This page provides some general information and suggestions, in hope that it may aid in your choice from various AOSC OS variants provided for x86-64-based systems. Only processor, memory, display, GPU, and storage requirements are provided below.
Moreover, development, and container variants not intended for installation are not discussed here.
Variants§
AOSC OS is provided with the following installable and bootable variants, each with their own features and implications on their system requirements. System requirements may vary greatly between different variants, but processor requirements are known for each architecture (although suggestions will be provided for each variant for ideal experience):
- Any EMT64/AMD64 compatible x86-64 processors.
- SSE3 support required (will not work on some early AMD Opteron/Athlon64 processors).
And provided with the following variants:
Base§
This variant of AOSC OS is intended for non-graphical and minimal installation, users are provided with basic tools for system management, text editing, network connection, and Internet connectivity support. This variant is suitable for server configuration with additional software packages installed.
- Processor: Any processor supported.
- Memory: 128MB, 512MB recommended for heavier workload (Node.js).
- Storage: 8GB minimum, 16GB recommended.
- Display: Not necessary (SSH, Serial).
- GPU: Not necessary.
KDE/Plasma Desktop§
KDE, or Plasma Desktop is a complete desktop interface and application suite. This is the heaviest variant of AOSC OS, highly taxing on processor, memory, and GPU. Not recommended for older laptops and desktops with integrated graphics (Intel i965 will do, but anything older will struggle).
- Processor: Any processor supported, Intel Sandy Bridge recommended.
- Memory: 2GB, 4GB or more recommended.
- Storage: 32GB minimum, 64GB recommended.
- Display: XGA, 1080p or higher recommended.
- GPU: Required, with OpenGL 2.1+ support.
GNOME§
GNOME, with its GNOME Shell interface, is a fully featured desktop environment with relatively high demand on processor, memory, and GPU. Many x86-64 laptop, desktop of ~8 years of age should run GNOME just fine. A faster GPU may help with desktop performance.
- Processor: Any processor supported, Intel Sandy Bridge recommended.
- Memory: 2GB, 4GB or more recommended.
- Storage: 32GB minimum, 64GB recommended.
- Display: XGA, 1080p or higher recommended.
- GPU: Required, with OpenGL 2.1+ support.
MATE§
A fork of GNOME 2, therefore less taxing on graphic card (GPU), this is not a lightweight desktop environment, however. Any x86-64-based system should be able to run MATE just fine. MATE Desktop is built against GTK 3, a working GPU with 2D acceleration may boost desktop performance dramatically.
- Processor: Any processor supported, Core 2 Duo recommended.
- Memory: 512MB, 1GB or more recommended for multitasking.
- Storage: 32GB minimum, 64GB recommended.
- Display: SVGA, XGA or higher recommended.
- GPU: Recommended, but framebuffer device support will do.
XFCE§
XFCE is a relatively lightweight, and fully modular desktop environment. XFCE has a smaller memory footprint, and takes less storage space. XFCE is based on GTK 3, thus its system requirements are similar to those of MATE Desktop.
- Processor: Any processor supported.
- Memory: 256MB, 512MB or more recommended for multitasking.
- Storage: 32GB minimum, 64GB recommended.
- Display: SVGA, XGA or higher recommended.
- GPU: Recommended, but framebuffer device support will do.
LXDE§
LXDE is lighter (yet) than XFCE, also fully modular, and based on GTK 3. Recommended for older x86-64-based systems, say, those equipped with a Pentium 4 Prescott (EMT64 supported).
- Processor: Any processor supported.
- Memory: 256MB, 512MB or more recommended for multitasking.
- Storage: 32GB minimum, 64GB recommended.
- Display: SVGA, XGA or higher recommended.
- GPU: Recommended, but framebuffer device support will do.
Extra Notes§
- Web Browsers, especially mainstream choices like Chromium (Google Chrome), and Firefox may require significantly more memeory capacity and processing power. It will be very difficult to browse any webpage smoothly with an older processor like Intel Pentium 4/D's or AMD Athlon64's with less than 2GB (arguably 4GB) of RAM. As of this note, this Wiki page is edited on a Lenovo ThinkPad T61, with an Intel Core 2 T9300 processor and 8GB of RAM, running Chromium 62.
- If you would like to use DKMS-based Linux Kernel addons, it is required for your system to compile these addon modules, which could require a significant amount of processing power - but not necessarily RAM.
- Installing system updates on a 5400 RPM or slower HDD (mechanical hard disk drives) will require significantly greater amount of time, even on older systems.