[Alosra]

This is all based on windows. I use kubuntu, 20.04. have 12 GB of ram and right now with total of 222 processes, firefox and clementine open, I use less than 2 GB of ram. so, no, not if you want to run some decent linux, but hey if you wanna run windows.

[mrweasel]

I won’t argue that many won’t need 16GB of RAM, because I don’t know what people use their laptop for. I will argue that if you need 16GB because a chat application and a browser already pushes the system above 8GB, then something in the software is broken.

Some wrote on their blog, sorry don’t remember who, if Electron apps (which I assume the Telegram client is) uses to many resources, then don’t argue that it should be a native application, instead ask if we can make Electron more efficient. That’s a smart idea.

[zamalek]

Same here: KDE and Arch, using 1.7GB (I don't have much "real" stuff open yet). Fresh login is just under 1GB.

I also use Windows (desktop gaming machine), and the main problem with it is the amount of crapware that Microsoft is starting to bundle. It was once the claim that Windows had a bad name because of all the junk that OEMs pre-installed. Well, Microsoft themselves are doing it now.

[Der_Einzige]

Kubuntu with "Plazma" was the most RAM I have ever seen a Linux distro take at idle. Xubuntu was a breath of fresh air in comparison and had far fewer weird UI bugs. I don't recommend kubuntu for resource constrained systems.

[zamalek]

RAM/resource usage has been steadily decreasing for Plasma for a while, and has basically reached XFCE levels, so I suspect your information may be out of date. On my system it's currently using 250MB. Xubuntu is a great DE recommendation, though.

[yunohn]

How many Firefox tabs do you have open? Any other apps at all? 2GB is way too low.

[kevingadd]

Just the GPU surfaces for hardware acceleration will use a ton of memory. If your GPU has dedicated VRAM you might be OK, but often there needs to be a CPU-side buffer for the data as well.