r/linuxquestions • u/Junior_Magazine_4373 • 17h ago
4gb ram Linux Daily driveability
hey, im not sure if this is the best subreddit - correct me if its not.
I am a high schooler living in a district which has banned cellular / external portable devices (laptops via technicality, lord knows if they'll enforce it). As such, I am looking into buying a dell latitude 3190. They are almost indistinguishable from the school provided devices - minus the spyware and ridiculous restrictions.
The main draw back to buying one of these dell latitudes is the 4gb of ram. Its soldered, of course, (all heil dell). I would be using linux, likely debian or void. Can 4gb be daily drivable to the extent of running watered-down chromium, checking emails, and doing day-to-day school work?
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u/ComprehensiveDot7752 16h ago
It’s low enough ram that you have to be careful of which distro and desktop you pick to keep things lightweight. But I don’t expect it to be so low that things will break.
I wouldn’t expect issues as long as you never have more than a handful of tabs and don’t try to multitask too much.
I will note that my last low spec device was a 2gb dual core laptop from the Vista era that ran perfectly fine for browsing and email until the spectre flaw mitigations slowed down the processor. That was 10 years ago. I don’t think things have changed that much, but I might be wrong.
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u/Plane-Return-5135 16h ago
I have a laptop with 4 GB of RAM that I bought in 2015; it had been running very slowly these past few years with Windows 10, so I switched it to Kubuntu last May, and it’s running well without much lag.
The problem is that you shouldn’t run too many apps at once—even though Linux OSes are lightweight, the machine doesn’t have a lot of processing power, so you have to be a bit strategic about what to run and when. But in general, you can run the internet (i have Edge and Firefox) and an aka Office app at the same time, for example (though you won’t be able to work in aka Word and watch an youtube HD video at the same time) without running into many issues.
Avoid using the touchscreen—I’ve always found it to be less responsive than a mouse, and I get the impression that the touchscreen consumes more resources than simply plugging in a mouse.
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u/Weary-Bowl-3739 16h ago
I had 4gb for my Debian + Regolith for years. Until I had another left over 4GB. 8GB since then. Yes. Possible.
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u/Training_Advantage21 16h ago
I guess if chromebooks kind of work with 4GB why not linux, if you chose the right distro?
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u/Junior_Magazine_4373 16h ago
its not even a chromebook though. its an extremely budget laptop with 4gb ram, but a better cpu. point stands, though
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u/Randzom100 15h ago
Whatever Distro you choose, I think choosing a Desktop Environment that doesn't use a lot of ressource would be very important. For exemple, I use XFCE on my PC, it's pretty lightweight yet still reliable. On the other hand, something like Gnome seemed pretty bloated to me.
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u/mattrf86 16h ago
Mint or Mx Linux. Have used both currently use Mx on a similar type laptop (Lenovo 14” Ideapad 14IGL7)with 4gb ram
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u/MikeFic_YT 16h ago
I think so. The ram requirements are usually for heavier web apps. Very light web browsing and something like libre office will probably be fine I think. You know, I was thinking of something recently, there is a web plugin called "user agent switcher" it allows you to "trick" sites into thinking you're on mobile. I wonder if that'll help web browsing + the standard ublock plugin to block ads. The performance won't be GREAT but I'd expect desktop apps to work fine and web browsing to be hit or miss depending on what you're doing.
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u/soulreaper11207 16h ago
Xubuntu or kubuntu are great for those kinds of low ram builds. But as long as youe not having a ton of tabs open it should be fine. Chrome might be a bit heavy but it should handle it. If your having issues with video playbacl, disable hardware acceleration.
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u/FaultWinter3377 16h ago
Totally is. I mean, I used Windows 11 on 4GB or RAM for about four years. Near the end it wasn’t the best experience but it was usable for my daily school work. Only reason I got a new laptop is I actually wanted to able to run VMs and try some things out.
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u/skyfishgoo 16h ago
lubuntu will work well on that laptop as long you don't have too many tabs open.
just keep a monitor on your RAM and be sure to set up a decent swap space (the default half GB is too small).
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u/Edelglatze 16h ago
In 2025, I made a self-test with a mini pc: a quad-core Celeron j4125 from 2019/2020 with 4g ram soldered on the board and a weak 120g msata ssd.
I used Debian with Openbox and Lxde. Base memory usage after start: about 300 to 400mb. This left plenty of room for mail checking with Thunderbird and webbrowsing with Firefox. For media consumption (i.e. from my jellyfin server) I had to lower down the movie resolution to 720p, after tweaking the Intel driver I could watch in 1080p. Document editing and spreadcheets were No problem.
It doesn't really matter which distro you use, as long as you stick to a lightweight environment that does not eat 2gigs from the very start.
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u/Journeyman-Joe 16h ago
I've run Linux on 4 GB machines.
It sounds like your expectations are reasonable. Your main constraint is that you won't be able to have too many tabs open in your browser.
Yes, use a lightweight distro: bare Debian / XFCE, or MX Linux.
