffmpeg or python?

 

[Brickwizard]

All i can say is in my introductory post for new members , most Linux distros use the fairly up-to-date Kernels and non-free codecs if not included , can be added, the differences are mainly in the apps included in the distribution build, and the intended target audience, for example MX has a leaning towards office use whereas Parrot home is slightly more secure than most, and mint LMDE is easy for ex-windows users

Thread 'WHAT IS THE BEST LINUX DISTRIBUTION, WHICH SHOULD I USE ?'

Feb 8, 2023

This is the most asked question we receive, and the answer is, NO one distribution is better than any other, some may be a little easier for the newbie moving from Windows, some are designed for a specific task, and a few are for experienced Linux users only.
THE BEST DISTRIBUTION
Is the one that works best on your machine, The one you like the look and feel of, the one that lets you perform your daily tasks.
We recommend that you download around 6 different distributions with different desktops, and test them out "live" from a Pen-drive, You will not get a full speed experience, but...

• Brickwizard
• Replies: 16
• Forum: Getting Started

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[bob466]

I also have an ASUS laptop from 2012 that's running Mint Cinnamon 21.1 and it works just fine...the only difference is I swapped the HDD for a 500GB SSD some time ago which made it run 10 times faster.

Mint Cinnamon 21.1 has another 2 years of support...so there's no hurry to move to 22.1.

You should do a clean install of 22.1 and maybe get a SSD...you will be very happy with the result.

 

[Condobloke]

I would second the suggestion for a SSD

 

[The Duck]

I would install Linux Mint 22.1 Xfce because you are already familiar with Linux Mint.

Another good choice would be MX-Linux Xfce.

MX Linux – Midweight Simple Stable Desktop OS

mxlinux.org

Download Links – MX Linux

mxlinux.org

Users Manual – MX Linux

mxlinux.org

Xfce is just a lighter desktop environment without any bells and whistles.

The lighter Linux distros will do all of the same work as any of the other Linux distros.

 

[Condobloke]

The underlying question is whether Linux Mint in its most recent iteration has become significantly more consuming of CPU and memory?

No, not to my knowledge, Again....A SSD will make that laptop behave like a new one.

Also, I haven't done a manual OS upgrade before, so I am concerned about the risk of screwing up the process

Understood.
Which particulat version are you running, of mate?...click on menu, type in Welcome...it will show welcome screen...click on that and it will show in the bottom right hand corner the OS details....
or...you will find it in system details.
That will give us a better idea of what you can expect when you upgrade.

eg: on my pc it shows :