Starting using linux, recommendations?
Starting using linux, recommendations?
The issue with using HDD alongside Windows is that it begins relying on a swap file prematurely, especially when RAM isn’t nearly full. To prevent this on Linux, avoid setting up a swap partition during installation. Modern Ubuntu systems typically don’t generate a swap file, though you can verify this after installation. For improved speed, consider dedicating your main SSD to Linux and partitioning it directly—most installers handle this seamlessly without needing extra hardware.
ZRAM swaps out the swap partition or file, though it may save data to a swapfile. This approach mirrors what happens in Windows. Both systems begin with memory allocation and then switch to swap/pagefile when needed.
Windows tends to rely heavily on swap memory. There are many discussions about this topic, including the one you mentioned. On Linux systems, you can adjust the vm.smappiness setting—by default it’s around 60%, but you can lower it to 0 if your storage is very slow, causing the system to use swap only when necessary.
The highlight of browsing for distros is testing them live. The five I’ve tried are Solus with OS, Linux Mint, Manjaro, Ubuntu with KDE Plasma.