Light weight linux distros

[UnknownFallout]

What light weight distros does everyone recommend?

My T430 has i7-3820QM processor, heatsink upgrade, 16 gigs of ram. The device originally came with windows which ran fairly poor, so I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon, which was my first time using Linux. I think Linux is great but the distro is unresponsive and it takes a while to launch programs. I'm assuming the bottleneck for these older devices is most likely DDR3 ram because the installed CPU is pretty zippy still.

With that said I would like to hear what OS's you guys love. I only need to browse the web, launch steam, and rip CD's.

[axur-delmeria]

I generally use Debian with Xfce on my PCs.

Are you using an SSD or a hard drive?

[coolcat37]

Yeah, well tbf, Cinnamon is like Windows 11 compared to Windows 7. It is bloated, full of unnecessary shiznit and so on. I feel Cinnamon is like a tourist trap for linux convertees

Linux Mint Mate is the way to go. Failing that you can try Linux Mint Xfce, but Xfce is less intuitive and handy in certain respects, which I don't care to go and explain right now

Mate runs smooth on my T430 and it has everything you have, 16gigs, the quad, the silent fan etc

If you really want to go distro hopping you can go on distrowatch.con and in the search option you can check or uncheck everything and directly go to the download page

[755cdxd]

When libreboot was ported to t480, I rushed to get one, of course it came with win10. Spent some time playing with it, updating and dumping BIOS images. It was horrible experience...

Xfce 4.20 on my 32bit x60s with sata1 ssd was more responsible then that windows10 on t480! t480 with 8gen i5 and nvme ssd! I put them next to each other, I tell you!

I knew people who liked windows over other systems, but now? Now you better get a Mac and don't embarrass yourself saying something like this...

As other already said, get a system with XFCE. Install nice theme.

[Omineca]

I'll suggest Debian. Look up how to do a minimal install with XFCE, LXDE or LXQT. I have LXDE installed on my L440 (i5-43**) and it is just as responsive as my two-year old work Thinkpad for my purposes (web browsing, streaming videos, word processing, editing spreadsheets, etc.). Your i7-3820QM ought to be faster.