Beginner friendly distro for 2GB RAM 32GB EMCC storage Dell notebook.

[balloonshark]

I have an old Dell Inspiron i3162-0000BLU 11.6″ Laptop with a Intel Celeron N3050, 2GB RAM and 32GB eMMC. Can you recommend a light and easy to use distro that would allow web browsing and perhaps other light tasks?

 

[lxskllr]

BunsenLabs is fairly light and fairly easy. It's basically debian stable with a customized openbox desktop. For all intents and purposes, you'd be running debian. You could go lighter with something like PuppyLinux, but at that point, things are getting a little more non standard. "Lightness" has a cost. Ease of use is sometimes one of the casualties, as well as visual appeal. It's certainly worth a try to see what you think.

 

[Shmee]

PuppyLinux I know is good, also could go with Lubuntu.

 

[lxskllr]

I wasn't real impressed with lubuntu when I tried it last year. Switching to qt made it feel heavier. It felt like plasma without the features. I didn't measure or test anything, so it could very well be me, but I didn't care for it.

 

[mxnerd]

Memory is cheap. Upgrade machine's RAM first. Then you can have more options.

Linux Mint is many people's choice. Looks pretty, performs well.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Memory is cheap. Upgrade machine's RAM first. Then you can have more options.

Linux Mint is many people's choice. Looks pretty, performs well.

That's the problem on those low-end Atom-based netbook / "cloudbook" laptops, the RAM and storage (usually eMMC) is usually soldered directly to the board and non-replaceable.

 

[mxnerd]

That's the problem on those low-end Atom-based netbook / "cloudbook" laptops, the RAM and storage (usually eMMC) is usually soldered directly to the board and non-replaceable.

It seems upgradable. Another 4GB is all he needs. ($20 on eBay). Then he has 6GB of memory. Browsing and other tasks become a lot peppier and don't require memory swapping.

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-Laptop-Celeron-I3162-0000BLU/dp/B01BTW4QNE

 

[VirtualLarry]

"Max memory: 16GB"

Amazon link checks out...

 

[mxnerd]

"Max memory: 16GB"

Amazon link checks out...

Well, it's not upgradable. You were correct on this.

Dell Insprion 11 3162 Memory Upgrade | DELL Technologies

Bought a 11 3162 in Feb 2016, only has 2GB RAM, my bad, bought a 4GB card from Dell. Remove the case and battery, can't see any part remotely close to what they sent me. Any suggestions?

www.dell.com

 

[mxnerd]

Try Raspberry Pi for Desktop. require 8GB disk only. Does not say how much memory required though. Guess it's low.

Raspberry Pi Desktop for PC and Mac – Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a tiny and affordable computer that you can use to learn programming through fun, practical projects. Join the global Raspberry Pi community.

www.raspberrypi.org

==

2nd video uses 2GB RAM VM

==

Tested myself in a 2GB memory VM

With 2 Chromium instances, one CNN and one Foxnews, Libreoffice Calc open.

 

[JWade]

i like Zorin