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Which Linux distro for beginners (with requirements)
(programming.dev)
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Forget web browsing with 4GB RAM. You can completely disregard the comments recommending a "lite DE" when merely opening a modern web site will put the whole PC into crawling. The 150 MB more or less for different desktops are completely irrelevant then.
The best "newbie friendly" distribution is just plain Fedora Workstation but with only 4GB RAM it will be a pain to use no matter what.
Edit: If you're a KDE user yourself, you're best equipped to answer KDE-related questions.
I think 4GB is plenty for web browsing if there are not many tabs opened. Though the laptop will still be slow because of the specs.
I have a laptop with 4GB of RAM and it works fine, my fedora i3 installation. It's nothing compared to a proper computer but it's not like I ever run out of RAM either. (Generally I open two Firefox windows, discord and vscode)
There are several browsers that can operate with low memory requirements, but you have to be willing to live without JavScript & the front-end needs to have been built with accessibility & progressive enhancement in mind. …Which most front-end developers don’t do & the industry doesn’t normally pay them enough to care or get better results (& following YouTube tutorials always tells you to use the latest bloated framework which is overkill for your project).
Also Fedora doesn’t ship with LTS kernels which makes me question their package management strategy.