If you are a low-end Linux enthusiast, I would also recommend the Trinity desktop. Just as MATE is a continuation of GNOME 2, Trinity is a modern version of KDE 3. I was quite surprised how light and functional it is.
If you want to give it a shot in a VM, the Q4OS distro includes it as a default DE option. If you really want to be impressed what can be done with little RAM, try the 32 bit version of Q4OS.
What do you think of Thunar? I know it is part of XFCE but I think it would fit in well on MATE.
MATE is a bit heavier than XFCE.
I don’t love the default XFCE look but the default in distros like EndeavourOS or CachyOS are awesome. It is like a totally different DE.
I am not sure how I feel about it but there seems to be some resistance in the GTK world. Desktops like Cinnamon,MATE, and XFCE have said they are going to stick with GTK3. Mint has proposed a common suite of GTK3 apps called Xapps that would maintain GTK3 versions of some of the applications that GNOME has pulled to GTK4.
https://linuxmint-developer-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/xapps.html
One of the best things about the GTK world was that you had a choice of DEs but got the same universe of “native” applications with any of them. Sadly, it seems that there may now be GNOME and “other GTK” DE universes. On the plus side, there will be a haven for those that want off the GNOME train without as much “left behind” feel as MATE users have had.
Um, it is fast and light?
United Linux - the famous Red Hat Enterprise Linux killer!
I think you mean Chimera Linux
I never used Caldera Linux but I did use their DOS for a while.
DSL is basically an Antix spin now ( which is itself basically just Debian ).
I had not noticed that KDE is available for Chimera now. Very cool.
WSL isn’t a distro.
I think you mean Azure Linux ( formerly CBL Mariner ):
They are using pacman obviously :)
Well, since they missed 24.10 as well, it is going to be 25.04 at this point.
I hate to fanboy but EndeavourOS is awesome.
My advice as well!
I just put one down as I walked away from the couch a few minutes ago. :)
I bought it to carry in my backpack in Europe. Super light. Super handy. And inexpensive enough that I did not worry too much of it being lost, broken, or stolen ( which it never was ).
It is more important what it can be upgraded to. RAM will be cheaper tomorrow ( historically ).
The problem is the non-upgradable trend in laptops. Ironically I have MacBooks from 2012 with 16 GB in them but much never ones that are stuck at 8.
I am running Wayland on my 2013 MacBook Air. Joe old is your hardware?
If you do try Haiku, use Falkon as the web browser. You will have a much better experience than the other Haiku browser options.