this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
101 points (93.2% liked)
Linux
48624 readers
1487 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I haven't noticed it tbh.
3 years ago XFCe needed on Debian about 450 MB of RAM (on a clean boot). It now needs 850. And that's not so much XFce's fault, it's all the other stuff underneath that have been growing too much too.
I mean, heck, Cosmic should not need more than 500 MB of RAM overall, having such a clean codebase. And yet it's the heaviest of them all, at 2.5 GB (even Gnome/KDE boots at 1.3 GB on Debian). And it's not a matter of optimization because it's an alpha. That's a cheap explanation. It's just heavy. Just as much as Windows in terms of ram usage.
I think it's the "unused RAM is wasted RAM" technology. Try on a machine with no more than 2 Gb.
Not sure what you have going but I have plasmashell running right now at 680MB.
you should try damnsmalllinux, it had a revival recently. though the absolute smallest modern one is probably Slitaz? or alpine linux
though you can definitely set up debian to use less than 500 ram today, kde/gnome are kinda hogs