Light Linux Distributions - Hardware Testing (RAM)

**coolbrook** · March 13th, 2011

Thanks for the links. Used drive space would come in handy too.

**[deXter]** · March 14th, 2011

Please remove Kolibri OS from the list, it's not based on Linux.

Also, please add TurboPup Extreme to the list. It's a full-fledged distro based on Puppy which uses just around 10 MB RAM - with X running!

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=40477

**RogueMoon** · April 26th, 2011

Registered to say thanks for the thread.
As a linux beginner with a fetish for small and fast software looking for his first "serious" distro the comparison is really helpful.

I was surprised how AntiX "scored" so close to the ultra lightweights such as TCL and Slitaz. Lubuntu, too, is impressive in that regard.

Edited to suggest Minix (a *nix though) and ConnochaetOS (http://www.connochaetos.org/wiki/) - which seems to get very little publicity...

**timcs** · April 28th, 2011

I have been through some of these on a Toshiba L30 256mb ram laptop. I found that the ubuntu distros to run too slow and after updates didn't run at all.

Lubuntu didnt boot up out of the box but with help from a forum user here, I had got it working via the mini cd and then apt-get install lubuntu-desktop.

This laptop is proving to be a problem with linux as its graphics card ,sound system and wifi do not always work. This means spending a lot of time finding the right configuration to get them to work. Believe me I have spent days on this machine with different distros.

**EDIT**
Latest Watt0S does not boot into the GUI even when choosing xforcevesa.

I have yet to find a fully working distro but will report back when I do

*** EDIT 01/05/2011 ****

Found that peppermint to be the best for this laptop, only thing I am unable to get working are the Volume shortcut keys via Fn UP and Fn Down- users from the peppermint forum have tried to help but to no avail. Still it runs very well, got the sound to work as well.

**Pierre16** · May 30th, 2011

This is excellent. It is the first time I see all of these lightweight distros side by side.
Could you please add to this list the following. It should be as fast as Lubuntu

Quelitu: A Lightweight Linux OS Based on Lubuntu

You will find the ISO download link under Quelitu in the top menu.

Thanks again for the comparison. It is great.

**Pierre16** · June 3rd, 2011

Sorry, the Quelitu link above was incorrect. It has been corrected.

Here is the direct download page:
http://wavesofthefuture.net/computer...-quelitu.shtml

**HotForLinux** · June 3rd, 2011

@mörgæs
Thanks for the reply! I thought about doing so, however just wanted to keep the information as simple as possible. What type of comments would you put? =) Thanks!

[/QUOTE]

Great work. You are right is nice to have it simple. Maybe disk space needed, if it can run completely in RAM and to what distro-family they belong would be fine.

**EarlsFurniture** · July 7th, 2011

A couple of months ago, I conducted similar testing with more recent versions of distros. All tests were done with Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit as the host, and the VM's were done in VMWare Player 3.x

At first, I was focused on *buntu variants because I wanted to stay all in the same family, but eventually branched out.

I used htop for my benchmarking. (I installed it where not already present by default)

Here are my results from lightest to heaviest:
Tiny Core (April '11) - 18MB

Ubuntu Mini Remix - 10.04 i386: 34MB (CLI only)

Slitaz - Cooking 20110329: 37MB

Lupu - 525: 39MB

xPud - 0.9.2: 45MB

MijnPup - 52b3: 48MB

Lubuntu - 11.04: 62MB

Debian LXDE - 6.01a i386: 66MB

Debian XFCE - 6.01a i386: 89MB

Mint LXDE - 10: 98MB

Mint XFCE - 201104: 106MB

Xubuntu - 11.04: 159MB

Ubuntu - 11.04 (running Gnome 2.32, not Unity or Unity2D): 254MB

Kubuntu - 11.04: 502MB

I also tested the following in April '11 with the then most recent versions I could find, but I don't have the actual version #'s handy:

PeppermintOS - 87MB
WattOS - 80MB
MoonOS LXDE - 106MB
Ulite - 63MB

Hope that is helpful to someone.