Any sub 200MiB (RAM used) Distros with a Desktop out there..?

Andy-1 · 01-11-2023, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac

My Devuan/XFCE on startup with wifi, not quite as small as you want, but decent size for old computers.

Code:

$ free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            3730         338        3035          35         356        3141
Swap:            255           0         255

Yes quite not what I had in mind here as 338MiB RAM used is 60% over the cut off.

Looks like Devuan may just make the cut off if the inefficient XFCE was replaced with the LXDE desktop.

https://www.maketecheasier.com/lxde-vs-xfce/

Quote - “This is where I really begin to see the differences between these two systems. In a fresh boot, CPU usage is the same at around 1 percent, but LXDE uses a paltry 219 MB RAM, whereas XFCE uses 465 MB RAM. This is a huge deal for those users with 2 to 4MiB RAM.”

Then you have to ask what do you get extra for using Xfce - if anything?

You may wish to review…..
https://sourceforge.net/projects/good-life-linux/
Looks ready for inclusion here – what do you think?

Or simply use synaptic to install LXDE and have choice at login..?

fatmac · 01-12-2023, 04:05 AM

Well, I think if we are talking about using distros on old machines, as you advised me in a previous post, anything that runs on a machine with a limited amount of ram would really count.

How many machines in use have less than 1GB ram(?) - I could still use a 1GB ram machine with a 2GB swap partition to run Firefox, slowly, but still usable, (& I still run a 2GB ram machine, an old Chromebook, no swap, using Firefox, quite happily).

Andy-1 · 01-12-2023, 11:33 AM

FatMac - “I think if we are talking about using distros on old machines, as you advised me in a previous post, anything that runs on a machine with a limited amount of ram would really count.”

Er NO – Definitely No. I said in reply to your - "but why so restrictive of ram use" Just so folk like Lubuntu users who think they are Lightwight cause web site says so - have no need to post here.

Therefore by keeping restrictive ram use to 200MiB RAM used …. etc etc.

I also said “It will be interesting to see if any Distro+Xfce or LXQT makes the grade?” - the Grade is 200MiB RAM used. Devuan+Xfce does not make the grade!

Perhaps no distro with XFCE desktop will ever make the grade – watch this space

mrmazda · 01-12-2023, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy-1

Perhaps no distro with XFCE desktop will ever make the grade – watch this space

More than once on web reports XFCE RAM usage has been directly compared to KDE Plasma in side by side tests, with the end result that OOTB they are not terribly different, e.g. here. Given Plasma's reputation for being one of the biggest RAM users, it's no wonder XFCE couldn't make OP's grade. Plasma can be trimmed down to some pretty decent numbers, as it's been subjected to meaningful efficiency efforts in recent years, just not all the way down to the 200MiB level required by OP.

jefro · 01-12-2023, 04:04 PM

Yes, QNX.

"Any sub 200MiB (RAM used) Distros with a Desktop out there?"

enigma9o7 · 01-13-2023, 02:43 PM

Bodhi Linux.

enigma9o7 · 01-13-2023, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jan K.

Desktop bloat??

Do any browser gobble up less than 200 Mb on their own?

epiphany-browser

Andy-1 · 01-14-2023, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jan K.

Desktop bloat??

Do any browser gobble up less than 200 Mb on their own?

Yes

Any whichway you look at it...

byteme8827 · 02-07-2023, 10:19 AM

Does this machine have the capability to use registered ram \, further if so you could max this machine out at it's total allowed memory. It sounds to me like you may to do as a suggest above or go to a vender such as the serverstore and grab you're self a refurbished server or workstation that you can up-cycle into a server.

Andy-1 · 02-09-2023, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by byteme8827

Does this machine have the capability to use registered ram \, further if so you could max this machine out at it's total allowed memory....

Perhaps you missed the point of my topic..?

We are trying to list Distros+DE that come in at 200MiB or under at idle.
We are NOT advocating ramping up the RAM to enable heavyweight inefficient distros.

In any case if you can watch three web page videos with LO open as well. Yes: watch 3 web videos with Ffox at the same time using 1.5GiB RAM on an old 2008 laptop why would you want to buy more RAM to sit there unused?

Far better to buy a £20 SSD for vastly better read write speeds - IMHO

https://imgur.com/a/pImTXcK

Enjoy..

Andy-1 · 03-19-2023, 04:00 PM

Loc-OS makes the grade at 199MiB RAM

After abandoning Debian-11, Pic-OS and BunsenLabs I returned to Loc-OS for a second time.
https://imgur.com/a/pYwxY3n Debian Trials – Bunsen – Loc-OS.

After installing Gimp and making a few tweaks I am so pleased to be able to list Loc-OS here.
https://imgur.com/a/EWnk7uR

Loc-OS appears to be Antix + LXDE desktop with some additions.
Antix refuses to officially support LXDE

so I guess this Locos por Linux guy delivered what was needed?

1,872 downloads so far just this week.
So thanks to all involved in making this happen

anticapitalista · 03-19-2023, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy-1

[
Antix refuses to officially support LXDE

...

Why do you persist in posting this lie?

shortarcflyer · 03-19-2023, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anticapitalista

Why do you persist in posting this lie?

I agree. It seriously needs to stop!

I guess it is because he got banned from the Antix forum and is trying to sling his ire and wrath because of the banning.

Andy-1 · 03-20-2023, 09:42 AM

I am 100% honest and never intentionally lie.

I will quote Anticapitalista directly: “I have no intention of providing an ‘official’ lxde version of antiX.”
It is not allowed and would not be proper for me to post links, screencasts or screenshots here but should anyone doubt my honesty they can verify the quotation on the relevant website..

Independent sources have also witnessed and captured this evidence and much more.

In any event, as I said; thanks to Anticapitalista if there are any Antix components contained within Loc-OS under free licensing rules. Thanks to Locos por Linux dude for his efforts in making this super efficient distro with a LXDE environment available – just what the doctor ordered…..

It is not just my humble opinion – thousands upon thousands agree especially amongst those who speak Spanish.
Please remember deepL is very useful for text translation.
A helpful Crayphish guy posted - “I couldn’t understand a word he was saying either hahaha! So I used the downsub.com site to machine translate YouTube’s auto-generated Spanish subtitles. The .srt file is attached to this comment and is pretty understandable. The video driver in a VM probably offloads most of it’s work to the host system’s driver saving a lot of memory.
One trick I discovered recently for saving a small amount of RAM is to use the MirBSD Korn Shell(mksh) as a shell. It’s also noticeably faster than bash/zsh.”
Thank you Mr Crayphish from all at LQ. https://downsub.com/

anticapitalista · 03-20-2023, 09:45 AM

“I have no intention of providing an ‘official’ lxde version of antiX.” is not the same as

"Antix refuses to officially support LXDE"

antiX only provides builds with window managers included ie IceWM, fluxbox, jwm and herbstluftwm on antiX-full and antiX-base. We do not provide any builds with any desktop environment.
That does not mean that users are not supported if they choose to install one.
We provide core and net versions without any window manager or desktop environment and leave it up to the user to install whatever they want. This is supported by the antiX team to the best of its ability.

Back on topic.

It will be almost impossible to keep RAM to less than 200MB on a Debian 12 bookworm base (64bit).