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+---- Thread: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? (/showthread.php?tid=6315014)
Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - Hackers - Dec 3, 2025
What distros do you consider better than Mint for a lightweight GUI Linux setup? I love Mint but haven't explored others in a while and am interested in what ppl think
https://linuxmint.com/download.php
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - havenz - Dec 7, 2025
archlinux + any modern Wayland-based DE like Gnome or Cosmic
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - Terry A. Davis - Dec 9, 2025
LXQT - Disclaimer, I use Arch, but don't need to be lightweight.
LXQT does the job, and is pretty easy, doesn't have many bells and whistles, but for a kiosk computer only showing a Firefox page on rotate, it does the job good enough.
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - Hackers - Dec 9, 2025
(Dec 9, 2025 06:53 PM)Depressed Wrote: LXQT - Disclaimer, I use Arch, but don't need to be lightweight.
LXQT does the job, and is pretty easy, doesn't have many bells and whistles, but for a kiosk computer only showing a Firefox page on rotate, it does the job good enough.
I would probably just create a kiosk software w/ built in Chromium to avoid the bells & whistles of running a full browser at that point, but I'll take a look. I think that's too lightweight though for what I'm looking for in an old laptop or PC, but I will also go even more lightweight with a no-GUI Linux distro for something like a micro controller, smart sensor, etc in the future.
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - Terry A. Davis - Dec 9, 2025
(Dec 9, 2025 07:02 PM)nodes Wrote: I would probably just create a kiosk software w/ built in Chromium to avoid the bells & whistles of running a full browser at that point
What is Chromium if not a browser?
(Dec 9, 2025 07:02 PM)nodes Wrote: I think that's too lightweight though for what I'm looking for in an old laptop or PC, but I will also go even more lightweight with a no-GUI Linux distro for something like a micro controller, smart sensor, etc in the future.
i3 is likely want you want then.
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - Hackers - Dec 9, 2025
(Dec 9, 2025 07:05 PM)Depressed Wrote: What is Chromium if not a browser?
i3 is likely want you want then.
You have more control when you make your own browser. You can whip up a simple web browser w/ Chromium in under an hour with any multifile LLM code IDE like Cursor, Antigravity, etc. A one page Kiosk software can be created very quickly. It won't be a Chrome or Firefox competitor, but something like a kiosk web display could be done in just minutes assuming the website is created already.
The web browsers are built to serve the masses.
You can create much smaller and efficient versions yourself if you don't need all the feature bloat, while still using the same underlying engine or packages.
I'll check out i3, thanks
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - Terry A. Davis - Dec 9, 2025
(Dec 9, 2025 07:07 PM)nodes Wrote: with any multifile LLM code
No thanks, I am not wasting time compiling Chromium just to display a page that works just fine in Firefox.
Quote:I'll check out i3, thanks
Goodluck, I never got it, it's like VIM if it was your display, lots of shortcuts.
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - Hackers - Dec 9, 2025
(Dec 9, 2025 07:09 PM)Depressed Wrote: No thanks, I am not wasting time compiling Chromium just to display a page that works just fine in Firefox.
Haha I understand lol. I think about these types of things as if I had to deploy 100, or 1000, or 10K. Then i would absolutely create my own Chromium wrapper for the kiosks to guarantee control, stable releases, etc.
I always find it funny when kiosks or other setups use browsers because they often just run it in full-screen but don't always disable default command (ex: dev mode, new tab, etc). I always try them but touchscreens or mouse-only setups make that tricky obviously. I can't imagine I would run Windows if I was going to setup a kiosk, but if it was just 1 kiosk I wouldn't compile a custom Chromium build either if I had a physical business to run instead. Personal home units too, you don't have to worry about security so Windows is fine.
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - TheCoz - Dec 13, 2025
I like Xubuntu, XFCE fedora, and Arch for lightweight.
RE: Better than Linux Mint for lightweight GUI? - QlQa3 - Mar 29, 2026
Arch for me it's also highly customizable and barebones