I’m currently installed pop os 24 LTS version but it’s looks like so limited due to the recent cosmic DE changes and issues like suspend resume, firmware are there. I’m a student studying CS and learning programming and other technical stuff. So for this I need all the technical software that should be compatible for linux which I installed. Now I’m currently have a mind to move to linux mint or looking for best distro available for my specs.
I would always recommend Linux mint to new linux users as it covers all the requirements without any pain or problems. It comes in several flavour and my personal choice would be linux mint debian edition LMDE.
It has the cinammon desktop and so looks and feels just like the cinammon version, but tends to be more flexible.
The mate version has an old look and feel but again would be very capable
The xfce version tends to be more limited and is more suitable for lower spec machines.
But you will not go wrong with any of them.
No doubt my fellow members will offer alternative suggestions……
No idea what other sources you have and if they are more informed, but personally I never have a problem with mint or linux.
Best answer i can give is download a copy of the iso and burn a dvd or usb, then try booting to that. You will then know if it works on your computer and if you like the interface. This ça be done without changing your current system.
Any of the Debian based distros will be fine for those specs, and Debian-based will also suit your student work. That leaves a huge choice … Debian, Mint, MX, and many others.
Those specs may not support use of a VM. You need to check if the cpu supports virtualisation, and you need to ensble it in the BIOS.
Other than VM, that 8GB machine should run any Linux well.
Linux will run faster if you choose a modest desktop environment … eg choose Xfce or LxQt rather than Gnome or KDE. It is up to you… there is a tradeoff between speed and fancy features.
But everything my esteemed colleague @callpaul.eu stated is probably good advice - MATE or Cinnamon (both of which I believe are forks of Gnome 2?) - you’ll get a modern looking interface, but it probably less resource hungry than recent Gnome 4x or KDE…
Your best shot is probably LMDE with Cinnamon desktop…
Me? I’d probably still run Ubuntu 24.04 on that hardware… I’ve run Ubuntu with full Gnome 4x desktop on a Raspberry Pi4 and a Pi5 (8 GB RAM) and didn’t notice any performance issues - but it wasn’t my “daily driver”…
A lot of @callpaul.eu 's users he supports use MINT and they have no need to use the shell or “bash” or “Terminal” - me? I find there’s so much richness in the shell - that’s where I prefer to do most of my “work”…
I won’t run Pop!_OS 24 because Cosmic is still too “new” - with a whole bunch of teething issues and probably severely locked down and no tweaking tools for power users (and I need x11 / xorg - and I’m pretty sure Pop!_OS 24 with Cosmic is Wayland only)…
That is not the only way to get a non-systemd distro?
The easiest non-systemd distro is probably Devuan. The most innovative is antiX. They are both Debian based. MX is somewhere in between.
In Arch-based systems, the best non-systemd distro is Artix.
Gentoo as a non-systemd distro is faultless, but it only offers OpenRC init system.
Void is similar … it only offers runit init system.
Perhaps you can name some of these so we can advise further if they run or you need alternatives. Depending on where you are a student if they have guidelines you need to follow.
I also like and would recommend Linux Mint. You might also want to consider MX Linux.
MX has an “ahs” release for “Advanced Hardware Support release for very recent hardware”.