or maybe xfce, I dont know, I'm gonna pick the one that can look the most minimalistic and dark
xfce with the right theme will likely be your best bet
still CTRL+ALT+F3 is most minimalistic and dark as it can be ;)
3 Likes
I have to agree with @th3z0ne. if you want something not flashy but still super customizable then look at xfce all you need to do is sudo apt-get install xfce4
If you're trying to get away from Ubuntu, I'd go with Manjaro. It uses AUR, so you'll always have the most up to date stuff, but it's MUCH easier to get it working than Arch. If you just like using your laptop as sort of an experimental thing then go with Arch. It's fun to learn how to configure everything. BUT if you need your laptop to be working all the time then go with Manjaro, so if something breaks you can easily just start fresh in a couple minutes.
The place you'll notice the biggest difference is the DE. You can switch to a different distro, but if you're running the same DE then it won't really feel too much different.
If you want a minimalist DE then go with OpenBox, but keep in mind you'll also lose some functionality. For instance, in OpenBox none of my function keys work the same as they do in XFCE or the more full-featured DE's. My F2 and F3 keys adjust screen brightness and XFCE works just fine with them, but it doesn't do anything in OpenBox. If you want long battery life, you're going to want to be able to lower your screen brightness. I can go from 3 hours of battery life to 5 hours of battery life by going form 100% to 20% brightness. So even though OpenBox is less resource heavy, you can still get better battery life with XFCE because there are more power-saving features built in.
Another thing I'll mention is that KDE doesn't like WPA2 Enterprise, so I can't connect to my school's WiFi when using KDE. I've tried it with both Manjaro KDE and Kubuntu, and neither of them work. I really love how Manjaro KDE looks and functions, but I would rather have something where everything works out of the box.
So basically, if you absolutely want to get away from Ubuntu then I'd recommend Manjaro XFCE. Personally I love it, but I'm still leaning towards Xubuntu (Ubuntu XFCE) as my favorite because of how easy it is to get up-and-running, and also better overall compatibility. A lot of software is made to work with Ubuntu because it's the most popular. You can still get it working in other distros, but it's a lot easier in Ubuntu.
1 Like
I like i3wm because its minimalist and a tilling window manager so things look clean.
If you want for something minimalist, you could try Elementary OS.
Try antergos with gnome DE. Its kind of like a easy to install arch linux. You should be able to enjoy bleeding edge softwares without the pain of building and installing your arch linux. So you can give that a try.
Didn't say lightweight, although personally I was able to get it working very well on a old laptop.