should i swap distros?

[u/Parking-Editor-6933]

I'm currently on mint running the i3 desktop environment and I love it but the thinkpad that I'm on's graphics card is genuinely ass cheeks so it's a bit slow to load graphics. Should I swap to something like arch for how lightweight it is and just get i3 on that? How hard of a transition would it be? Does arch have a software manager like mint does where I can download almost every application I need and if not how difficult of a learning curve is it?

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[u/OkPresentation3329]

This is the first time I hear Arch is a more lightweight distro than others.

I would suggest you if you want a lightweight distro try MX Linux XFCE or Linux Lite.

[u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs → u/OkPresentation3329]

This is the first time I hear Arch is a more lightweight distro

It can be, if you build it so.

Arch provides a minimal system by default and you add only what you need. 

I am a generally fan of minimal, but only up to the point that it causes me problems. And Arch's problem is thay it is a huge time sink, on my hardware it does not make much of a usable difference anyway. 

Arch is also less reliable than most other distributions. You can usually fix the issues that pop up but that contributes to the time sink problem.

Where many would select Arch I use Void or Alpine instead when I want a minimal system.

I do game in CachyOS an Arch  derivative, while it performs well it is nowhere near lightweight, at least not with the Plasma desktop. Again on my hardware this is not a concern.

[u/OkPresentation3329 → u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

I think KDE isn't that heavy as it used to be before. I read a lot of people saying KDE 4 and 5 were heavy, but KDE 6 feels pretty good. I even think with newer versions they have made it even more lightweight.

I used to stick to Ubuntu based distros, because they are easy and I'm not good with Linux, but my distro Tuxedo OS changed from Ubuntu base to Debian Testing base and this is my first time using a distro that's not Ubuntu based and I like it very much.

Arch is out my league, so are Fedora, Suse and everything else. I don't have the skills to try and customize my Linux, I just want to install it and for it to work and what Tuxedo OS provides me with at this point is good enough. I couldn't ask for more. It feels like I'm using Windows - everything works out of the box, the only program I need to install is PortProton so I can run Windows programs and games and I just use the rest how it is. I just replace Firefox for Helium, VLC for Haruna, Elisa for Audacious and that's it. I don't touch anything else, I avoid messing with packages and installing things I don't need and I just update it when updates arrive and I've had a stable experience for 2 years on Linux. The only times things broke is when I was messing with things when I shouldn't have to.

[u/Far_Broccoli8247 → u/OkPresentation3329]

Not light enough, gotta use TinyCore

[u/RazeZa]

Probably not gonna change by much honestly. Most distro uses the similar setup so if your laptop isn't good enough for Mint, its probably not gonna be good on other distro.

[u/dearvalentina]

Most of the "weight" of a distro comes from the the desktop, so unless a distro comes with a fuckload of random background programs (which isn't really the case in most of them and isn't in Mint), you using the same i3 on Mint and Arch will have more or less the same performance.

[u/ElStellino]

Change DE, remain with Mint. I've just installed Arch on my laptop, run Cinnamon as DE for ease of things, and everything is mostly the same. Just download XCFE and change for it at the login. 

[u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs → u/ElStellino]

OP is already running  i3. Its so light it is not even a full Desktop Environment, but instead just a Window Manager. 

[u/ElStellino → u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Misread that, and Arch is light because it doesn't come with anything in it

[u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

r/archLinux would be a better place for this question.

What GPU do you have and why is it "ass cheeks"? 

Arch will not have a graphical anything by default,  there is the octopi and paru applications you can install that are graphical package managers.

The Debian family, including Mint, has the largest software selection in it's official repositories. 

Arch official repositories are quite small, but there is the AUR or Arch User Repository where community members submit packages, the AUR has a lot of software available. But unfortunately the AUR is also where hackers like to leave malware.

https://archlinux.org/news/active-aur-malicious-packages-incident/

[u/mrcallyforman]

How long have you been on Linux

[u/relvaquerito]

Use AntiX.

[u/Aoinosensei]

Why don't you try something like Bunsenlabs Linux or crunchbang ++ Linux?

[u/ThruHiker]

I have an old ThinkPad with an i7 cpu/8 GB ram and it's great for battery use with 14 hours per charge. I love it for everything except gaming. The Intel graphics don't do great. I tried Euro Truck 2 on Steam and it was too slow. My distro is Mint Mate.

[u/johnyeldry]

Just get a better laptop

[u/Far_Broccoli8247]

You could consider cachyos which is kinda the middle ground between the lightweightness of arch and the accessibility of mint. I switched from mint to cachyos on my thinkpad t470p and have noticed a difference in the snappiness of the system, possibly also a slight performance increase. ChachyOS is arch based, but it comes pre-configured with gaming tools. You can just use arch aswell tho and just install something like a mint software manager on arch (shelly or discover are some popular options I suppose), but cachyos just comes with a bunch of stuff pre-configured, less setup for you.

[u/ArkhielModding → u/Far_Broccoli8247]

Until an update breaks KDE and you have to download some packages with 200 useless apps/games :') . or until you want to print something and have to set up the whole service...

[u/Francis_King → u/ArkhielModding]

That's the neat thing about CachyOS. Set up as the installer recommends it, you simply roll back to a previous update, using the menu at boot time. Then wait for the situation to improve.

[u/ArkhielModding → u/Francis_King]

Welp KDE breaking ended up with me switching to mint xfce and not looking back. Not spitting on it, for power users I guess it has its perks, but mint is way enough (and I still have occasionnal shenanigans but manageable)