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200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

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Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#171

Post by badc0ffee »

actionfromafar wrote: post #48
adrian_b wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows95 was decent even with 8 MB, on a 66 MHz or 100 MHz 486 CPU. With either 4 MB or only a 386 CPU, it was definitely crippled, making an upgrade not worthwhile.

Windows 95 on a 386 CPU with enough RAM was alright. Not fast but very useable. https://youtu.be/Pw2610paPYM?t=72 But most 386 didn't have 8+ megabytes, and some 386 had a 286 like data bus, making it even slower. (386SX)

On paper a 386sx is slower than a 386dx, and certainly is in terms of RAM access. But in practice you'd need some expensive hardware to fully take advantage of that speed, like EISA cards and a motherboard that supported them (or, MCA cards on one of the higher end IBM PS/2 models). The typical ISA cards of the era were limited to 8 MHz and 16 bits no matter what processor or motherboard you used.

The 386dx could also use a full 32-bit address space, whereas the 386sx had 24 address lines like the 286. But again, having more than 16 MB would have been expensive at the time.

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#172

Post by knowitnone3 »

eth0up wrote: post #5
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #2

If someone wants really low ram consumption for a desktop. They should try out tinycorelinux which I have ran the whole system in It's truly the most minimalist gui option just out there. It uses flwm & there own iirc very minimalist xorg server but most apps usually work The one issue I have is that I can't copy paste text or do some simple stuff like moving my mouse on some text but aside from that, Tinycorelinux's…

Can your "one issue" be tweaked by adding more RAM and allocating it thusly? I'm using Void with 24gb ddr5 and frequently get system freezes during high productivity. Browser tabs in the background are often contributors, but working with openshot or odb crashes often. I have several old nuc's and I might try tinycore on one. What do you or most others use it for, primarily?

I've used it for mostly system rescue operations but it can do much more. Look at the package list for possibilities.

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#173

Post by themafia »

zozbot234 wrote: post #98
themafia wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying shill implies XLibre is some kind of scam he's trying to trick you into, where as, if you don't like it, you're absolutely free to not use it. Or, what's the popular line in this scenario, "if you don't like it go make your own?" I'm sorry.. I just find the reliable cult of software personality on HN to be a little frustrating.

Xlibre is not really a scam but it isn't much of a serious technical project either. I suppose you could call it a low-effort meme of the typical 4chan variety.

> it isn't much of a serious technical project either

How have you reached this qualification?

> I suppose you could call it a low-effort meme of the typical 4chan variety.

Time will tell. I think there's a lot of love for X11 that people offhandedly discount. I'm sure I'll end up using it shortly as I genuinely dislike wayland.

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#174

Post by lostmsu »

whatevaa wrote: post #168
lostmsu wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scaling is for legacy apps, right? Modern apps should get the area to render and the desired pixel density. Not sure what you mean specifically by "need" in "need ... to do compositing". Compositing is just a way (e.g. rerender only on changes, cache results) of running a desktop environment. Strictly speaking you don't need compositing, you can just use immediate mode across the DE and apps. The tradeoff of course i…

Need vsync. Last thing I want is screentearing desktop.

Not sure what makes you think this precludes vsync. I already outlined a few options on what to do if apps fail to produce frames at refresh rate.

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#175

Post by user3939382 »

al_borland wrote: post #102
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #2

If someone wants really low ram consumption for a desktop. They should try out tinycorelinux which I have ran the whole system in It's truly the most minimalist gui option just out there. It uses flwm & there own iirc very minimalist xorg server but most apps usually work The one issue I have is that I can't copy paste text or do some simple stuff like moving my mouse on some text but aside from that, Tinycorelinux's…

I put tinycorelinux on an old laptop a family member was looking to get rid of. It was the only OS I could find that still supported the ancient cpu. It worked ok, but had a bit of a learning curve. I also had to run a couple commands every time I booted it up if I wanted to connect to wifi. I tried to get this to happen automatically, but wasn't having much luck. The password for the network also gets stored in plai…

NetBSD + xfce is also decent in this scenario

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#176

Post by eikenberry »

janmalec wrote: post #15
OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #7

While this is cool, it all goes out the window the minute you run any app

Exactly. The issue today is that even if you optimize your OS and DE to be very memory efficient, it matters very little as soon as you open a modern web browser. And without a modern web browser a big part of the online experience is broken.

Aren't you optimizing your OS/DE to be memory efficient in order to use that memory for other things (like more web browser tabs)?

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#177

Post by hn_acc1 »

don-bright wrote: post #82
badc0ffee wrote: post #8

I remember booting up Debian into an X11 session on a laptop with only 8 MB of RAM. (This would have been circa 2000, and I think I had to try a few different distros before finding one that worked. Also I don't think I did anything with it beyond Xterm and Xeyes.)

Ran linux in an 8 mb 486 in the 90s. X ran in 256 color mode and twm or mwm were the window managers. It was so hard to use though. Had to setup modelines settings for your monitor in a textfile and theoretically could damage it with wrong iputs. Programming X fuggedabout it - I was from turbo borland msdos land where everything was neatly documented and designed with clear examples to make programming easy. I was lu…

Yeah, it was a different world. I worked at a company using X + Motif on SCO Unix back in the early 90s. I had a 386sx with 8mb ram + 6 MB on an ISA expansion card! When you changed a header file constant (like a label string) and had to recompile the ~1 MB(!) executable, it really was coffee break time - compile time was ~1 hour for a full rebuild. Strangely enough, our current project on a 16-core VM also takes nearly an hour for a full rebuild - but we have parallel build options that go much faster.

I also ran Linux+X11 on my 486 (for some grad work) with 32 MB, IIRC. ATI Mach32 graphics card, Nec 5FGe monitor (loved that one!), etc..

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#178

Post by dizhn »

duffyjp wrote: post #169
eth0up wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a newer Lenovo vpro, not because I wanted that, but because it's what I got. It came with 16g of reputable ram, then I added 8g ~1 year ago for $20, the exact same module which is now $120. Orher than a bad ram chip, what else would be the culprit?

I have 64gb in my linux machine and have managed to hardlock it a bunch of times exhausting the ram. Couldn't even REISUB a couple of times. The OOM killer stuff in Linux just doesn't work anymore by what I can gather. Buying more ram is no longer an option, so I added a 128gb swap partition on nvme. I incorrectly assumed with 64gb I didn't even need swap. No crashes since. If you don't want to move partitions around…

You should consider some sort of swap on ram like zswap rather than thrashing your nvme.

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#179

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #122
hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know how resolution maps to ram in x11 but I assume at least one byte per pixel. Based on that assumption, there’s no chance you’d even be able to power a 4k monitor with 8mb of ram, let alone the rest of the system.

Good thing 4k monitors didn't exist in 2000

My comment was tongue in cheek while simultaneously highlighting that at least some increased ram consumption is required for modern computing, and highlighting how incredibly far technology has come in 2.5 decades.

Re: 200 MB RAM FreeBSD desktop

#180

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

knowitnone3 wrote: post #170
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #2

If someone wants really low ram consumption for a desktop. They should try out tinycorelinux which I have ran the whole system in It's truly the most minimalist gui option just out there. It uses flwm & there own iirc very minimalist xorg server but most apps usually work The one issue I have is that I can't copy paste text or do some simple stuff like moving my mouse on some text but aside from that, Tinycorelinux's…

that one issue sounds like a deal breaker to me. I mean, I copy and paste all the time. The one thing I wish tc would do is have a searchable package like most distros do instead of providing a large text file of all packages. Shouldn't be too hard to implement but whatever.

I mean fzf might help?
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