Low Spec Lovers Look: Linux Lite 5.8 Lands

Linux Lite just saw a new mainline release bringing several new features and long-term support for low spec devices. It's the final release in the 5.x series for the Ubuntu/Debian-based distribution.

Linux Lite


The new version updates the Papirus Icon theme and includes Neofetch so you can show off your vintage low-end hardware in screenshots. Mintstick - a tool for creating bootable USB drives - has also been added as a standard application for this release.

There are also a few updates to the Help manual and some new wallpapers, and that's about it! It remains, as it always has, lightweight while providing the office, media, and communication tools needed for daily life.

The new version is available from the official Linux Lite download page as a direct download or torrent (torrent if you can, bandwidth is precious), and you can find the full changelog in the full announcement post.

Not Lite Enough For You? Tiny Core Might Be Your Jam

If Linux Lite looks good but is still too much for your target hardware, this week, Tiny Core Linux also saw a new release. In a post on the official Tiny Core forum, the team released both 32 and 64-bit versions of the lightweight system, the largest of which is only 156 MB. Bear in mind that's the "everything-including-the-kitchen-sink" version and that the regular version of Tiny Core is just 10 MB. 

Tiny Core

It's designed to target the lowest end x86 hardware possible and has several unique characteristics that make it very fast and stable. For the full set of features including the overall concept head to the Tiny Core Intro page. You can get the latest Tiny Core release from the official download page.

Both flavors of Linux aren't quite as out-of-the-box easy to use as fully-fledged distributions like Ubuntu or Mint, but they are perfect when working with lower-spec hardware, and ideally suited to x86 based SBCs!  

10 MB. 10 MB !!?

That's pretty smol.

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