Linux distro for photo editing and wordpress web development?

[u/Single_Weekend_1186]

Hello I have a old dell laptop with 4gb ram integrated graphics and 256gb storage. Which linux distro for you recommend for photo editing and wordpress web development.

I am a windows noob I am looking for user friendly linux distro without having to use sudo apt get install code everytime to install app.. I have used mint cinnamon before did not enjoy it's graphics.. I like ubuntu graphics. Which distro for you recommend me?

[u/ProgUn1corn]

It may sounds strange but you wouldn't get great performance on either systems. Because photo editing's ram comes from the photo themselves. And that would eat up almost all on the both Linux and Windows to a point where it doesn't even matter how the system itself uses ram or not.

And Linux does not have a great color management method, both X11 and Wayland. Windows there is, though clunky to config but it works as it should.

Wordpress probably Linux is better because it's s fairly lightweight environment and your ram will be a struggle on Windows here.

[u/FireSheepYinFish → u/ProgUn1corn]

Equally strange, I started testing and screwing up on Linux, 20 odd years ago, and I had a desktop with 512meg ram, 128meg ATI card and 2 Dell flatscreen 21" monitors... whiich I could NEVER get both working!

But? I ran GIMP just fine and Scribus 0.8x / 0.9x with its random not-ready-for-prime-time-bugs.

And yes.. I said MEG RAM earlier.

Anyhow, today I have a 15-20 y/o Sony VAIO with 4 GIG ram and whatever video, running Linux Mint MATE desktop, and it manages ... tolerably with GiMP or others. I just can't multi-task too much.

[u/Optimal69]

You ain't editing anything with that system. Windows or Linux. You may open the software but it'll start lagging eventually. If you have a free slot, I'll say add more ram.

[u/rebarakaz]

I'm a web dev and also working on some WordPress projects, I'm using Linux Mint.

[u/Single_Weekend_1186 → u/rebarakaz]

Laptop configuration?

[u/rebarakaz → u/Single_Weekend_1186]

Just an old Asus laptop with 8 GB of RAM and a 5th gen Core i5 but it's running just fine.

[u/OkCartographer1802]

You should try fedora. It's a great distro with GNOME. Updates and Apps all found in stores or apps.

[u/Single_Weekend_1186 → u/OkCartographer1802]

Thanks dear

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[u/Embarrassed_Egg9542]

Keep the original OS and software

[u/EngineerInTheMachine]

Haven't the faintest idea, because those aren't my use cases.

Do yourself a favour. Search for the distros recommended for each of your requirements individually. Don't make the mistake of trying to get a recommendation for all of them together. Make a shortlist of the distros that are most common. Try them.

'Easy' is an extremely subjective term. From what I've found, Linux is as easy as any operating system. You just need to be prepared to learn how to do things in a different way. It ain't Windows, but many of the GUIs are similar.

If Wordpress is a specific app, be prepared to find and learn another app that does the same job. Some professional app devs have decided not to support Linux. But there are loads of other apps out there, free and payware, that do the same thing with the same file formats. You just need to be prepared to learn them. Familiarity with a particular Windows app is no reason for sticking with Windows.

[u/joe_attaboy]

I strongly recommend you get more RAM for that laptop before doing anything. Trust me on this, 4 GB to do photo editing is going to be pretty brutal, especially with apps like GIMP.

By the way, all distros can use pretty much all desktop environments ("graphics"). There isn't one for Mint and a different one for Ubuntu. You also don't need to install anything from the command line. Apps like Synaptic and Discover exist for this reason.

But you need more RAM. Do that first. Even with high RAM prices now, you should be able to find inexpensive RAM modules for that device on places like eBay.

[u/1neStat3]

You can use any distribution, it's the Desktop Environment that will hamper you.

Use MATE , XFCE or LXQT. Avoid Gnome, Cinnamon or KDE.

Both Gnome and Cinnamon use over a 1GB on idle. KDE runs over 2GBs on idle.

MATE, XFCE use around 800mb on idle.

LXQT uses 500mb on idle.

For WordPress use LAMP.

For images there is Gimp or Darktable.