In my recent exploration of Microsoft’s Azure Linux 3, I was impressed by its efficient RAM usage — just 115MB upon booting. This sparked my curiosity about the RAM consumption of various Linux distributions. Is there a standout, a champion among Linux distros that is the most lightweight and resource-friendly? This question prompted me to try Linux containers, command-line versions, and desktop environments like GNOME and KDE to find if there really is a winner. These are the Linux distros that use the least amount of RAM.
Before we dive in, I want to clarify that while I’ve covered a broad spectrum of Linux distributions, I might not have included your favorite. My focus was on commonly available options and those suitable for testing between KDE and GNOME. There might be ultra-light versions I haven’t tested, but this is a broader overview.