I’m resetting windows 10 on my Thinkpad T580 for work but would like to create a partition for linux. It’s an older laptop and really chugs through games like Minecraft or RuneScape but I enjoy playing relaxing games while I listen to audiobooks at night. I grew up using windows which is why I’ve mostly used Ubuntu and ZorinOS in the past but I’d like to expand my horizons to something like kubuntu. I value good UI/UX design and something lightweight for my old potato. Any recommendations on Linux distros?
** Thanks for all the input! I tried Fedora first but it felt kind of clunky to me. Then I tried out Mint xfce and it’s right up my alley! I can run a separate Firefox profile right off the task bar that runs outside of my VPN which is perfect for Netflix and other sites that have issues. So far loving how customizable it is. Minecraft runs ok off GDLauncher, and lutris is really cool. I forgot I had a boat load of old GOG games that are perfect for this laptop. I really fucking love Linux 😆
Once you have set up Debian, you can pretty much stick there and install whatever you want. It’s a solid place to learn Linux, and to learn that you don’t need to change distributions for everything. It is a rock solid platform. Some people have been running the same install, just upgrading hardware and then upgrading from one release to the next, for 20+ years.
Debian.
You can install any desktop environment, it is the base for all of the Ubuntu distributions.
Debian 12 (bookworm) will release in a week, but you can install it now from here:
https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
For your T580, you will need the amd64 installer: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/bookworm_di_rc4/amd64/iso-cd/debian-bookworm-DI-rc4-amd64-netinst.iso
Install Debian, choose a desktop environment, then use flatpaks for anything that you need up to date.
Your T580 is still a strong laptop. I suggest Debian + KDE Plasma and then set up flatpaks here:
https://flatpak.org/setup/Debian
Once you have set up Debian, you can pretty much stick there and install whatever you want. It’s a solid place to learn Linux, and to learn that you don’t need to change distributions for everything. It is a rock solid platform. Some people have been running the same install, just upgrading hardware and then upgrading from one release to the next, for 20+ years.
To any user that reads this comment, only install Debian if you can understand this quote, else, you may want to consider otherwise!