For those who don’t know what I mean:
- LMDE = Linux Mint Debian Edition, https://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php
- xfce and cinnamon = desktop environments (DE)
target hardware for LMDE is an 8 year old nuked mac notebook with an intel chip.
I’ve always used xfce because it’s easy on the hardware and I don’t care that much about looks, but functionality.
I’ve never used cinnamon and I don’t know if it’s going to slow the notebook much.
Neither do I know if I can install LMDE and then change the DE to xfce.
Is LMDE being updated like the other mints? LMDE is version 6, whereas the other DE are version 21.3
I wouldn’t recommend installing a distro just to install a different DE. IMHO, you should be fine with cinnamon. I’m using Linux Mint 21.3 with cinnamon on an x201 (Thinkpad released in 2010), though I did up the RAM to the 8GB max. However, if you want XFCE, is there a reason you don’t want to use Linux Mint 21.3 with XFCE? If that’s no good for you, I’d recommend finding a distro that fits most of your needs right out of the box, maybe Peppermint Linux or MX Linux?
However, if you want XFCE, is there a reason you don’t want to use Linux Mint 21.3 with XFCE?
I’m still unsure about the differences: LMDE is based on debian, the OS I now use the most, whereas LM (linux mint) is based on ubuntu. Several posters have argued that LMDE, like debian, is barebones, whereas LM is ideal for an end user with not much idea about linux, but my main issue is speed: I don’t want the notebook to be painfully slow: this is a notebook with an Intel Core i5-4278U @ 2.60GHz (2 cores, 4 threads) with 8 GB RAM and installing and upgrading on xubuntu 23.10 was already really, painfully slow.
I either save on resources using a lightweight DE like xfce or using a barebones OS like LMDE
I also want to future proof it as much as possible, which would mean using the OS/DE that uses less resources.
this is a notebook with an Intel Core i5-4278U @ 2.60GHz (2 cores, 4 threads) with 8 GB RAM and installing and upgrading on xubuntu 23.10 was already really, painfully slow.
Have you put an SSD in there, or are you still running on spinning rust? In my experience, even a cheap SSD will make a huge difference.
yes. This MacBook Pro, Intel Core i5-4278U @ 2.60GHz, model A1502 (EMC 2875), Retina Mid-2014 13" has an embedded apple SSD.
I’m not going to spend any money upgrading any part of this notebook: not much bang for my buck and the model is most probably not supported anymore.