Hello! So I have used linux mint for dual booting and its great! My main problem is that I have around 30 GB to spare for linux and I just run out of space pretty quickly. I wanted to ask, is there a distro that is more lightweight than linux mint that will work best with low amount of storage? I do prefer debian based distros but I am willing to try arch ones as well. Any recommendations will be very appreciated!
The distro is usually not really the problem, the desktop environment usually takes up a decent amount of disk space and snap/appimage/flatpak packages compared to native packages from your package manager. At least when strictly speaking about the system and programs, personal data (videos, Images, music,…) is still the biggest storage hog. I don’t think there is a good option, you could ofc shrink your windows partition and grow your Linux partition or just buy more storage, storage is really cheap these days. Additionally you can regularly clean up your system, delete the saved logs, delete unneeded files and uninstall unused packages/programs.
With just 30 gigs even Debian with xfce would probably take half that. I’d definitely agree with a second hard drive a 500 gig ssd is almost $50 these days
Yea I found some pretty cheap ssd’s in a store near me so I think it’s a better solution than installing a new distro. Thanks for your help!
I would recommend Peropesis to you as a minimalsitc distro but the dual booting process will not be as easy as mint you also can try to use a distro with xfce desktop environment but I would say that 30 GB aren’t much anymore and you should think about upgrading
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Ubuntu
Does cleaning the cache help? https://www.ubuntumint.com/clean-apt-cache/
The most lightweight in the amount of required packages is Alpine Linux. It has a command line installer, but much easier than Arch or Gentoo has.
Actually Alpine is great but it requires same amount of ram as any other distro on real hardware and on graphical desktop. The most lightweight desktop for Wayland is Sway, but you have to configure it by yourself. But it’s easy if you’re willing to to read docs.
I have cleaned the cache and it worked! I asked this question cause I also just want to try something new
Alpine linux looks neat but I just don’t thing I can manage installing it via the terminal. Is there something a little more user friendly you can recommend?
If you have a spare computer around or 10 gb diskspace left you can experiment Alpine Linux before installing it in the actual machine. The install process is actually really automated, basicly yes/no questions. Much faster than Ubuntu/Mint etc. “Beginner-friendly” installers. But yeah, after install setuping requires Alpine wiki.
Another what I can recommend is Arch Linux. With arch-install or archfi scripts it easy really easy to fine tune a lightweight on packages.
But out of all I recommend you to maintenance your hardware. Clean the dust with compressed air, replace thermal paste, upgrade ssd and max out ram. And the best part: get rid of Windows.
Edit. If you don’t have Nvidia gpu you could try LMDE5 and here’s why: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=374128 But it won’t be a night and day difference.
My strongest advice is to decide between Alpine and Arch and go with Sway WM. It takes time to learn but afterall it’s all easy and Wayland is the future. I hate the current situation where Wayland is ready for the seamless beginner experience but Mint isn’t pushing for it.
Sparky is a very nice lightweight Debian-based distro.
“Arch-based” distros are problematic because of Arch’s rolling release model; if the distro maintainer has their own repo overlaid on Arch, they have to be very attentive to keeping them in sync, and most of them aren’t. So I wouldn’t recommend going that route.
You could try debian itself. Choose a lightweight desktop environment and don’t install too much stuff. A distro specifically made for older computers or made to have a small footprint might help. Unless you start using it and installing several things.
Maybe shrink the windows partition to make more space or buy a larger disk.
That’s surprising - my Ubuntu takes 22GB of my SSD, for system stuff, and I’m not even trying to trim it down. And I’m reasonably sure that nothing in my HDD is necessary to run the system.
So before changing distros I’d consider cleaning up your current one. A few tips:
- use some disk usage analyser to know what’s eating so much space
- run apt clean as root to get rid of unused apt cache. It might be stealing a few gigs out of your machine.
- get rid of older, unused kernel versions, as they take quite a bit of space. It’s fine to have a single one, or two when updating. You can do this through the software centre.
- check the size of your /home - including hidden directories. In special /home/[your username]/.cache is often filled with junk.
Another program that might help you is BleachBit, but be careful with it. Before enabling each option make sure that you understand what it does.
If changing distros however, in your situation I’d consider Debian (low learning curve for a Mint user) with a lightweight DE (like Xfce or MATE). Just be a bit conscious when installing new software.
