how slim line can u make Linux?

Leonardo_B

Active Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2020
Messages
256
Reaction score
107
Credits
1,889
just like the title says how slimline can you make Linux?
slim line.png
 


I don't run Linux for minimalism, how much memory I use depends on what I am running. Memory now days isn't a problem because I have 32G RAM in my system.
 
Tiny Core Linux needs just 16MBs of space and 46MB of RAM to run - Damn Small Linux needs about 150MBs of space and 128MBs of ram to run - but I do not waste my time with them
 
I could probably sit there and make VMs smaller and smaller until I got to the least amount while still having a functional system. I'm not sure how that'd help anything? I actually kinda go the other way. I sometimes like to see how much I can do before my system runs low on resources.

What good are resources if I don't use 'em? Or, as is often said, "Unused RAM is wasted RAM."
 
Depends whether you want to run and xorg system or commandline.

Yes Tinycore is very small but soon gets very big to get a usable desktop. I have built a system from netinstall using say debian/devuan as the base and adding the bare basics like a window manager......

Puppy allows me to strip down to a very basic desktop barebones system then add what I need on the fly in .sfs format. Lots of different approaches to get a minimal system.
 
Well, for one, you could reduce/limit the number of GUIs you use, as they tend to use more resources, specially anything gnome, like gnome-screenshot. Use TUI/CLI tools alternatives where possible, for example you can use scrot for screenshots. Cmus is a CLI music player, and a very good one by the way. Ranger is a fine file manager with a TUI(terminal user interface). Mutt is a mail client for the terminal. Links is a CLI web browser with graphics support. Ncdu is a disk usage analyzer with an ncurses interface. Aria2 is a lightweight command-line utility for downloading torrents and anything else. And there are many more https://github.com/agarrharr/awesome-cli-apps
 
Having a powerful system is a great thing if you have a powerful machine - not everyone can afford a powerful machine. Guess this why Linux is so useful different distros for different purposes and different graphical environments to suit low powered to high-end machines. Try that with Windows.
 
My home nas system and my desktop are currently using 2G ram when they aren't doing anything, when I put them to work the ram usage goes up. In today's world the norm for ram in a normal desktop system is 8G and 4G if you want to be a minimalist or because you can't afford more ram. For 8G of ram on both laptop and desktop systems is on average about 50 Euros/Dollars/Pounds(which ever works for you), so I don't buy the too expensive part. And even if you are on a low budget you can always add some extra ram to your system at a later time after you have had some time to save up.
 
just like the title says how slimline can you make Linux?

In terms of ones that can be used by normal humans, debian with XFCE uses 300mb doing nothing. I'm pretty sure Puppy Linux, Slitaz, and Slax use even less.
 
I'm kinda amused at some of the responses here to the OPs question, especially from the kinda people who have favourite terminal commands!
 
I suspect many, like myself, use the terminal not because it's lighter but because it's easier.

I do all sorts of stuff in the terminal. It's just faster than opening up GUI apps and easier (once you know how).

If I don't feel like using GDebi (though I advise new people to do so), I just press F4 in the file manager and type 'sudo apt install ./<first letters>' and then press tab to autocomplete and hit the enter button.

I also use a lot of aliases. If I've got a folder full of pictures, I just 'picclean' to strip the Exif data. (That happens more often than you might think. I share a lot of photos.)
 
@KGIII I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it's surely faster to run a slim system. I do appreciate they are different things (re terminal), but I do find it a bit funny that people are so quick to dismiss saving RAM.

It's easier to be able to run however-many resource hungry applications at once if you need to rather than have to run them one-at-a-time because you use 3GB RAM with just the OS.
 
Unused RAM is wasted RAM.

If I had old/slow systems, I'd care about what was in RAM. I don't have that problem.
 
Unused RAM is wasted RAM.

If I had old/slow systems, I'd care about what was in RAM. I don't have that problem.

But fully used RAM is a machine wasted surely. It's crawls.

I've only got 2GB of RAM free, and that is relatively constant. I suspect even on your terms I waste way less RAM than those with 32GB of RAM and more.

If I had more than 4GB of RAM I'd actually have a greater problem of wasteage, I can't even work out how I'd get up to 4GB of RAM used. To get to 30GB of RAM used (with 2GB spare) I can't even work out anything I could use other than just run loads of virtual machines.
 
Really?

Just open a few browsers with 50 tabs each and a few VMs. I typically have 20 to 30 applications open at the same time and only close anything/reboot when a kernel update requires it. A quick look says I've got about 8 GB free. So, yeah, that's being wasted. Alas, I don't need anything else open.
 
Really?

Just open a few browsers with 50 tabs each and a few VMs. I typically have 20 to 30 applications open at the same time and only close anything/reboot when a kernel update requires it. A quick look says I've got about 8 GB free. So, yeah, that's being wasted. Alas, I don't need anything else open.

Well yeah, I use a work computer for work. I use my laptop for the evening (or skiving off from home working).
The browser would become a nightmare to use with 50 tabs open regardless of RAM. And in any case there is no use for it. I have several browsers installed, but I barely could have much use for more than 2 at once. Maybe some programming on brave browser to earn their rewards while not actually viewing their ads? OK, then three.

I have a few VMs set up but I have no use for most of them, and barely any for my Windows one. Quite why anyone would need several open in their spare time is beyond me.

In any case, it sounds like you are wasting twice as much as in my machine. ;) Feel free to donate me some RAM, and I will learn to open more tabs. I promise!
 


Top