[listic]

I wonder how anyone makes use of Ubuntu for even just 'web work' with just 2GB RAM. The browsers are becoming ever more bloated; I know I had swap issues on my non-SSD laptop before I upgraded from 4 to 8. Right now it uses 3.3 with 9 Chrome tabs open, an IM client, gedit and terminal.

It's unfortunate, of course, because 4GB of older DDR1/DDR2 memory would be much more tough to find/expensive than 2.

[gtk40]

I regularly use a netbook with 1GB of RAM (Dell Mini 9). It's on #! (I know, I might need to look for an alternative), which uses Openbox, but I have no problems with web surfing as long as I max at about 5 tabs. I also don't use a lot of web apps. With HTML5 video, videos work well enough. I can even run Eclipse if nothing else is open without too many problems, although for development work on it I'm usually using RDP.

Edit: I'll add I use Firefox on it. I find on Windows and Linux that Chrome takes up quite a bit more RAM than the alternatives. I use IE11 on my Windows machine with 4GB which I am using now, because Chrome would eat away my memory with the same usage.

[listic]

Well, they don't use #!

[gtk40]

I guess that's true, although in theory it would be quite easy to install a lighter WM and/or DE. I don't know why they picked Ubuntu default and Unity.

[GhotiFish]

It's unfortunate we teach young designers like this, I agree.

[hayksaakian]

Hey! I do this.

I'm still using a 10 inch netbook running Ubuntu for my typical web work (waiting for a retina macbook air).

You can't really watch videos or use flash without feeling the slowdown. As long as you stay under 10-20 tabs you're fine.

Running an IDE is out of the question, but sublime text does fine (probably more of a CPU limitation).

AMA I guess?

[maxsilver]

I often use the web on a 2GB Chromebook --https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=chromebook_...

I can have four or five tabs open without much struggle. Gmail, Google Drive, Spotify, Facebook, Wikipedia, all the typical stuff works. Thre's a built in SSH client that's nice. YouTube videos play at full speed, even via Flash, up to 720p.

Performance will pale in comparison to anyone's modern machine. But this still works fine for many common uses.

I expect these refurbished PC's would have similar performance, which isn't great -- but it's probably "good enough" to get the job done, even with a modern supposedly-bloated copy of Chrome or Firefox on it.

[sliverstorm]

The funny/sad part is web browsers alone (I believe) have experienced the most growth in RAM usage, compared to many other categories of software. Hell, even Outlook still uses only 50-100MB. So if you wanted to use the box for anything other than web browsing...

Edit: oh, I forgot about flash. Earlier today Firefox with one tab was hovering at 400MB and flash was at 200MB.

[heywire]

I use an Acer C720 Chromebook daily, running Arch Linux on only 2GB ram.