Give me some reasons to choose manjaro over other distro(s)

Non-technical Questions
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Hi, I have and use the Old PC from the 2010.
The Specs are as follows:

  • 2GB+1GB DDR3 RAM;
  • 4GB to Swap (Barely swap is used);
  • AMD Sempron 145
  • Integrated Graphics - AMD RS780L (Radeon 3000)
  • DE: GNOME :crazy_face:
  • 500 GB Seagate HDD

When I first installed Manjaro, I had only the 2GB Stick and was comfortable running GNOME with surfing the web with Firefox, compiling small programs, Playing Movies and etc. Then, after a few months later, gradually as I increased to use more programs and made to run simultaneously side-by-side, the lack of memory was made clear, as the programs couldn’t run as fast as they did earlier.

So, I decided to increase RAM for my PC so, I "borrowed" :yum: :face_with_hand_over_mouth:a Gig of RAM from my friend so that my PC could get a bit better. With the 3GB of RAM, now my PC is so much better. That 1GB of RAM really did made a world of difference, as my booting time significantly reduced and programs are more responsive than before.

As my 10 year old processor :woozy_face: still possess a hindrance, frequently my CPU Usage shoots straight up to 90%+ when attempted to play a 1080p Video running in the background, with 3/4 Firefox Tabs, 2/3 Terminal Windows, 1/2 Gedit text editor windows. Well, when I attempted to just run a 1080p video, the CPU Usage just climbs to 50% - 60% and struggles to play it in Full screen with the Frame drops are so intense and screen tearing.

So, my point is Manjaro is a great distro. I choose Manjaro as I liked it and suits me well. I try sometimes the other distros with live booting, yet, they don’t make me feel as Manjaro. With Manjaro, I feel at home. And, it’s my personal opinion. That 1GB lender friend, runs his laptop with Parrot OS, feels comfortable with the Parrot OS. Everyone is unique and have different needs and uses.

For your specs, 1st try our Manjaro, then maybe, Arch, Debian, Peppermint OS, Puppy Linux, or ever Arch Labs / Bunsen Labs.

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Yes, the graphics is what bumped me off my core2duo with ancient (and not too friendly) nVidia card to grab the i3-4130. The core2duo wasn’t bad at all, lowish power (about 54W) and decent power, but for video/desktop effects the benefit was massive - and dropping the discrete GPU suits me too as ithat had been my reason for needing to upgrade my PSU to 650W. I could happily run now on much less… but with modern browsers it’s hard to drop the RAM.

I love this guy to bits - he’s jumping on the upgrade bandwagon (which is why DDR3 is more expensive now than DDR4)… He tests a couple of installs, good information for you here.

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1GB of RAM is way too low for anything, CPU power is not that important for basic things (unless you have a crappy Atom), but you need minimum 2GB of RAM to do anything useful. An SSD also helps a lot.

I gave my mom a Core 2 with 4GB RAM (DDR2) and a 32GB SSD, she uses it for web browsing and email and it’s been working great for at least 4 years. It feels pretty responsive running Manjaro XFCE.

I recommend you either get more RAM or look for a specialized distro for very old computers, like Puppy Linux, otherwise you’ll get very disappointed.

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Running Manjaro with 2Gb, daily without issue. That’s not to say 3Gb+ wouldn’t be much smoother, just that it is possible.

+1 for Puppy for low spec hardware. Used that for a good while. Access to a wider more up to date repository and better desktop environment integration is why I switched to Manjaro XFCE.

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Allright you guys thanks for all of your support. I think i have what i want until now.

  1. I need more ram (like 4gb)
  2. This community is awesome!
  3. I will never leave such a friendly community.
  4. Distro(s) or DE(s) don’t matter.
  5. I will come back again after i buy some ram.
  6. Feel free to stop contributing to this question.
    :slightly_smiling_face:
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