Choosing an operating system for a weak laptop?

Question

linux

We bought a laptop in October (due to a pandemic with a large markup, there were no other options at such prices, but wait too, study):
The laptop was released in 2020:
Athlon Silver 3050u - 2 cores, 2 threads 2.3-3.2 in boost (in reviews said that in practice the overclocking limit is 2.7, but in my usual tasks it was quietly overclocked to 3.2, I looked through the task manager)
RAM 1 bar for 4 GB 2400 mg (the video core of the processor eats 800 mb, can not be disabled in the BIOS, even through the BIOS or removing\disabling the video core through the device manager)
Nvme ssd m.2 for 128 GB The laptop has a
native OS - Windows 10 64 bit (it's just ridiculous considering that the percentage eats almost 1 GB and leaves 3 GB for the OS)

+ all official drivers only on Windows x64 (but
proprietary drivers on Linux work if you select them during installation) , Manjaro), but the lack of software (or gemr with its installation) did not please me at all. I'm in college and I need zoom-type software. But if there are no options for Windows (with win7 gemr with nvme integration and usb3.0 + with uefi installed, and on 8.1 the touchpad doesn't work), I don't mind on Linux either.32x I'm even considering (whether it will be possible to survive on 32x systems in the near future).

Answer 1

The problem is not in the OS, but in the lack of memory.
Linux can eat a little less of it, but the browser will eat the same amount, and all sorts of zooms too.
So the dreams that you put Lin - and everything flies, you can leave right away.
It's too late to turn around on x32, now it will save a pinch of memory, but it turns out that there are no programs, especially modern ones - they will only be x64 under Lin.
For study, I would still advise Linux, there may be more problems with it, but their solution is also study;)
In principle, four gigs is enough for accurate work in Xubuntu. My students don't complain. But they only have a gluttonous browser with an office.

Answer 2

I have such a tablet machine
https://www.ferra.ru/review/notebooks/96793.htm
And on 4 and 8 it worked more or less normally on windows 10.
In your case, buy more memory and understand that the beech is rather weak. Do not open a bunch of programs and take your time

Answer 3

Even 8 gigs of RAM, not to mention 4, is catastrophically small for today's software. And it is the software that will be the main devourer of memory, not the OS. So the tench does not decide here, well, not at all. Especially if you need specific Windows software, because you will eventually have to run it under wine, which is also not free in terms of process and memory.
Windows itself can be optimized for minimal RAM consumption, so it will give odds to most Linux desktops. Start by turning off all effects. You can also disable some services that you certainly do not need.
If you still want to tench, then first make sure that there are drivers on the webcam. Well, I still believe that you didn’t find software under Manjaro, since a lot of proprietary software is supplied only in .deb and .rpm packages, but in mint it’s just .deb. Well, yes, not all software is cross-platform, you need to understand this with any change of platform and make sure in advance if there are analogues and be ready to switch to them. There are really things like wine (windows software for linux) and cygwin (linux software for windows), but it creates additional overhead both in terms of processor and memory and does not always allow the software to work correctly.
If you choose a distro by resources, then first of all you need to look at what desktop it is based on.
- I don’t know why, but today Gnome Shell is very popular, but this is the heaviest desktop, add here the fact that a naked gnome is not usable, and plugins are written in js by people who are not very friendly with js ... Many plugins just flow stupidly From memory ... In general, I do not advise.
- Any forks of Gnome Shell, like Cinnamon (mint by default) or Pantheon (elementary OS), although they can be lighter and more usable out of the box, they still have the same problems (although before switching to kde plasma, I always chose Cinnamon)
- Xfce has traditionally been considered lightweight, but it's gotten fatter lately as it increasingly uses components from the Gnome Shell. Well, it updates very slowly. And if you bring it to a usable state, then it eats completely out of itself and will easily eat 1.5 gigabytes.
- lxde and lxqt are two more lightweight options, lxqt will be better, but you will have to live in an interface a la win98... for convenience to compete with Windows and Macos. Recently, developers have been devoting a lot of time to optimizations. Recommend.

Answer 4

Debian amd64 + XFCE.

Answer 5

Without a list of the necessary software - it's not worth it.
A significant part of Windows software - works under WINE.

Answer 6

I always install Ubuntu Minimal (60mb) or Server version with nothing. And I put the handles on the minimum set of necessary programs and what kind of minimalistic working environment like: i3wn, openbox, lxde.