I’m going to replace my host os on my shitty laptop with Linux specifically puppy Linux or alpine Linux from scratch and I need to know how will I get started and make it easier for myself, I use a HP notebook 540

  • If you go with Alpine, the general setup instructions should be OK and similar to other distros.

    Get the image on a USB, boot from USB, run setup-alpine and choose system-disk mode. Possibly encrypted if you think you need that.

    After install you’ll be dropped to the terminal again.

    There are some post install notes here https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Installation#Post-Installation but you can run setup-desktop and get it to install a usable Xfce desktop, for example.

    The LXQt DE is a good choice for older devices. The wiki has a guide for it but needs a slight update. It should still work but may require switching to edge.

    Puppy Linux is a fine choice too if your computer is a little on the old side. Lite, Peppermint, Trisquel, antiX, and a slew of others are worth looking at.