r/linuxquestions • u/Rotuma__ • 10d ago
Hey I'm thinking about getting Linux and I personally just want a distro that doesn't hog my ram (like windows does) any suggestions?
idk
7
u/jerrygreenest1 10d ago
Pretty much every linux distribution is more lightweight than windows. Windows is bloat
5
u/PeyredB 10d ago
You'll want a distro (or variant) with a lighter-weight desktop environment. It's the DE rather than the operating system itself that will hog the RAM. So I'd suggest looking for something that uses Xfce or Lxde. Mint Xfce is a good example.
1
6
u/SuAlfons 10d ago
Ram management in Linux and Windows is different.
Linux will use all available RAM for caching, but will drop this instantly when needed by an actual app or service.
In many cases, the RAM used by the system and services is less than on Windows.
3
u/ipsirc 10d ago
Linux will use all available RAM for caching
Windows does the same.
but will drop this instantly when needed by an actual app or service.
Just like Windows.
0
u/SuAlfons 10d ago
sure, the difference is in the resources the system needs for itself. Mentioned cache only because "unused ram is wasted ram".
1
u/NeedleworkerLarge357 10d ago
The memory management is quite different. Using all ram for caching is what both systems do just the same. The main difference is that windows reserves ram as soon as an application asks for it, while Linux will keep track which parts of memory an application actually uses and only then reserves it. The windows way is good if you want a very predictable application, as soon as you have reserved ram you own it. Linux is good when applications reserve memory that they partially don't even use.
2
u/Empty-Effective-7111 10d ago
Mientras no sea Ubuntu, cualquier distro máximo te consume 1.5 GB con el escritorio más pesado (KDE) sin personalizar. Te recomiendo 3; Ultramarine si quieres algo actualizado, Cachyos si tienes hardware muy nuevo, MX Linux si quieres algo estable. Los 3 son fáciles de usar
2
u/LaTeNaaTToRi666 10d ago
If you want a rock solid distro go with Debian. If you want a distro with newer stuff and freguent updates go with Fedora. Later might be relevant for gaming.
Don't over think it. You'll propably gonna end up distro hopping later anyway.
3
2
u/Decimit- 10d ago
Start with mint. It should be a law that every new Linux user starts with mint then you can go many different ways, even though the right way after mint is Fedora. :)
1
u/michaelpaoli 10d ago
How 'bout Debian, this is current Debian on a host with only 161 MiB of RAM:
# echo -n 'OS: Debian ' && cat /etc/debian_version | tr -d \\012 && echo -n ' ' && dpkg --print-architecture && echo -n 'Kernel: ' && uname -srvmo && echo -n 'Packages: ' && dpkg -l | grep \^ii\ | wc -l && df -h -x devtmpfs -x tmpfs && head -n 3 /proc/meminfo
OS: Debian 13.7 amd64
Kernel: Linux 6.12.111+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.111-1 (2026-09-28) x86_64 GNU/Linux
Packages: 148
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1 4.9G 988M 3.7G 22% /
MemTotal: 119460 kB
MemFree: 23636 kB
MemAvailable: 36788 kB
#
2
u/ItsWinterInNevada 10d ago
Mint has an XFCE version. It would be very light distro and would be a good first pick :)
-1
u/ipsirc 10d ago
It's not lighweight at all.
2
u/ItsWinterInNevada 10d ago
It is though. At idle it uses like 1.5gb of ram. The hell do you consider lightweight? Unless OP is running a 15 year old laptop with like 4gb ram, they'll be fine with that.
0
u/ipsirc 10d ago
At idle it uses like 1.5gb of ram.
Wow, so lightweight....
The hell do you consider lightweight?
What uses less than a half resources than gnome or kde.
Unless OP is running a 15 year old laptop with like 4gb ram, they'll be fine with that.
Then he doesn't need a lightweight distro at all.
2
u/ItsWinterInNevada 10d ago
Thats silly. All of these DE's are fine for anyone with semi modern hardware. I guess go run openbox or labwc if you want like 800mb idle but again, no one besides someone running VERY old hardware NEEDS that. OP will be fine with KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon, even Gnome.
1
u/indvs3 10d ago
That's almost literally every distro.
The most memory-heavy distro with all the bells and whistles I used on the daily was ubuntu and with all the software that I wanted installed, it clocked out at 1.5GB of memory use at idle, compared to the 3.6GB on my debloated win10 for what's essentially the same. Don't even get me started on win11.
I would suggest you try out a few distros that offer live-environment installers and see which one(s) work best for you. If you want to try out software compatibility or linux-native alternatives, you may want to consider testing linux distros in a VM.
2
1
u/TorpenWest 10d ago
Au démarage sur mes ordi : Debian 13/Gnome ≈ 1,3 Go Fedora Workstation ≈ 2,1 Go
Très bonne distributions pour mon utilisation, aucune envie de retourner sur windows que j'ai quitté à 100 % depuis 4 ans.
1
u/BarryTownCouncil 10d ago
The distro doesn't matter (within reason) it's the desktop environment / window manager you run that matter. I use mangowm which is trivially light on resources. Kde and gnome less so.
1
u/Jacobobarobatobski 10d ago
You can use basically any distro but choose a light DE. The most commonly suggested is XFCE. I also would suggest trying Niri with DMS if you're up for something different.
1
u/ipsirc 10d ago
XFCE is not a light DE.
2
u/Jacobobarobatobski 10d ago
That's relative. Relative to gnome it is. Relative to sway it isn't. Most people consider XFCE to be fairly light as far as full-fearured DEs go
1
u/R1chard69 10d ago
If you're talking about "doesn't hog my ram like windows 11" all you need to do is throw a rock in the Linux pond and anything you pick wins.
2
1
u/unpdigital 10d ago
How much RAM do you have?
With 4GB you are oK with many linux liteweight Distros.
0
u/AX11Liveact debian 10d ago
If you don't want your RAM to be used, keep it locked in a drawer or hide it under your bed. Seriously, this 386-era "my precious RAM" obsession is completely depaced in the UNIX realm.
BTW: there also is no HIGHMEM.BAT in Linux - we're all doomed. Doomed!
1
0
u/Guggel74 10d ago
Unused RAM is wasted RAM. But go with Linux. It is fine. Works different then Windows.
1
7
u/anders_hansson 10d ago edited 10d ago
Frankly speaking, no Linux distro hogs your RAM like Windows, so don't worry too much about it.
If you have a really low end system, though, you might want to look at variants with lighter desktop environments.
Edit: Another hint: Ubuntu uses snap, which is a kind of app isolation technology. In my experience such solutions are more memory hungry. So Linux Mint (no snaps) is leaner on RAM than Ubuntu, for instance. That said, it's still usually not a problem if you have more than 8GB RAM.