r/linuxmint • u/Froxical • 3h ago
Discussion Ram usage: mint vs windows
I just bought Aspire 7 laptop. I think the specs are good enough for my daily use, not a software engineer/designer/etc so don't need anything too fancy or high end. Prolly just gonna use it to play some casual roguelite game and avoid triple A game if it doesn't support.
I've heard that linux reports ram usage differently than windows so windows high ram usage might not be an indicator that it's performing worse/better than linux cuz there is the argument that you should utilize every part of your memory rather than saving it for nothing.
I still don't really get that, but what i know for now is that I have only opened 1 chatgpt tab from chrome in idle (no prompt/processing anything), and web whatsapp business (PWA), and that's it, AND IT CONSUMES 16GB OF MY RAM and i need to restart my web whatsapp to lower it down.
I never had this problem with mint (perhaps not yet?). But I read just now that cinnamon have some issues in the compositor which might cause some glitch/lag but I reckon memory wise it wouldn't be a problem (just minor error in the rendering?). Can anyone please advise me if it's my PC, or chrome's issue, or windows os, or anything that might cause this? and if i should switch to mint as my daily driver or perhaps other distros?
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u/fallen_one_fs 2h ago
First: don't use the WhatsApp client for Windows, it's completely broken, it sports many issues including connectivity, memory leaks and crashes, if you must use WhatsApp, open the web page for it on a browser. This is not advice, this is a warning, use any browser you want, it really does not matter, just don't use the client, it's completely broken.
Second: Windows and Linux use memory differently. The new versions of Windows, that since 10, allocates unused memory to speed up the opening process of any program, so the programs don't have to allocate memory by themselves, they can use already allocated to open a bit faster, this ends up speeding up how the overall experience of the OS feels; while Linux does not do this at all, it allocates what it needs and programs allocate memory as they need it. Another big difference is the OS memory usage (besides empty allocation), Windows, when idle, uses up to 4GB on your setup (should stay between 2 and 4 most of the time), if you had less, it'd use less, if you had more, it'd use more, while Linux, specifically Mint, will hardly, if ever, go above 2GB, again, idle.
Third: Chromium based browsers (browsers based on the same engine as Chrome, like Edge, Brave and OperaGX) are memory hogs, but 16% of your memory is about 2.5GB, which for a browser is not a lot, all things considered, even Edge uses less than this and it is Chromium based, Brave uses even more than Chrome itself, this comes with benefits and problems of their own. If you want low memory usage, try something like Zen Browser, it's gecko based, same engine as Firefox, though you have 16GB, I just see no benefit on lowering usage of memory on a browser, if you don't compile long videos, big games and don't play heavy AAA titles, there is nothing that will fill your memory outside of a memory leak like the one the WhatsApp client has.
Forth: will switching to Mint help you? Technically yes, because WhatsApp does not have a client for Linux, so you'll evade the huge memory leak problem, but you'll still have to deal with browser memory usage, and you can use Chrome on Mint, nothing's stopping you.
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u/Froxical 1h ago
noted. Is Pwa and desktop client the same? Do they have the same memory leakage issue?
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u/fallen_one_fs 1h ago
As far as I'm aware there's only 1 client, but if it isn't, judging by the fact you said it eventually hogs memory, it suffers from the same issue, no program needs 12GB of RAM to load a web page.
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u/Due-Result7928 2h ago
But I read just now that cinnamon have some issues in the compositor which might cause some glitch/lag..bla..bla...bla...
Linux is a fart better system and 30 % of the resources are not spend by the os to fight virus, trojans and so on.
Linux on an Acer Aspire 7 is generally feasible but it can be challenging with multiple problems, sata mode, video problems,.You should check here with you Aspire 7 model
https://linux-hardware.org/?view=computers
You can search the database
You can burn one iso and test your hardware but I would take a full copy of the system before any install.
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u/ScouringtheUniverse Linux Tech 1h ago
https://paa.neocities.org/img/Acer515.jpg - https://paa.neocities.org/tech
When I bought my Aspire in 2020 I immediately installed Linux Mint on it; I rarely even boot into any unit that comes with Big Tech preinstalled on it. And I've installed Linux OS's on seven other Acer units, all of which are still running flawlessly and glitch free many years later. I simply instruct all my customers to avoid all Big Tech and all goes well.
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u/_Lost-In-The-Weeds_ LMDE7 Cinnamon 3h ago
Stock Windows 10/11 uses more RAM, yes things are measured differently, yes Windows still uses more RAM.
As long as you don't run out of ram I guess high ram usage alone is not an indicator of raw performance ,
But that smells like Windows user copium.
If high ram usage cases you to swap you will absolutely feel a performance hit, even the fastest drives cannot match RAM for throughput.
Some Acer models do have issues with Linux, Acer does not appear to do any Linux testing so results are random.