Linux Memory Footprint
There’s an excellent article over on IBM’s developerWorks on how to reduce your Linux memory footprint:
The truth of the matter, however, is that while the Linux kernel can still be configured to be reasonably small and efficient, as new computers have increased in power, many Linux desktop environments (such as KDE and GNOME) have added lots of features. Consequently, the default install of most distributions offer a less than stellar level of performance when installed on older hardware. The same is true of many modern applications also — Web browsers such as Firefox and office suites such as OpenOffice are fully featured, but trying to run them on a machine with 128MB of RAM can be a painful experience!
While the article’s targeted at users who are running Linux on older hardware, it’s also great for people who want to get the most out of the memory they have installed.
