If you're used to administering Debian, check out
Spiral Linux. It's Debian underneath, and uses only Debian upstream repos, but it's (gently) customised out of the box with non-free codecs and drivers, backported Debian kernel, improved smooth font rendering and some nice QoL improvements. Think 'what Ubuntu should have been 20 years ago, but with no extra repos or bloat'. It's by the same guy who makes GeckoLinux (the same concept on OpenSUSE).
The Spiral Linux LXQt spin is very light indeed, and unlike almost everything else 'lightweight' I've ever tried, it doesn't skimp on usability or have stupid 'quirks'. Everything just works as intended and it's fully featured. The zRAM by default helps on lower power hardware as well.
SpiralLinux said:
SpiralLinux features
- Installable live DVD / USB images around 2GB in size and carefully configured for a wide array of popular desktop environments
- Built from Debian Stable packages with newer hardware support preinstalled from Debian Backports
- Easily upgradable to Debian's Testing or Unstable branches with just a few clicks (instructions)
- Optimal Btrfs subvolume layout with Zstd transparent compression and automatic Snapper snapshots bootable via GRUB for easy rollbacks (instructions)
- Graphical manager for Flatpak packages and preconfigured Flatpak theming
- Font rendering and color theming preconfigured for optimal legibility
- Preinstalled proprietary media codecs and non-free Debian package repositories ready to use
- Broad hardware support with a wide array of proprietary firmware preinstalled
- Extensive printer support with relaxed permissions for printer administration
- Optimal power management with TLP preinstalled
- VirtualBox support available out-of-the-box
- Enables zRAM swap by default for better performance on low-end hardware
- Normal users can operate and administer the system without recurring to the terminal
- Depends entirely on the Debian infrastructure, thus avoiding the "developer-hit-by-a-bus" concern
- Installed system can be smoothly upgraded to future Debian releases while retaining its unique SpiralLinux configuration