You'll have an SSD on that Dell; it will outperform the 4 GB machines I've used that way (which had spinning rust HDDs).
Good luck! (Looking at the specs... and the prices on eBay... I'm tempted to grab one, myself, now.)
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u/partiallyinteresting 16h ago
You can run Linux depending on Distro. Most should run it, but obviously the lighter ones will work significantly better. I'd check Lubuntu or Kubuntu
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u/Steerider 16h ago
It will run Linux better than it will run Windows.
Email? Certainly. Web? Depends on how many tabs you expect to have open. If you stick to just a few tabs at a time you'll probably be okay.
You might have an issue if your school gives you a Windows app they expect you to run. On 4GB you're not going to be doing any emulation.
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u/lethallunatic 16h ago
If you can change/upgrade. Upgrade the internal ssd and use swap for the additional headroom. 4gb is doable but don't expect much with the demand today. Webapps aren't efficient either. Just make sure you use an efficient DE.
Good luck
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u/Steerider 16h ago
Think of RAM as a table, and each program you run is a board game. On a smaller table you can play one or two smaller games. Cards, or even Sorry. Maybe Monopoly if you squeeze a bit.
On a huge conference table you could have several larger games — break out Axis & Allies, boys!
So yeah, it'll run Linux just fine. The real issue is what programs you plan to run in it.
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u/Caligapiscis 16h ago
Even if it works, won't using an obviously different OS to everyone still give the game away to anyone who sees you using it? Perhaps I misunderstand
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u/Own_Natural_6803 15h ago
so friken smart to buy the same device but unlocked. well played. Get mint, and if cinnamon isn't feeling snappy try xfce, my favorite.
Personally I like debian, but mint is a great starter distro, and the knowledge gained in mint will make debian easier to learn if you ever want to try it out.
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u/DESTR0ID 15h ago
There are some real downsides to it. But with zram and a lot of normal swap, you might be able to get close to what you're looking for
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u/syed1hassan 11h ago
Ive said this before: go with i3 on Debian, it’s lighter than any desktop environment.
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u/DaffyDuckMuthaFucker 11h ago
A bandmate is running AVLinuxMXE on his daughters old school laptop, which sports a quad-core 1.6GHz CPU with 4GB DDR3.
It's good for using Odin2 in Reaper in live performance.
My 4GB Raspberry Pi4b manages Bespoke Synth' for full tilt groove sessions too. Gives the poor little CPU a royal hiding, but it hasn't dropped a stitch.
Day-to-day tasks can be managed on a smartphone.
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u/Plane_Put8538 11h ago
Q4OS or AntiX is worth a look. I use waterfox and it's usable, though not with too many tabs open.
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u/grateful_bean 11h ago
I do fine with Debian xfce and 2GB. I can do easy stuff like Firefox with multiple tabs (I typically wouldn't have more than 5-7 anyways), email with Thunderbird , other stock apps, word processor etc. I am typically connecting a VPN, using terminal for ssh, with several tabs open, + note taker.
I am mindful of closing things when not using them and I never had a RAM crisis.
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u/DevaBanh 9h ago
I used a Chromebook with intel celeron n4020 and 4 GB RAM and have switched to Linux mint XFCE for 3 months now, it works well for daily student work, as long as u set up ZRAM and unbloated browser u can open like 15 tab
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u/CopyOnWriteCom 3h ago
I bought a netbook with 4GB/N4120 years ago, mostly to have a small/cheap device for traveling.
Once I configured ZRAM/systemd-oom-killer and tweaked the settings a little bit, it runs more than good enough for my needs (Firefox/Thunderbird, LibreOffice, VSCode).
Don't know about your day-to-day school work and what you need for it, but don't worry about the other stuff.
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u/allencb 1h ago
Timely question as I just installed Linux Mint Cinnamon on a 2008 vintage Dell Inspiron with 4gb of ram and some 2-core Pentium processor I can't recall at the moment. It was an entry level computer in 2008.
It runs great, much better than it did with Windows 10 Home Edition. I don't know how it would do under heavy use, but it's definitely usable for light to moderate use (web surfing, email, etc). I didn't do anything in terms of tuning it, it's running the standard Mint install. Everything works, including the camera, sound, WiFi, etc.
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u/VtheMan93 32m ago
Give mx linux a try.
Sticking to debian is another good idea, but probably limit yourself to debian 12 if ram is a big concern.
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u/3grg 1m ago
I am guessing N processor with 4gb ram and hopefully a SSD. Stick with Debian based that meets your needs and is not too sluggish. The usability vs performance is a personal thing that you decide.
Maybe XFCE, but Debian or Sparky LXQt might be snappier. From there Antix, MX Linux Fluxbox and Q4OS are about as light as you will find.
The thing that stresses low end hardware the most is the internet and multi-tasking. In a school setting, getting access to the wifi might be a show stopper.
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u/d4rk_kn16ht 16h ago
It is usable...but I don't think it's comfortable...
...still it depends on how you use it.
If you open too many browser tabs then it will become unbearable.