4GB Ram is enough?

I am running Lubuntu which uses about 600MB of RAM with nothing running. It really depends what you run I suppose, but a browser and normal stuff should be fine.

I am right behind @Linuxembourg in that regard, and @KGIII is also not only a regular user of Lubuntu but a Beta Tester for them.

But there are a number of options nearly equally suitable. I run 71 Linux on this rig, so have all sorts of opinions.

But you have expressed trying Mint first (a good choice generally) so see how you go with that, and if you have any problems, we can revisit the options and I can link you to pages comparing them.

Good luck, enjoy your Linux, and welcome to linux.org :)

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 


Back in the day, 4GB of Ram would be heaps as Windoze XP could run on 512MB of Ram...but those days are long gone. ;)

I have a 9yr old Laptop...64bit...i5CPU and 4GB of Ram. I've had...Mint Cinnamon...MX Linux...Ubuntu and is running Linux Lite at the moment, for surfing the Net, watching videos etc, it's fine but to Multi-task you need much more Ram.

You make some fair points, but w7 could run on 2GB, so I am not sure they are long gone. W10 runs on 4gb for me, it's just rubbish. Admittedly the more normal (or lazy) you wanna be, the more chance you'll need more than 4GB.

But personally, I just struggle with all that. If I could see some visible improvement in websites, or general applications, or if the web browser cooked my dinner, then fair enough. Nothing much changed in the last decade though, I don't find it acceptable to use a word processor for the same thing I did as 10 years ago, but require about 8 times as much RAM because they want it to be a snap, or have the program tell me the weather.

@wizardfromoz Sorry, but do you mean you can boot from a selection of 71 different Linux distros?
 
I run Linux on old junk box computers (2007 / 2010 / 2013) with dual core processors / integrated graphics adapters / 4.0GB of memory and mechanical hard drives.

I can have several tabs open plus Youtube and not run out of memory.

To utilize low spec computers a user must use a Linux distro that requires minimal system hardware resources.

I'm a user who prefers a simple user interface without all of the flashy bells and whistles and eye candy and I only need to run two simple browser extensions.

Perhaps that's why 4.0GB of memory is enough on my old junk box computers.
 
I'm using UblockOrigin and DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials.
I also applied many of the system tweaks from "Easy Linux Tips Project".
Code:
Processes: 156  Memory: 3.77 GiB used: 421.6 MiB (10.9%)

Code:
 free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3855         341        2440          42        1073        3244
Swap:          2047           0        2047
System specs.
Code:
nelson@HP-Compaq-dc7800p:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-72-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2
           Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq dc7800p Small Form Factor v: N/A serial: <filter>
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 0AA8h serial: <filter> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: 786F1 v01.04 date: 07/18/2007
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo E6550 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Core Merom rev: B L2 cache: 4096 KiB
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 9310
           Speed: 1995 MHz min/max: 1998/2333 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1995 2: 1995
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 82Q35 Express Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel
           bus ID: 00:02.0
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: intel unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1024x768~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Q35 v: 1.4 Mesa 20.2.6 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-72-generic
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 1100
           bus ID: 00:19.0
           IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 149.05 GiB used: 10.79 GiB (7.2%)
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD1600AAJS-22L7A0 size: 149.05 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 145.22 GiB used: 10.79 GiB (7.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0 C mobo: 44.0 C
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 1824 fan-2: 0 fan-3: 1252 fan-4: 1013
Info:      Processes: 156 Uptime: 2h 49m Memory: 3.77 GiB used: 421.6 MiB (10.9%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers:
           gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38
nelson@HP-Compaq-dc7800p:~$

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry, but do you mean you can boot from a selection of 71 different Linux distros?

Yes, well I think it is 70 today, Fedora 33 fell over a couple of days ago but Fedora 34 was released last 24 hours so probably 71 tomorrow.

We'd best not take us off topic about my setup, but in amongst the major players I run a bunch of lightweights for recommending here. They include MX-19, LXLE, Linux Lite, antiX, Lubuntu, and so on.

Cheers

Wiz
 
2021-04-27-233339_1920x1080_scrot.png
 
Almost 15 years old ( 09/18/2006) and still kicking butt running LMDE4.

It ain't no speed racer but it runs great and no problems streaming YouTube videos or movies and can have several windows open and not a glitch.

Code:
nelson@hp-pavilion:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: hp-pavilion Kernel: 4.19.0-16-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 
           Distro: LMDE 4 Debbie base: Debian 10.2 buster 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: HP Pavilion 061 product: RF170AV-ABA d4650y v: 0qm1114CT101BASSW00 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: ASUSTek model: Basswood v: 1.05 serial: <filter> BIOS: Phoenix v: 3.08 date: 09/18/2006
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 6400 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Core Merom rev: 6 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 8533 
           Speed: 1602 MHz min/max: 1600/2133 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1600 2: 1651 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA G72 [GeForce 7300 LE] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1152x720~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: NV46 v: 2.1 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801H HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-16-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82562V 10/100 Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: ff00 bus ID: 00:19.0 
           IF: enp0s25 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 111.79 GiB used: 11.14 GiB (10.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD1200JD-00HBB0 size: 111.79 GiB 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 bus ID: 00:1f.2 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 105.59 GiB used: 11.14 GiB (10.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda1 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 57.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 53 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 166 Uptime: 36m Memory: 3.85 GiB used: 749.2 MiB (19.0%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 
           Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 inxi: 3.0.32
 
Been running Mint on one or other machine full time since M7 , [on a 486 to start] to now on an amd2x6000+ 2gb and an Hp quad core intell with 4gb, what i have noticed defiantly since M17, and the advent of the Cinnamon desktop it has become bloated and slower , BUT still never uses all available ram even With everything connected and working [9 usb connections] my favorite was M9
on my lightweight machines [acer ZG5 & old Del lappy] I run Peppermint 32bit on the acer and 64 bit on the dell
 
Welcome aboard @brickwizard.

Been running Mint on one or other machine full time since M7 , [on a 486 to start] to now on an amd2x6000+ 2gb and an Hp quad core intell with 4gb, what i have noticed defiantly since M17, and the advent of the Cinnamon desktop it has become bloated and slower , BUT still never uses all available ram even With everything connected and working [9 usb connections] my favorite was M9
Yep Cinnamon desktop has become bloated and slower (good old Gnome3) which is the reason I prefer Xfce.

on my lightweight machines [acer ZG5 & old Del lappy] I run Peppermint 32bit on the acer and 64 bit on the dell
Peppermint 9 and Peppermint 10 are excellent distros use them myself.
 
Peppermint 9 and Peppermint 10 are excellent distros use them myself.
yep ...I am waiting on peppermint 11 , its a year late at the moment, I hope they will still do a 32 bit respin version, I use Xfce on the lower power machines, back in the early days of mint I preferred the lx desktop but that seems to have faded out of use
 
Yep LXLE / LXDE desktop is a thing of the past and replaced by LXQT.

I like LXQT however even LXQT is becoming resource heavy and uses more system resources than Xfce.

All of my Linux computers are old Frankenstein computers pieced together from many other old outdated discarded computers.

Ya gotta like Linux for this reason if for no other reason.


I'm waiting to see what Peppermint 11 is going to be since Mark Greaves has went to the IT center in the Heavens.

I have patience so will wait and see what comes about with Peppermint 11.
 


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