This is about correct. 8 you would have to make it a point to run one thing at a time.
this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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They can fuck right off
"640KB of memory ought to be enough for anybody."
- Bill Gates
In the middle of a RAM pricing crisis? Fuck off microslop.
A RAM pricing crisis they created through OPENAI, no less.
I have 32 GB RAM in my linux box. Not because I need it (I use 5,7GB currently), but because it was kind of cheap when I build the box. 16 GB or 32 GB were just a few Euros apart.
But with the current RAM crisis? Holy crap, that is kind of a tone deaf statement
Same here, but I put in 64GB because it was cheap. The only app I used (I don't anymore) that would make use of that much was Photoshop, back when I was still a graphic designer. Even then, I didn't need it, but it was nice to have.
Im running Void on a 2013, dual core atom, netbook with 1800MB of ram, THAT is a compromise. No more than 4-5 tabs at a time, only one if I want to watch a video, but it works.
16GB being the minimum for a desktop OS is insane.
My home server is a 2014 Mac mini with 8gb of soldered RAM. Even with that much, I can't really use even LibreWolf if I want to stand any chance of the services I have installed having any RAM.
I suspect part of it is modern web browsers and everything being online. That and "web apps" and such that take up WAY to much resources for what they do. In the name of security and justifiably so, each tab typically has it's own thread/task which means more memory. They will free up as needed, but don't do well always. With so many people just keeping tabs open rather than bookmarking them, users have also changed how they use their computers. So 16GB being a minimum and 32GB being recommended seems reasonable for a NEW computer. Remember, software is just going to need more resources in the future.
Existing computers will be fine for a while longer, but will get to that "compromised" state eventually.
Microsoft just straight up admitting that they're not optimising their OS anymore
Ever since Windows 7.
Since the NT kernel.
With 32 GB system RAM, Microsoft believes that the games can have more "breathing room".
There's no such thing as "breathing room", dammit. Once you set up 32 GB as standard, shitty / assumptive developers are going to say "well, we assooooome users have 32 GB. It would be a waste to design the game to use less than that lol lmao". Specially devs doing the same as Microslop, and using AI shitty code to pump out code faster than humans can desloppify.
32gb is the new standard they need to run poorly optimized start menus and telemetry in the background while they think no one is paying attention
Slop code and CSS kids need that space!
Why should the OS itself, which is just supposed to facilitate the running of programs, use so much memory?
it shouldn't. the problem really boils down to devs for stuff that aren't optimizing anything.
For example I'm currently using a basic build Fedora 44 with Niri and a quickshell. I have 32gigs of ram on my current machine and at idle it uses just over 2gigs of memory. to me that's too much. Niri uses about 160mb but quickshell/noctalia-shell uses about 400mb. too much. I need to stop using it.
I use Foot as my terminal and that AT MOST will use 14mb of ram. that's it. I point to Foot and say "that's how things should be".
then adding something like a Browser and Discord into the mix and just forget about it. suddenly that 32gigs is being eaten alive. even today running a system on 16 is cutting it close because of the bullshit you need to run. I mean even a browser like Qutebrowser which SHOULD be light is going to eat ram because it's running python and qtwebkit crap. And don't get me started on Discord and ALL the various "we make discord better" apps that really don't. vestkop, vencord, eqowhatever, doesn't matter it's all electron which treats your ram as an all you can eat buffet.
Fuck Discord
I was kind of humbled to see how much less ressources Debian was using.
It needed one GB of memory after install in full memory.
Meanwhile Canonical
https://www.techpowerup.com/347967/ubuntu-26-04-lts-raises-recommended-memory-requirement-to-6-gb?cp=2
While Ubuntu recommends 6GB, it still uses much less than that even if you open Chrome lol
If you enable zswap, you could probably live with 4GB
TL;DR: to spy on you.
Right?! I have a debian NAS running openmediavault, it has music streaming and samba network shares. it only has 256MB RAM and doesn't even use all that.
Not at these prices it ain't. Back to 8 it is.
Why not Linux?
Linux at home yes. But corporate has insisted the price increases dont matter at my work as my bonus is engulfed.
I still remember that the first time in my life I gave any thought to RAM is when my childhood PC was upgraded from 1GB to 3GB.
I don't do radically different things on the computer nowadays than I did back then, yet that would nowadays be unusable.
In reality, if software used the native UI toolkits instead of Electron, even 12 GB could be reliably used for gaming, HEAVY gaming.
Indeed. Now we're starting up a whole new OS sandbox for every damn app. It's ridiculous.
"Bully tells nerd to come to school with more lunch money next time" ass bullshit.
just like the gaming industry telling you 60fps is too low and your GTX series graphics card is inadequate today. but despite this i, amazingly, get by just fine. it's literally just blatant consumerism.
I've never stopped using my 1080 thing is a tank that works fine for like 95% of what I do. I'm a game dev lol. Now I will say that I can't perceive fps faster than about 45 and that's just for fast moving stuff so I cap most games I play to 30fps, and I've finally hit the age where I need bigger font and I usually do that by lowering game resolution
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Linux says "Hold my beer...." https://youtu.be/LJEo6Kb6Rhg
Been using CachyOS the past while on my gaming laptop, it’s stupid how much better it is with zero extra steps other than basic install. Can’t recommend it enough.
Are we back in 2021?
This is rather insane
Alright Linux guys... how much RAM do you use on a normal day? Not looking at you power guys who are running every damn thing to max out your 128GB...
I have 32GB but rarely hit over 8GB, probably less, unless I'm running some serious apps like graphics.
I got that 32GB because of Win10 to give me more comfort room. Now I don't need it as much running Linux.
NAS has 1800MB, runs Debian, uses 200MB.
Netbook has 1800MB, runs Void, uses 90% when browsing.
Desktop has 32GB, runs Debian, uses 2-3GB while browsing, 8-10GB while gaming, 32GB while doing image/videoework.
I have 8gb in my Debian home server, which is perfectly fine. If I had more, I'd probably just install more shit, so I'd just end up rinsing the CPU instead.
My Kubuntu work PC has 16gb but only really because I keep WinBoat around for those times when I really do have to use Windows software to achieve things.
My OS uses about 700MB when I log in from a reboot, then I immediately load ~15GB of terribly optimized browser tabs, mostly for work (teams, google voice, discord, outlook, etc)
I get not wanting bloated programs but only using a small portiom of your RAM isn't a goal to aim for.
If you're on Linux, The kernel is likely using all available RAM. It uses that space to store the page cache because reading from RAM is faster than reading from disk.
You could have all of that RAM go unused if you wanted, but your system would suffer.
On my Linux system it caches about 4 gig of stuff, the rest of RAM not used by apps is totally unused. No issues at all
I'm using 7/96G right now.
I have possibly over-spec'd.
Sell 64GB and retire early!
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