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by NovaPenguin 1230 days ago
My go to on this was I remember running Debian on a Pentium 166 with 32MB of RAM back in 98/99. It would boot to the desktop only using 6MB. It wasn't flash but it could handle the basics. Heck Windows XP would boot to Desktop using a little under 70MB.

But this isn't just Windows, currently I am on Kubuntu 22.04 and it is using about 1.5GB to get to the Desktop! Yes it is very smooth and flash but it seems like a bit much to do this.

This is why I am interesting in projects like Haiku and Serenity OS, they may bring some sanity back into these things.
1 comments
vbezhenar 1230 days ago
Minimal debian on VM eats something like 20-40 MB of RAM. Not 6 MB, but still rounding error by today's standards.

I guess that with careful selection of GUI components one can fit empty desktop to 60 MB.

Until you start browser anyway.

link
NovaPenguin 1229 days ago
I guess nowadays it is a choice, back then it was all we had! :D

But good to know that we can still 'Hyper-mile' our OS.

link