KDE is a LOT lighter than it used to be. The migration to plasma was ugly but they definitely got their shit together. Resource wise, it’s fine. You can run it in a pi.
GNOME is unapologetic resource wise. It’s like living with an asshole roommate that doesn’t understand why everyone hates him. It’s not getting better. KDE is.
KDE is premier for a modern system, but I have a handful of low-power devices where XFCE or LXQt are a lot more useful despite disliking their interfaces.
XFCE is great for mid-range old devices, and LXQt is great for dogshit old devices.
I used KDE early on… around SuSE 7.3. It was a trash fire for a long time. Wildly unstable, would take so long to compile it was basically a meme in the community before memes existed in mainstream, and it was like every single random idea was implemented. Zero cohesiveness. Thumbed their noses at any kind of UI/UX standards. Gnome, of all things was the more solid option if you wanted a “desktop.” Weird to think about considering how that ended up. It has come a longgggggggggg way. Still not for me but after messing with it recently I was pleasantly surprised.
Unused ram is wasted ram. Change my mind
This applies when RAM is used as temporary cache or something that can be instantly freed the moment it is needed otherwise. This doesn’t really work for justifying higher RAM use by KDE, unless you would never need that RAM for anything else anyway.
I use KDE because it is good, though. Also I don’t think KDE even uses more RAM than other DEs that are designed to be lightweight. Last time I compared, it used the same or less memory as LXDE.
Also I don’t think KDE even uses more RAM than other DEs that are designed to be lightweight. Last time I compared, it used the same or less memory as LXDE.
Yep. KDE is feature-rich, but it’s also highly optimized these days, and the RAM usage is actually competitive with the best of them.
You can get RAM usage lower on a very stripped down, barebones system, but if you want a full ‘normal computer’ desktop experience that has all the things you’d expect a computer to have, you’d be hard-pressed to find one that uses significantly less RAM than KDE. (Yes, there are some that get lower … but not a lot lower. And unless you’re running on some extremely limited hardware, are those extra 20MB of RAM really going to make a difference in your everyday life?)
Also I don’t think KDE even uses more RAM than other DEs that are designed to be lightweight. Last time I compared, it used the same or less memory as LXDE.
Firefox without any website loaded uses more RAM than a full Plasma session.
And KDE can be even more efficient if you go into the settings and tweak things a bit, turning off some unnecessary features that are on by default.
Which features? Asking because I switched recently to Linux.
Which features are unnecessary?
Well, depends how you’re using it. In my case, for example, I don’t have a printer, so I could turn off the entire print manager system/service and save a bit of unnecessary RAM. And if you’re trying to be economical about RAM usage, things like fancy window decorations, window animations, and other purely aesthetic stuff like that can of course go. But, really, what features are necessary versus unnecessary will depend on you and what you’re using your computer for.
Or did you just mean what features does KDE have?
In that case, the answer is basically, all the features. Like, KDE is the quintessential ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ desktop. You name it, they have it … or it can quickly and easily be added. Any feature you can think of from any other OS or desktop, chances are KDE already has it or at least can do it with just a little tweaking.
For an example, I think my favorite feature would be the ability to set custom window rules for each application or even each sub-window within an application. Setting rules that dictate the size and placement of that app’s windows, their transparency, which virtual desktop they open in, whether they show up in the taskbar or not, whether other windows can cover them up or not, etc. I use those rules extensively in my workflow to make sure each app always goes exactly where I want it on my multiple monitors, stays there, and behaves just how I want it to. (For example, I want my system monitor to be 80% translucent in a certain corner of the screen. I want my timer app to always stay on top, and in a particular location on a particular screen, I want my time tracking spreadsheet open on all desktops, but always in the background so it never covers any other window, and not cluttering up the taskbar. I want the terminal to always open maximized on my left monitor, and for it to be 100% visible when active, but 80% translucent when not active. With window rules, I can make all of that happen.)
It’s astonishing how little RAM KDE needs for its features.
Idk about little. I was playing around with an old laptop dual booting Fedora KDE and W11. And Fedora on fresh boot was using the same/more ram than 11.
I was playing around with an old laptop dual booting Fedora KDE and W11. And Fedora on fresh boot was using the same/more ram than 11.
Windows compresses RAM these days, not sure if Fedora does by default. Also, by itself Windows is surprisingly RAM efficient. I think it’s a holdover from Windows 8 which was developed for tablets when Microsoft tried competing with iPads.
The problems arise when web views like the news widget load. Then all the past optimizations no longer matter.
KDE can be considered heavy only if your idea of a desktop use is to launch it and stop right there.
But normally after that you launch apps and that’s where the magic happens: it is so integrated, apps barely add any more RAM usage on top.
So instead of comparing DE x and y, compare what a desktop actively used looks like: browser? office suite? file manager? drawing app?
Only then will you be able to compare you RAM usage from one DE to another. Everything else is comparing cars fuel economy when they’re all idle.
Yeah I dont get the obsession with optimization
Seriously, you can always just buy more RAM…
^(oh. oh dear me.)
Tbh most optimizations save so little ram thats its impossible to notice, if you have 16gb or hell even 8gb of ram its hard to notice the minuscule amounts saved with a WM especially a Wayland WM such as Sway/Niri and especially Hyperland.
