Nixos
this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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NixOS is anything but lightweight...
Yes, NixOS does need quite a bit of RAM while rebuilding (~1GB) and takes lots of storage because it keeps older generations (similar to OS snapshots) around.
Otherwise NixOS isn't any more resource intensive than other OS. Anecdotal experience, but my NixOS system boots faster than Fedora Atomic with the same window manager and packages installed.
In any case, I've been using NixOS, Fedora Atomic and OpenSUSE MicroOS on my T480s without problems, so OP will be fine with any distro.
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Would go with Fedora or Opensuse if you want to have something that just works. Try endevouros or Arch if you wanna thinker/play around with your os
I've had less "just works" luck with OPENSUSE than with Arch.
I'm using Fedora on a second hand x380 Yoga and it works rather nicely.
I have LMDE on my T580.
I run PopOS on my T450s. Runs like a dream, but probably not considered 'lightweight .
Not a popular idea but I've been using chrome os flex and it has been awesome.
mint is nice but fedora KDE runs also pretty well on my thinkpad x1 yoga gen3
Anything with either the Xfce or LXQt desktop environment would be good enough for you. I heard those are pretty lightweight.
LXDE is kinda nice too.
I have a similar ThinkPad, I run Mint with LxQt, though xfce is a good option too
I would put pop os on it
I daily a t480 with Manjaro and absolutely love it. It's real snappy and even the hybrid graphics work flawlessly.
Slackware with it's Xfce session would be pretty good
In beta stage yet, but Cosmic might become the most stable in a few years. I've never seen an open source general purpose Linux DE with that level of seriousness from a business company.
I'm a big fan of Debian stable for school / work laptops. Older packages aren't great, but if you aren't someone who needs the newest libreoffice version or something, it works fine. Updates will basically never break it apart from major releases (which you have a few years before you have to worry about, although you can upgrade sooner).
Arch is you know how to use Arch. If lazy then something like Bhodi or Q4OS. I put the latter on a couple of friend's laptops who recently jumped from Windows. Since it is very Windows-like but it uses less than 400mb of RAM to run on a cold boot.
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