The two-minute check nobody else has built

Will Linux actually work on this PC?

Almost every "switch to Linux" guide skips the part that actually decides your install day: which graphics chip and which Wi-Fi card you have. Those two — plus BitLocker and your printer — cause nearly all the horror stories, and every one of them is checkable before you commit. Four questions, honest answers, and the known fix for anything that flags.

Last updated: 8 August 2026Runs in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere

This checker needs JavaScript (it runs entirely in your browser — nothing you answer leaves your machine). The short version of what it checks: Intel graphics and Intel/Atheros Wi-Fi just work. NVIDIA GTX 750/900/10-series cards work via a legacy driver that's now maintenance-only; GTX 600-series and 760–780 lost their NVIDIA driver in mid-2026 and fall back to a basic open-source one. Broadcom Wi-Fi (BCM43142, 4352, 4360) is the genuine trouble brand — proprietary driver, Secure Boot complications; a ~$30 MediaTek USB adapter is the clean fix. Realtek Wi-Fi works on modern kernels (the RTL8723BE "sees no networks" problem is a one-line antenna fix). Back up your BitLocker recovery key before touching the boot setup. Printers post-2012 mostly just work; scanning is a separate driver stack — test both from a live USB. Full guide here.

Why these four questions

We read the research so you don't have to: the failure modes that actually strand people on install day are, in order, Wi-Fi drivers (one brand in particular), graphics drivers (one manufacturer's older cards in particular), BitLocker recovery-key surprises, and scanners — which use a completely different driver stack from printing, a fact that surprises everyone the first time. CPU speed and memory are almost never the problem: if this machine ran Windows 10, it's fast enough for Linux — the Windows 11 barrier is a policy rule, not a performance verdict.

Like our ESU checker, this is a questionnaire, not a fake "scan" — a web page cannot read your hardware, and anyone claiming otherwise is bluffing. Your answers never leave this page.

What this tool won't do

It won't pretend a red flag is green to keep you excited, and it won't pretend Linux is wrong for you because one component needs a workaround — both dishonesties are everywhere in this genre and both waste your weekend. And if what you actually need is to decide between staying on Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux or a Mac, that's a different question — the path finder handles it.