a linux version using `find` to list files and `head` to take the first `n`.

    dir = "/path"
    StringSplit[
        RunProcess[
             {"/bin/sh",
              "-c",
              "find "<>dir<>" -maxdepth 1 -type f | head -10"
              },"StandardOutput"]]

note `find` does not return files in any canonical order, you can sort for example,
add `| sort ` in front of `| head`