All operating systems have requirements, but some like Microsoft list their requirements for Windows 10 ridiculously low:
| Processor: | 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or System on a Chip (SoC) |
| RAM: | 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit |
| Hard drive space: | 16 GB for 32-bit OS 32 GB for 64-bit OS |
| Graphics card: | DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver |
| Display: | 800×600 |
Trying to run Windows 10 with this minimal system would be painfully slow. Good luck running anything more than one program at a time. Internet browsing would be severely limited.
This Windows Central article provides a more realistic Windows 10 experience:
“If you use your Windows 10 computer for word processing, checking emails, browsing the internet, and playing Solitaire, you should have no problem using 4GB of RAM. If you are performing all of these activities at once, however, you might experience a dip in performance.”
Windows Central
For a better experience, I always recommend at least 8 GB RAM to run Windows 10.
Fortunately, not all operating systems are created equal. Linux Mint requires modest system requirements allowing the user to do more with less. This is largely due to the XFCE desktop (more on Linux desktops in a later post). Here’s what it takes:
- 1GB RAM (2GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
- 15GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
- 1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).
These are realistic requirements allowing the user to word process, edit spreadsheets, listen to music or watch videos, play games and even browse the internet.
I can only conclude that Linux Mint XFCE is far more efficient than Windows 10, providing the user with a great experience with less hardware.