What is the most lightweight distro that doesn't hog memory?

cascade9 · 10-20-2011, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Advice Pro

Athlon 3 GHz dual-core
3 GB RAM
250 GB HDD

You're running a 'lightweight distro' with 3GB and a Athlon X2...why?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Advice Pro

No, most lightweight distros use too much RAM!

Is there really much difference between 150MB of RAM use at boot and less than 100MB? If you only had 256MB, maybe, but with 3GB....who cares?

rokytnji · 10-20-2011, 10:50 AM

Works for me (ram use running browser)

Code:

$ inxi -F
System:    Host: antiX1 Kernel: 2.6.36-1-mepis-smp i686 (32 bit) 
           Desktop Fluxbox 1.3.1 Distro: antiX-M11-686 Jayaben Desai 01 May 2011
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M2A-VM version: 1.XX Bios: Phoenix version: ASUS M2A-VM 1604 date: 12/19/2007
CPU:       Dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 svm) 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 2200.099 MHz 2: 2200.099 MHz
Graphics:  Card: nVidia G71 [GeForce 7900 GS] 
           X.Org: 1.9.5 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,nv,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Rasterizer GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 7.10
Audio:     Card: ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: HDA Intel Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.23
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller driver: r8169 
           IF: eth0 state: unknown speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filtered>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 322.1GB (0.2% used) 1: /dev/sda WDC_WD3200AAKS 320.1GB 
           2: USB /dev/sdb U3_Cruzer_Micro 2.1GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 16M used: 101K (1%) fs: rootfs ID: swap-1 size: 6.17GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   Error: You do not have the sensors app installed.
Info:      Processes: 79 Uptime: 5 min Memory: 131.6/2023.5MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.24 
$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       2072092     417736    1654356          0      59516     224804
-/+ buffers/cache:     133416    1938676
Swap:      6024336          0    6024336

RockDoctor · 10-20-2011, 02:45 PM

I run Fedora and Ubuntu, both with LXDE desktops, on my netbook (Atom 270, 1GB RAM) without any problems. On the other hand, I don't open dozens of firefox tabs at once. With 3GB of RAM, you can run a distro like Puppy from RAM (making it lightning fast) and have plenty of RAM left over for the OS itself to use.