As a rule of thumb, I wouldn't go one byte less than 512MB for 32-bit, or 1GB for 64-bit.
More realistically, 1GB is a probably a good "minimum RAM" to start with for any GUI OS (32- or 64-bit), then increase as-needed. People might disagree, but it's honestly my experience that if you really need to have less than 1GB RAM ... then you probably shouldn't be considering a Gnome or KDE desktop. If you don't have enough RAM, you should probably consider a server (e.g. text-mode) environment, or a distro like Puppy Linux (which supports REALLY tiny memory footprints!), or Ubuntu Remix.
With memory being so cheap these days it decreases the reasons NOT to add more memory.
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i usually run any linux with latest kde on 512meg or less ram without performance issue.
ReplyDeletehttp://wiki.dennyhalim.com/linux-minimal-desktop
Why not suggest lighter WM's like openbox instead of just suggesting the immediately ditch GUI's?
ReplyDeleteMy laptop is running Arch Linux with Openbox and boots up using 75 MBs of ram.