I think the OS's size is driven by demand. Consumers the world over are demanding more....much more from the humble os. They want audio such as would be heard in a theatre....(read bigger,more complex sound card etc...and a better developed os to handle that.....and that is the thin end of the wedge. The browser on current os's is almost an os in its own right.
recent browsers do animations, gradients, image filters effects, JavaScript, 2D graphics (canvas), 3D graphics with WebGL, Audio generation, Gamepad (!), Video decoding, advanced client-side-storage, Peer-to-peer communication (WebRTC), Geolocation, WebSocket, WebCryptography, MIDI, access to mic/webcam, notifications,.....etc.....and ETC...
.....try asking Internet explorer to handle that little lot.
Another of the 'demand' items involves doing much more (DOM, CSS, Javascript)...and having more real estate to do it on... to also having more real estate (Multiple Monitors, massive increase in resolution:
Computer Screens Getting Bigger: 1999 through 2011 ) - 800x600 vs 1920x1080 vs 4k... 8k and beyond... 1080 to 4k is quadruple the resolution... 8k is quadruple again.
The sum of all of this activity is a bigger OS....the kernel is bigger......it has to be.
I would be interested to know the devices around you which are unusable becasue of various bugs
Because the programs are bigger and able to accomplish much more, the internet speeds have to be seriously updated to meet the needs of the programs......and so it goes.
The majority of Linux Distributions are generally under 2 GB. I believe trhe current Windows 10 is around 3.5 GB
We have a number of members here who run many distros...
@wizardfromoz and
@poorguy , just to name two.
poorguy in particular runs various distros (OS's) on a variety of old hardware....nothing goes to waste !
I run Linux Mint 18.3.....have done for around 4 years.....i started with windows xp, many years ago......and it can stay exactly where it is...dead and buried. Ultra prone to infection amongst other frailties.
The great beauty of Linux....no AV necessary.....and the speed is breathtaking. I demand quite a bit from my OS.......and I get it...in spades.