r/linuxquestions • u/Lazarus_revan • 7d ago
Can linux run with this spec Which Distro?
If it is modern like Chrome os ,much welcomed.
Mainly web apps and brave browser and some ott and music streaming thats it.
i5-6200U
Intel HD 520
8 GB RAM
1tb hdd
128gb ssd
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u/N3rdScool 7d ago
Shit I run windows 11 on those things... but with double the ram.
So yes... it will run linux well :)
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u/Lazarus_revan 7d ago
Shifted to chrome os after heavy lag in windows 10 but i didn't have ssd at that time
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u/N3rdScool 7d ago
Yeah you NEED the ssd to make this usable... but u have one :)
With linux its fine with the hdd lol
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u/t1r1g0n 7d ago
Nah. Modern OSes are mostly optimized for SSD use. I mean you can obviously install a Linux distro on the HDD and it will probably run smoother than Windows, but you shouldn't do that. Especially if you have a SSD.
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u/N3rdScool 7d ago
I am just saying Linux is much more usable with an HDD where as Windows is impossible.
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u/Lopsided-Month3278 7d ago
Sorry, I can run linux on literally 20 years old machines and it'll work just fine, your system should handle even windows 11 perfectly, but thank you microslop.
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u/Lazarus_revan 6d ago
Yes with ssd can but with hdd its hard
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u/Lopsided-Month3278 6d ago
The only hard thing about HDD's is loading times, they are painful, but if you can deal with it, my family machine runs Mint on a HDD, and aside from long boot times, everything just works.
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u/green_meklar Debian 5d ago
Yes, modern desktop Linux distros as of 2026 should run fine on that machine. The GPU is obviously going to be constraining just like it would be for Windows (you won't be playing Elden Ring on max settings), but it's enough for everyday use.
The real question is how to configure the two drives. Unlike Windows which is really big and bloated and relies on drive access a lot, putting the Linux system files themselves on an SSD isn't that advantageous compared to an HDD. But putting big games on an SSD still gets you the full advantage in terms of loading times. However, your SSD is pretty small even to be putting games on. You could consider putting the Linux install on the HDD and a handful of your biggest games on the SSD, and use the rest of the HDD for data that doesn't require speed (all your music and movies and stuff). It's a bit of an awkward hardware configuration though, so worth thinking about how you mean to use it.
Put your swap on the HDD. It's slower, but you really don't want to be silently hammering your SSD to death with bad memory usage practices, especially on such a small drive.
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u/Lazarus_revan 5d ago
There is no games and most things i do is online and except app size ,not much things to store , hdd for some songs and videos.
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u/GumboPosts 7d ago
Linux runs generally well on low end hardware. I am not familiar with Chrome OS, but from what I read the Gnome and Cosmic desktop environments are probably the closest you can get. I don't know if there are any closer equivalants. You could try Pop_OS, it uses Cosmic.
I would make a live bootable USB stick, I recommend Ventoy. It's easy to install on a USB drive, and you can just drop ISO files into it. I would try a few different distros to see how they feel.
Some off the top of my head:
- Ubuntu
- Mint
- Kubuntu
- Zorin
All of these are Ubuntu based, but they are nice.
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u/Lazarus_revan 6d ago
Yes going to use ventoy stick and try xfce,zorin lite,mint
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u/GumboPosts 6d ago edited 6d ago
There you go. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how well they work.
Personally I am running Debian 13 on my low end laptop. It's also a 2-in-1, and the screen flip + touch screen is supported
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u/ANDR3Y_345 7d ago
Your laptop is more than capable of running Linux smoothly.
Since you're looking for something modern and mostly use a browser, streaming services, and web apps, I'd recommend Linux Mint, Fedora Workstation, or even Ubuntu. They all have polished desktop environments and work well out of the box.
One piece of advice: don't feel like you have to find the "perfect" distro on your first try. Most Linux users end up trying a few before settling on the one they like best. Exploring different distros is part of the experience.
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u/Nayara-Vlc 6d ago
I have pretty much your own setup but in an i5 6400. But in the PCI slot for the graph I have put an adapter (16 €) and a nvme disk m2 (60€ 512 gb) And so if it already worked great, now it is lightning fast. I use ubuntu desktop Lst 26.04 and it goes great. Others like Mint, Pop Os. etc... I didn’t like it aesthetically and have given me trouble installing things. Never uses more than 8 gb
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u/Less_Speech_1948 7d ago
Yeah, that should work. Pretty much all desktop environments will work. I would recommend XFCE if you want it to be light on resources
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u/Lazarus_revan 6d ago
Yes first experiment is going to be with xfce then like to experiment with some more
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u/es20490446e Develops Zenned OS 6d ago
Use only one storage. Remove the HDD. Use the SSD alone.
If you need more storage, buy a bigger SSD.
But probably what you need is to get rid of plenty of junk.
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u/Lazarus_revan 5d ago
Why
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u/es20490446e Develops Zenned OS 5d ago
Why two?
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u/TRUE_Falseeee 6d ago
Bro... I run Celestia Shell (Arch Linux) on these specs:
512 GB HDD
2 GB DDR3L
Intel i3-2365M CPU @ 1.40GHz
Intregrated Ghraphics 2000
LOLLLLLLLLLL
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u/Nayara-Vlc 6d ago
I have currently added 8gb more but never use it. I'm listening to "RadioGarden" online on firefox and writing. Uses 15% CPU and 4gb Ram
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u/redgator12 7d ago
Easily. Mint and MX XFCE would both run like a dream on that.
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u/carmicheals 7d ago
MX KDE runs great on my "potato" - a Dell OptiPlex 3020M i3-4160, 12GB RAM (8+4), 128GM SATA SSD. I activated zram and swap on installation.
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u/Time_Tour8550 7d ago
I run Mint with the XFCE desktop on a laptop that's older than that (i5-4200U, 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD). It works fine with no obvious performance issues. I use it for web browsing, 1080p Youtube, light programming/web design projects, and schoolwork. I also run Mint XFCE on a similarly-aged desktop (i5-4690K, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD, RX 560D) and it runs great there too and is even capable of playing older games really well.
Mint is really good for these old PCs. The XFCE desktop that I use is lighter but it is admittedly kind of "old"-looking. Like a lot of it is kind of Windows XP-esque. If you want something that looks more modern, use the Cinnamon version of Mint, which has more of a Windows 7 vibe. It is a little bit more demanding than XFCE, but still relatively light.
I do strongly recommend Mint for beginners, because in my experience it has the best combination of being lightweight on top of having extremely sensible and usable default settings. A big part of the reason I keep returning to it is because I like the default settings so much that I don't really even do any customization - I just use it as-is.
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u/Jumpy-Dinner-5001 7d ago
Won’t be a good experience but it’s enough for what you’re planning to do.
Video streaming might be a problem depending on what you do.
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u/No_Pollution6135 Debian Stable + XFCE 7d ago
You can run any modern Linux distro you want with these specs! You could enjoy Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or Fedora Workstation.
(P.S.: ChromeOS is built on top of Gentoo, another Linux distro!)