No, this is wrong, Linux can run on an HDD.

The 2GB of RAM are going to hit you harder than the HDD, if you intend to run a modern browser on it…

Linux can run off an HDD.

Hell, there are versions of Linux that are designed to be run off a USB stick.

You don't even need a HDD or SSD. You can just run from the boot media.

He's a big box store professional; in other words constantly confidently incorrect.

Linux can run on a fucking potato.

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, but an SSD really does make the computer a lot faster, no matter the OS.

Considering that Linux existed long before SSDs did...

I first installed Linux in 1993......

It can even run diskless just over the network. Like Ubuntu diskless booting.

You can run some distros from a 2gb USB stick. Not sure what these guys are talking about th.

2GB is cutting it short. Not for Linux, that runs fine. But the modern internet doesn't, regardless of what browser you use.
2x2GB RAM shouldn't cost much, that's useless for AI.

Linux barely needs a CPU.

I'm joking, but if you loaded up a lightweight distro on that it'd probably be fine

Explaining Computers did a video about running various Linuxes on various low performance machines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJGf8zVt3MI

As someone who is running a ancient compaq laptop, with 4gb of ram, Debian 13, I can say that it works just fine. Cant do gaming etc with it, but all I do with this is use the browser, IRC and watch a racing stream every weekend. Works perfectly fine with those.

No, it is not true

The low ram is a problem but why not just try it? Its free

You can still run a modern Linux from a floppy disk. Run it from a USB drive or a HDD, they are cheap.

https://www.slitaz.org/de/

There are versions of Linux that don't need any internal storage at all, eg. Puppy.

An SSD will improve responsiveness, but it's not strictly necessary. Linux is less HDD/SSD sensitive than Windows, but the difference is still there.

However 2GB is really pushing your limits. You'll get to desktop, but you'll struggle to get a web browser happy with that. If you want to make a headless server out of it, however, that's a perfectly fine amount.

you can actually run it on ram and not disk (see tinycore linux) and have the system faster than even an ssd

Linux can easily be run on your 500 MB HDD, it can also be run from an USB stick or even a DVD.

Linux can even run on the original Raspberry Pi, a single board computer with only 512 MB RAM!

You should probably look for a distro that is made for older systems, but if you do that, it should work very well. There are obviously limitations with only 2GB RAM. So I wouldn't use a resource heavy desktop like KDE/Plasma.

That tech has the same teacher that says Americans only shit once a week. https://startrek.website/post/39583672

If you don't plan to do heavy internet browsing, an HDD is good enough for a light distro. But an SSD will definitely improve the experience.

Regarding RAM, this is a tough one. If you use the right DE + terminal app combo, 2 GB should be good.

Even windows 10 will run on 2 gig of ram and hdd.

the thing about linux is it depends what you put on it. there are lightweight distros. that being said if you can put an ssd in something do it as nothing outside of more ram when you are maxing it improves it as much as an ssd. I mean im sure if you go back far enough in cpu the drive may no longer be the bottleneck.

You don't even need an ssd or hdd. The ram will hurt more.

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.

I my Raspberry PI got Linux running on an SD card. Thats not SSD either, is it?

Linux runs on toasters and light bulbs, literally. You can run it on whatever, depending on your use-case.

You can run Linux just fine from 2GB and a HDD, but expect it to be slower. Modern web browsers alone require that much RAM.

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?

Just download a minimal build for a distro. Include a window manager instead of a desktop environment. It will have some problems running browsers and other biggish apps but still be usable.

No*

*: Distro dependent. A modern desktop distro might require slightly less than a modern build. But no matter what hardware you have, there are didtros that can run on it.

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.

I "inherited" my sons netbook, which had 32GB flash, because Windows plus Office wasted 27GB and then wanted to download an 8GB update. I installed Kubuntu with LibreOffice and a number of other packages I needed for the project, and was way below 5GB used.

It'll work, but modern apps might be slow as fuck with how they call for data to be loaded from storage if you're using a hard drive. Though I kinda doubt this is a huge problem in programs other than video games.

But also: You ca run Linux from a thumb drive or CD and not even have a storage device at all in the PC.