• InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    2 days ago

    True, but if you are starved for ram, then minimizing the OS use gives more for the rest of the bloated apps you cannot control.

    • FishFace@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      Or you could focus that energy on cleaning out your browser tabs/closing other applications every once in a while and you’d have a better effect :P

      This laptop has 32GB of RAM and regularly runs dry due to running both Chrome and Firefox, VScode, Zoom and whatever other random crap. And tuning systemd-oomd to walk the line between “Using 16GB of RAM will instantly kill the entire desktop shell” and “Once you’ve used all 32GB the kernel OOM killer will free something up in 3-5 business decades” is painful too.

        • FishFace@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          17 hours ago

          Well, yes. This distinction is only meaningful now on really old hardware where upgrading RAM or replacing the machine is not an option (maybe it has some other critical bit of hardware or, more likely, it’s a hobby project and the owner just wants to keep using it as long as possible for fun and satisfaction)

          The difference between the minimal RAM usage of a lightweight Linux installation and a Windows installation is the cost of less than £50 of modern RAM, never mind whatever old stuff is needed for an older machine.

      • Shareni@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 days ago

        Chrome and Firefox, VScode, Zoom and whatever other random crap

        So chrome, Firefox, chrome, chrome, and probably more chrome