@nostupidquestions is it true that linux cannot run on a laptop without any SSD ?
I had gone inquiring at a couple of local stores regarding restoring my 2gb Ram laptop with 500gb HDD. At both of the places l was told that l need to put in at least 4gb of fresh ram + insert a bare minimum SSD, otherwise windows wouldn’t run on it.
When l said that l’d be working on linux, this technician guy told me that even linux has become heavy these days. Not sure what he meant by this, but extra ram burns a lot of holes, not mention about the price of SSD.
So, l just want to make sure. Is it true that modern machines won’t work without any SSD or machines with 2gb rams are simply fit for the museum ?
There are versions of Linux that don’t need any internal storage at all, eg. Puppy.
Puppylinux is the first thing that comes to mind.
Then pxe boot + nfs root
I my Raspberry PI got Linux running on an SD card. Thats not SSD either, is it?
I mean, kinda
Is drive? Is solid state?
sd is ssd
Darn
He’s a big box store professional; in other words constantly confidently incorrect.
Also trying to sell you something … potentially on commission.
Linux can run off an HDD.
Hell, there are versions of Linux that are designed to be run off a USB stick.
Running live from usb at the moment.
Hell, there’s even Linux distributions that run off a floppy disk.
https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/boot_floppies.html
https://krzysztofjankowski.com/floppinux/floppinux-2025.html
If you want to run a modern current linux distro on a laptop with only 2gb of ram and 500gb then your options are very limited, but it is possible.
For example. Void Linux with Enlightenment will work. A browser will work ok for basic websites but heavy apps like Gmail will be unusably slow.
If you have no option to upgrade, you can still use a machine with those specs to run linux apps like Abiword, Gnumeric, GIMP, etc very well.
Also, putting in any SSD drive to replace the spinning one is the single best upgrade you can make in terms of performance and longevity on an old laptop.
No, this is wrong, Linux can run on an HDD.
Linux runs on a potato, you may need to be picky about the distro the more resource constrained you are, but that’s it.
Or may want a bigger potato for convenience.
Or a sweet potato for a better user experience.
Or a bag of potato chips for a more Windows-like experience.
I used up all my potatoes. Does plantain work as well?
Plantain, turnip, yeah it’s all good!
You can still run a modern Linux from a floppy disk. Run it from a USB drive or a HDD, they are cheap.
it will work, you will just feel more pain from not having enough memory. Try something like AntiX or Puppy Linux. Not sure what you can do with 2GB nowadays though. Having more memory is more important than having a fast disk. How much is DRR2/3 for you?
No.
In system requirements, windows vs any normal linux distro isn’t even contest. That said, 2 gb is very little. You’re gonna have to find a lightweight distro meant for old hardware.
Linux runs on toasters and light bulbs, literally. You can run it on whatever, depending on your use-case.
I’d recommend tinycore for this computer since it’s ram is so limited
This depends a lot more on what you plan on doing once the OS boots. I accidentally loaded Win11 on an HDD (disk 0 was HDD, not SSD) for a few hours. It was noticeably slow, but it ran my diagnostics utilities well enough.
If you’re using it for light web browsing, basic office software, etc, then it might be fine.
But something else caught my attention - you inquired about “restoring” it at shops, meaning you intend to pay money. SSD and RAM are obviously what anyone would upgrade, and you’re balking at it. More to the point, you expect to run Linux, but didn’t even install it as-is to test it out?
There’s some missing context here. Also, 2gb laptops haven’t been a thing in a very long time. You might very well get a better deal by just buying a used newer model that already has what you’re looking for.
You don’t even need an ssd or hdd. The ram will hurt more.
Linux can run on a fucking potato.
It can also run on a celibate potato - it’s very flexible
It has no qualms with the life choices of the potato.
@kmartburrito @NegativeLookAhead what’s a celibate potato ?
A wordplay.
If there is a “fucking potato” there should also be a “celibate potato”
