ubuntu + memory

[bionnaki]

so, I originally installed ubuntu on my friend's computer. the computer is a gateway with a decent p4 but only 128mb of ram. Due to slowness, I switched it over to xubuntu which ran better but still it was not so responsive. He just purched a 512mb stick and xubuntu is running quite fast (total ram = 640). Just wondering though what everyone's typical memory footprint is. Using gnome, mine runs at about 300mb with firefox, gaim, amarok, and azureus running.

Do you think my friend's computer will be fine running ubuntu? I think it will, but just curious to others' opinions.

how about kde? what is the typical memory useage with that?

thanks

[Carrots171]

Your friend's computer will run Ubuntu. My computer has 512 MB of RAM and Ubuntu runs quickly.

[kop316]

For my old laptop, I have Xubuntu on 192 MB of RAM. On my desktop, I have Ubuntu on 256 MB of RAM. Both run very well.

[teet]

I have 512 mb of memory in all three of my machines (a 1.06 ghz PIII laptop, a 2.0 ghz P4 desktop, and a 3.06 ghz Celeron D desktop) and all run great.

Just always keep in mind that linux uses memory differently than windows. Right now with only Firefox running with three tabs open (I'm also running apache/mysql/php and mythbackend in the background) I have 94% memory usage, but 50% of that is cache.

-teet

[K.Mandla]

I've put Xubuntu on machines as slow as 233Mhz with 128Mb. Most of mine hover between 512Mb and 1Gb, though.

If it's still sluggish, you could try the instructions for low memory systems (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems) in the wiki. It takes a little work, but the difference is distinct.

Don't forget Openbox (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Openbox), IceWM (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/IceWM) or Fluxbox (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Fluxbox) installations. Those are even lighter than Xubuntu, but again take a little more work to put together.

[Polygon]

on a fresh boot, with basically nothing but gnome (including a gnome panel on the bottom set up to be dock style) and gdesklets with some ram/cpu/disk usage stats, ubuntu uses around 130-192 mb of ram, once i start running programs like firefox, listen, and other stuff then the ram starts to get up in the 200-300 mb range.

still a LOT less then windows though! (300 mb on a fresh boot, nothing running)

[Skia_42]

I've been able to install Xubununtu on a really old ibook. It was 300mhz and 64mb ram. You need to be patient but it hacks away at tasks...

[T700]

Running Kubuntu (KDE) on 384M of RAM and it responds better than my Windows workstation 1G of RAM and faster processor.

Paul

[hizaguchi]

Memory usage with just the basic Ubuntu desktop running seems to vary with the weather and tides. I've rebooted and done "free -m" and seen numbers as low as 70 MB and as high as 140 MB without making any changes at all. But I do know that 128 megs is not enough for it to run well, while it does really great on 512.

[GuitarHero]

Hmm, I've got 2384MB Ram, which is way more than I need.

[fluffington]

I was running with 192M (and a 700MHz Athlon) for a while with no problems. Of course, the system didn't like it when I was editing poster-sized photos with a few compiles going in the background, but that's to be expected (and it's why I upgraded to 2G and 3GHz).

[prizrak]

Ubuntu requires about 256MB to run OK. Xubuntu is of course smaller from what I know KDE is also a bit quicker on less memory anything over 256 should be fine tho.