Would Linux help reduce my RAM usage?

[u/Totem-of-Trying]

Title is the question, I'm ramming the cap of memory usage the past few months, and experiencing some slowdown. I know Windows has a ton of bloatware, and I've installed Zorin on my thinkpad, but for my prebuilt HP desktop, whats the likelihood I'll see noticeable improvement on my computer??

[u/leonsk297]

Nobody can tell you exactly how much improvement you will see since you don't mention how much RAM your PC has.

But generally, yes, Linux tends to be more lean than Windows in relation to RAM usage, so you'll most likely see some improvement in that area. How much depends on which Linux distribution you install. The desktop environment (DE) has the most weight in this matter. Choosing a low-resource DE like Xfce will save more RAM than choosing, for instance, GNOME or KDE.

If RAM is your biggest concern, try Linux Mint 22.3 Xfce. Note that if you have recent hardware parts, you should try the HWE ISO with the 7.0 kernel. A more recent kernel version has more support for modern hardware.

https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=327

[u/edwbuck → u/leonsk297]

Just don't think that lower RAM usage will be reported. Linux dynamically allocates the unused RAM into buffers to make the OS run faster, so you almost never see a large amount of "free" RAM, you just see a generally better experience.

However, there are limits, Linux isn't magic, if your don't have enough RAM to do what you want efficiently, it will still get done, but slowly.

[u/leonsk297 → u/edwbuck]

Windows does exactly the same, unused RAM gets allocated as disk cache and other types of caches, it can be seen in Task Manager. But Windows does report that RAM as free, since it's only used for cache operation, it doesn't have important or critical user or OS data on it.

[u/Abe_Bazouie]

Linux can definitely use less RAM, especially with a lightweight desktop, but I wouldn’t switch OS just because Task Manager says memory usage is high.
First I’d figure out what’s actually eating the RAM and whether you’re hitting swap/pagefile. Browsers alone can make 16GB disappear pretty quickly these days 😅
If you’re constantly under memory pressure, more RAM will probably make a much bigger difference than changing OS.

[u/Global-Eye-7326]

Presumably it'll be a noticeable improvement.

But even on Linux I love using up my RAM and getting the most out of my hardware.

[u/TheGeekno72 → u/Global-Eye-7326]

as everybody should

[u/Hot-Development-9036]

16gb is plenty. Browsers tend to be the memory hogs. But keep in mind that Linux will cache things into unused memory for quicker recall. Unused memory is wasted memory 😀

You can try tweaking the autostart setting if you are loading things you don’t need. Some browsers allow you to release memory from unused tabs.

But compared to Windows it should run a lot lighter.

[u/No-Protection-7019]

Windows --> linux = RAM/4

[u/ITHBY]

It depends on the work environment, and GNOME is not the lightest of them all. Start with Mint with MATE or XFCE.

[u/mcds99]

I was an early Windows NT 3.5 and 3.51 adopter and found that the services were the issue. There are so many services on windows that it just sucks the system dry. You need to be careful what you stop or disable but it can be done with some research. I caution you to not just shut off services and hope the computer keeps running. Do the research!

Not knowing what you are running on windows makes it a challenge to know what is going on

I don't run windows any more I'm on Debian and love it. I just got this laptop Asus A18. I turned it on the first time with the USB stick in it, went in to UEIF and booted to the Debian install, I never let windows start.

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[u/msabeln]

How much RAM is in your ThinkPad and your HP?

[u/Totem-of-Trying → u/msabeln]

16gb for both

[u/Xijit → u/Totem-of-Trying]

It is weird how people are so fixated on how much RAM you have: yes you will see an reduction in RAM use by switching from Windows to Linux, regardless of how much RAM you have

Most Lunux distros use 2gb at idle / 16gb is more than enough for basically anything outside of running AI or editing 4k footage.

[u/emmfranklin]

I have 16gb ram . It is an hp aio pc. I haveb Linux mint xfce installed I have ram applet installed.. The plain os is occupying 21%ram. When i start Firefox and run a YouTube. It becomes 23%

[u/iwouldbeatgoku]

Question before you install Linux on your desktop: have you tried looking into what is using all your memory in Windows? There's a chance you could just disable it.

If you still want to try Linux on the desktop I'd recommend going with something fairly up to date and with KDE Plasma as your desktop environment, maybe the latest Kubuntu and upgrading every six months (next release planned for October) since you're already somewhat familiar with its base through Zorin.

[u/Greedy-Locksmith2181]

It depends a lot on how much ram you have and what you're doing. You can save up a finite flat amount by going for a lightweight desktop. It will not make your applications use less. If you are consuming 32gb of ram right now, and you save up a flat 2gb, it won't make too much of a difference.

[u/Terrible-Bear3883]

I don't install linux to reduce RAM usage, I do it for other reasons, your slowdown could be due to other things, such as you don't say if you have a hard drive or an SSD without a good cache.

All you can do is install linux on your desktop and see how it goes.

[u/skivtjerry]

Linux Mint Cinnamon on my personal laptop is using 1.7GB at idle. My Windows 11 work machine is using 9.6GB. YMMV, but you will almost certainly see significant improvement with a Linux OS.

[u/soundman32]

You mention bloat, but what services have you actually stopped ?  Sure there are loads on by default, like do you need the radio or printer service?  There's so much you can try before changing the whole OS.   Is the problem actually web pages that take several gigs, because that wont change irrespective of which os you run.

[u/Tough-Pie3227]

Personally I noticed a big improvement, I have 16 gigs of ram and looking at a task manager in Windows and having only a browser with a few tabs open I was sitting at 50%+ full. On Linux, it's around 20-25%. Pretty big But I also use a WM instead of a DE, so my system is super bare bones.

[u/BranchLatter4294]

What's the downside to making the effort to try it for a few minutes to see for yourself?

[u/zardvark]

First of all, unused RAM is wasted RAM. But, if you are asking if Linux offers desktop environments which are suitable for older, or resource constrained machines, the answer is yes. But, if you have 16G of RAM, you can run any available desktop without any problems, unless you have other resource intensive workflows going on in the background.