Top Linux distribution for hard drives is often Ubuntu or Fedora, both offering strong performance and stability.
Top Linux distribution for hard drives is often Ubuntu or Fedora, both offering strong performance and stability.
Regardless of the distribution you choose, always adjust swappiness to 1. This ensures your system avoids relying on swap space unless necessary. If your swap area resides on a slow storage device, it may significantly impact performance: run `sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=1`
I faced a similar choice and chose not to buy an SSD for my old laptop. I opted for Lubuntu with a 5400rpm HDD, and it functions perfectly. It may open programs slightly slower, but it feels like a solid HDD experience. Lubuntu definitely stands out to me. I'm running version 18.04, though I think a 20.x would be comparable.