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This is a simple home-made research about how efficient desktop environments (DEs) and window managers (WMs) can be (usage of RAM).
How this study was done:
The base install was EndeavourOS Atlantis 21.4 XFCE (offline install) inside a virtual machine (8GB RAM).
1) I installed the DE/WM, then rebooted and logged in via lightdm.
2) I closed all welcome messages (if those appeared).
3) I ran "htop" program.
4) I repeated this procedure multiple times in order to verify the result.
Note: Full screen (1920x1080) was scaled automatically.
IceWM 135 MB Fluxbox 155 MB JWM 160 MB Openbox 170 MB i3 220 MB
Enlightenment 205 MB LXDE 220 MB LXQt 310 MB Budgie 350 MB MATE 375 MB XFCE 395 MB Gnome 440 MB KDE Plasma 480 MB Cinnamon 600 MB
I've seen these kind of comparisons elsewhere and their rankings differ a little bit from this one. However, the big picture is the same. Given these facts, I wouldn't spend much time on details, because the real issue is the relative size of DEs/WMs. Window managers consume about 1/2 or 1/3 of the RAM compared to full-featured DEs. This is important, because it gives an old laptop a second chance to run smoothly for years to come.
Among the measured WMs, IceWM is the most newbie-friendly alternative, because it doesn't need much (or at all) customization to work out-of-the-box. It has good/full mouse support, mostly due to its pre-configured toolbar and start menu.
The biggest underperformer is Cinnamon. It is very basic desktop environment, but it requires more than Gnome and KDE Plasma, which are more fancy/modern.
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Last updated: 20.12.2021