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Reduce Your Ubuntu Linux Memory Footprint

Posted by Hemos on from the efficency-is-king dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The ideas in this article will help you breathe life (and some additional security) into your old Linux machines and make better use of Linux on aging hardware. In this article, learn how to accurately measure the amount of memory your Linux system uses. You also get practical advice on reducing your memory requirements using an Ubuntu system as an example. A lack of physical memory can severely hamper Linux performance. This will help you reduce your systems memory footprint and keep your old Linux system running the latest fully featured Linux applications smoothly."

4 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. To improve Ubuntu, run Gentoo? by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Recompiling certain apps or libraries so that they are optimized for size and targeted to the specific CPU you are using can yield some memory gains. The Gentoo distribution is perfect for this, as you can easily recompile some or all of your system with the precise compilation flags you choose. Unfortunately, this is likely to be quite a lengthy process on an old machine.
    And you aren't going to explain HOW to do so on Ubuntu, are you?

    This "article" is practically content free. It compares Firefox's memory usage to Lynx. What the fuck?

    How about some REAL information? Not "advice" such as

    A good place to begin is with the services that are started automatically when the system boots -- though you need to be careful here so as to not remove anything that is necessary for your system to run. You will need to do some research into what is required by your particular distribution, and on how services are configured, as this will vary by distribution.
    And the distribution you WERE talking about was Ubuntu. How about some FACTS that are directly related to Ubuntu?

    A better title for this article would have been "Generic advice on how to see how much memory an application may use on Linux".
  2. Who is this article intended to help? by thousandinone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What I'd like to know is whom, exactly, the target audience for this article is. At a glance, one would assume that the target is for someone relatively unfamiliar with Ubuntu, attempting to make it run more efficiently on a slower system. However, all the article states is _what_ to do. I could be wrong, but I would say that anyone unfamiliar enough with Ubuntu (or Linux in general) to actually need this information would not have any idea how to actually implement these changes. So is the article then targeted for experienced Ubuntu users who are trying to streamline a system? I would wager that any Linux user savvy enough to know how to implement the stated changes would also be savvy enough to have already made them. The article is a good premise to start from, I suppose, but in its current state I don't see how it is really helpful to anyone.

  3. Know your limits, install accordingly by Brunellus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Kill the flamethrowers. The article is about Ubuntu, not Gentoo. If you have a burning need to build a package from source, Gentoo-style, in a Debian or Debian-daughter system, consider apt-build which will get the job done for you.

    Otherwise, the article was a very sensible discussion on installing the guts of a 'modern' distro--in this case Ubuntu--on some less than current hardware. Another such discussion is in the LowMemorySystems page in the Ubuntu wiki.

    The important thing to take away, in any case, is the non-trivial lesson that you cannot have your cake and eat it, too: installing on limited hardware means understanding your hardware limits and considering your packages accordingly. (I hear bearded Slackers in the back chortling. Hush, you, let me finish first.),

    Interestingly, the article confirms what I've been doing on my own IBM Thinkpad 570e lately. My only question to whomever still might be reading this is: is there a lightweight CSS-compatible browser that's not a memory pig on the order of Konqueror or even Firefox? Dillo works well enough, but I'm wondering if there isn't maybe a browser between Dillo and the heavyweights.

  4. Best idea: Buy more memory by Kludge · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I just bought a GB of RAM on ebay for $45 for my old 600 MHz server.
    Trying to squirrel more functionality out of less RAM is a waste of time.
    Everything flies so much faster when you have a nice big cache under you.