Reasons Why you Might Not Like Lightweight Linux Distributions As A Newbie

There are hundreds of Linux distributions and users choose the one based on their day-to-day tasks. Some of the popular Linux distros are Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora, etc. Other than this I also suggest users choose a lightweight distro when they’re starting to use Linux. But, In this post, I’ll talk about the Lightweight Linux distributions and why Lightweight Linux distributions may be bothersome. Although there are benefits of using Light Linux distributions there is also a fact that I experienced through my blog readers.
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Some of the most popular Linux distributions are Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora. If a newbie wants to adopt Linux, he is most likely to get these three Linux distributions when he searches the Web. But, as a newbie, he won’t directly switch to any of these Linux distros because of their alienating looks for Windows users. But new Linux users can start their exploration with many easy to use Linux distributions out there. 
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A lightweight Linux distribution is less in size. Whereas normally Linux distribution has size 1GB+, the lightweight Linux distributions are only in between 500MB to 800MB, some are even lesser than that. The smaller size is due to the fewer numbers of packages included in the OS. For advanced users having not installed large numbers of packages, is not a problem but for a newbie that can be a problem. While the user is tinkering with his Linux box, he configures different applications, and in Linux, most packages require some other packages to be installed what is called dependency. In simple terms, A dependency of an application is the requirement without which the application won’t work properly or won’t install at all. For example, if you’re installing XDM (Xtreme Download Manager), it depends on Java. If the JAVA is not installed XDM won’t install). A new user can take it as a problem with the system, but that’s just the requirement of the application that the user system does not have. A lightweight Linux distribution does not have hundreds of packages installed, approximately every application that is installed in lightweight distro requires dependencies. Sometimes dependencies are available in the official repositories but many times that’s not. When the dependency is available in the repositories the terminal will download and install it automatically for the application to work properly but in otherwise, the application won’t install.

Depending on what title of the article looks like, one might assume that I hate lightweight Linux distributions. But, It’s NOT. I use lightweight Linux distributions, I love lightweight Linux distributions, I find lightweight Linux distributions faster than other distros loaded with thousands of packages. But a new user will never like to see the dependency errors whenever installing any applications. That’s just annoying when happens again & again.