Five fast, free Linux distros that feel incredibly quick

When you need a desktop that reads new apps just like they were old favorites, won’t sand down your curious children’s sharp corners or compromise the secrets of armies, your Linux distribution choice enters the equation.

And having tested them hands-on in aging ThinkPads and a modern mini-PC, these five distros invariably felt the fastest to use—a small pleasure now, but one that will cost you nothing to download or install.

I focused on cold boot time, the memory footprint at idle, and responsiveness when launching day-to-day tools. Depending on your hardware and drivers, results will differ, but some trends emerge: taking lightweight desktops, not running background services, and using a light-and-fast init system are what make these fast.

antiX Linux for ultra low-resource PCs and laptops

antiX is a Debian-based speedster that can be booted into SysVinit or runit, comes with IceWM/Fluxbox out of the box, and uses less memory. On a 2012 ThinkPad with an SSD installed, the runit version booted to a usable desktop in the low tens of seconds, taking up 170–250 MB of idle RAM by my test.

Third-party compositors should feel like a heavyweight, but there isn’t one in antiX. There aren’t bloated services; everything feels smooth and fast with the common changes you need to make in the control center. And since it’s pulling packages from Debian repositories, you still have access to an enormous package ecosystem but with stripped-down overhead. It’s one of the very few that still feels comfortable to use on a 32-bit machine and yet feels comfortably modern for day-to-day tasks.

Void Linux is lean and lightning fast on modern hardware

What’s so intoxicating about Void is its simplicity: the runit init system, lightweight XBPS package manager, and choice to use either glibc or musl. With Xfce or LXQt, Void feels instantaneous—snappy windowing, prompt app launching, and little background churn. On a tiny form factor PC with an NVMe drive, the boot-to-desktop was under 10 seconds, and idle memory usage with Xfce was consistently 200–300 MB.

There being no systemd, services start and stop quickly; you can feel it when booting or shutting down. Runit’s low overhead is repeatedly shown in community benchmarks like those available from Phoronix, and Void demonstrates this on the desktop.

Lubuntu with LXQt for modern desktops and everyday use

Lubuntu combines Ubuntu’s drivers and repositories with the LXQt desktop to offer a super-speedy, low-friction experience that is beginner-friendly. It’s not quite as featherweight as IceWM or Fluxbox, but you get a more traditional workflow and very good hardware support. On a SATA SSD laptop, boots took in the mid-teens of seconds and idle memory was ~350 MB or so depending on which services were enabled.

LXQt ensures GPU effects are kept to a minimum and keeps the panel responsive, with Ubuntu LTS providing long-term updates. If you look for speed without compromising on accessibility—or if you administer machines for others—Lubuntu makes good sense.

Puppy Linux is a 100% RAM operating system

Puppy is a family of very small, yet full-featured distributions which load into RAM and run. Whether you opt for a release based on Ubuntu, Debian, or Void, the story stays rock-solid and consistent: sub-second app launch times, near-instant windowing, and everything feels sprightly even when running on decade-old hardware. All of that has a frugal install and makes use of SquashFS, so I/O to disk needs are small—hence why it feels lightning-fast off USB sticks.

It can be installed on 32-bit and 64-bit systems, and the Puppy Package Manager lets you pull packages from upstream repositories. And because it runs as root by default, the best advice I can give here is that it’s best for single-user or offline tasks—but if we’re talking about speed demonstration, few distros beat this.

Bodhi Linux with the Moksha desktop for speed and style

Bodhi’s Moksha desktop (an evolution of Enlightenment 17) is a master class in efficiency: animated, stylish, and lighter than you’d expect. Window shading, right-click menus anywhere, and granular effects give a buttoned-up feel while not being too hard on the CPU. On an older Core i5 laptop, I measured idle memory at between 250–350 MB and a buttery-smooth experience launching both browsers and editors.

Built on an Ubuntu LTS core, Bodhi only includes all of the best software to get students started and has plenty of room for more. It’s an excellent choice if you’re looking for something that looks a little different but also runs quickly and can be tailored to your work habits.

How I Test for Speed and Why It Corresponds With Real Use

Speed is a boot chart, and more. For me, time to first interaction, app launching delay, and how snappy the system feels when doing light multitasking is what I care about most. To troubleshoot, the footprints are there: tools like systemd-analyze (in systemd distros), runit service listings, and memory snaps give you ideas, but the human part—does it start lagging when you open a browser with quite a few tabs?—matters most.

Patterns are backed up by both public testing on the part of projects and reporters: LXQt’s low overhead is well documented—Enlightenment/Moksha has long focused on performance—and Phoronix’s benchmarks frequently highlight how a more minimalist init system can boost startup time. As always, your mileage may vary based on the speed of your storage and drivers, but these are five distros that consistently feel quicker than the defaults.

All five are free to download and use, with support from volunteer communities and donations through their projects. Whether you’re rocking an older PC—or an inexpensive one that feels slow after years of accumulated grime—these new components and upgrades will enable the performance you want with less waiting. The best kind of Linux is one that leaves you alone.