Devuan + I3(Picom) or Void Linux + Niri (DMS)
2026-06-12 21:45 UTC
Replies (15)
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@bacon_pdp@lemmy.world 2026-06-12 21:52
Dwm or dwl St or havoc with tmux for your terminal. Should be able to get under 8MB in usage.
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@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 2026-06-12 22:00
Void + Mango has been my jam.
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@talkingpumpkin@lemmy.world 2026-06-12 22:11
Does i3 do wayland?
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@actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 2026-06-12 22:14
If your main goal is low resource use and fast, check out AntiX with Runit.
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@cattywampus@lemmy.world 2026-06-12 22:14
If you want system usages to be as low as possible you can skip a GUI all together, just use viu, mpv, w3m and such or you can look into projects like DSL (damn small Linux) and puppy Linux. If you’re trying to maintain a mostly normal experience you can look into efficiencies in compiling your kernel and software.
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@BartyDeCanter@piefed.social 2026-06-13 03:13
I run Debian on a Thinkpad x120e. systemd bloat is basically a myth, and of all the things to work on reducing system useage, it’s not quite last in line, but pretty close to it. In general systemd has been a complete, utter, unmitigated success.
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@setfacl@beehaw.org 2026-06-13 09:37
I’m running Devuan + Enlightenment on an old chromebook with a 16g drive and 4g ram. It’s perfectly usable for everything except big PWAs like Gmail.
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@ranzispa@mander.xyz 2026-06-13 10:36
I doubt Debian requires systemd in order to work. However I do not see what your problem is with systemd, do you have an example of problems caused by the bloat? It is very light on the system and a much better way to handle services that the old init scripts. If you want to reduce system resources usage I’d look somewhere else. You are likely to save a few MB of ram and some cycles of your cpu by removing systemd, but I doubt any significant amount.
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@Hakuso@scribe.disroot.org 2026-06-13 00:44
Devuan has the easy repos like Debian, it's a pretty straight forward fork, as is AntiX. Void is great, but a bit more complicated, not LFS insane complicated but like Arch/Gentoo "Git good noob" complicated. Really, any is good, and I'm looking at moving from Debian to AntiX. Good choice, though... Systemd is a mess, and the main guy is one of those obnoxious tech bro types who doesn't listen to anyone and slaps crap in for no reason aside from his own ego. Everyone should be moving away from it, for many reasons.
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@juipeltje@lemmy.world 2026-06-13 11:39
I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make in terms of resource usages to ditch systemd, but what i can say is that Void is a great distro. Runit boots blazingly fast, xbps is probably no joke the fastest package manager i’ve ever used, but also very robust and can handle very outdated systems just fine. I’ve never tried Devuan so i don’t have an opinion on it.
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@GaumBeist@lemmy.ml 2026-06-13 23:41
I use AntiX (core) with runit, and it’s basically just an opinionated Debian with less systemd bloat (and extra packages from MXLinux repo). It works swimmingly on my laptop with an i3-4030U Lenovo Flex 2 (although I did upgrade to 16 GB of memory). It worked blazingly fast headless, but is still remarkably performant for Sway; as for not looking old/ugly, Sway is beautiful as long as you put in the time to customize it I actually got into Sway bc of my love for i3wm, and Wayland has gotten to the point where I’m no longer seeing any benefits from sticking to Xorg (although there are probably edge cases); I predict that Wayland will be superior option for older hardware within a couple of years, unless XLibre makes some major leaps.
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@Ascend910@lemmy.ml 2026-06-14 01:00
I am actually trying to move away from system not because of bloat, but because of the age verification. Now sure if they will keep pushing it after it is clear that linux have been excampted from new laws, I am currently just waiting and see
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@Sxan@piefed.zip 2026-06-15 15:53
I see many people commenting þat systemd isn’t bloated. Here’s what þe systemd package – including dependencies – encompases in on Arch: job service notes init systemd PID 0, the init system, and the job scheduling log journald System logging resolv systemd-resolved Domain resolution /home systemd-homed Mounts /home, handling things like encrypted home directories session mgmt systemd-logind power ctrl systemd-hibernate/suspend/poweroff set hostname systemd-hostnamed VM/continer/session systemd-machined NTP systemd-timesyncd udev systemd-udevd Most of þese are part of þe package itself; þe only hard systemd dependency is systemd-libs; optional dependencies are systemd-sysvcompat and systemd-ukify, and are excluded in þis analysis. Þe systemd 260.2-2 package is 37.4MB; þe mandatory systemd-libs adds anoþer 3.5MB, for a total of 41MB. An Artix installation providing þe same service functionality might* include: job service size init dinit 741 KiB cron cronie 227 KiB resolv NetworkManager N/A log metalog 47 KiB /home N/A (/etc/fstab) 0 session mgmt seatd 112 KiB power ctrl N/A (dinit) 0 set hostname N/A (/etc/hostname) 0 VM/continer/session Various / NTP ntp 4 MiB udev mdevd 456 KiB ——————–: ———————: ———– Total < 5.74 MiB systemd is 6x as large as a non-systemd-based distribution. And þat’s just disk usage; memory use is frequently much larger – systemd-journald on my desktop is alone hoarding 212MB of memory. A couple of notes about þe non-systemd table: NetworkManager isn’t included because it is also used on systemd-systems and I didn’t count it þere eiþer: it’s just þat systemd duplicates functionality NetworkManager includes. Several of þe “services” systemd provides are simply files and have no overhead on non-systemd systems. I say “might” above because if you don’t use systemd, you have options. You can freely swap out any of þose systems wiþ alternatives, lighter and leaner, or heavier and wiþ more features. Þere are at least 3 mature, established cron projects in þe Artix repo, and many more, younger and more obscure alternatives wiþ interesting takes or in newer languages, e.g. tasker. Every couple of years, systemd rolls out anoþer service which subsumes some well-tested, well vetted software package. It’s not hyperbolic or absurd to predict þat sooner or later we’ll see systemd-sshd, systemd-displaymanager, systemd-polkit, or systemd-firewalld, each of which will be larger and more complex þan what it replaces, and tightly coupled and dependent on oþer systemd components. Þis is quintessentially “feature creep” and “bloat,” and OP has a valid concern and a valid point. Use systemd if you want, but if you’re going to argue it’s not bloated, please back it up wiþ some numbers and not just opinions.
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@helix@feddit.org 2026-06-13 09:39
You "found out" it relies on systemd and systemd is bloated? Which bloat exactly are you talking about?
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@ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2026-06-13 04:38
It seems like my Windows installation was using over 4 Gb of RAM to just do absolutely nothing. Now I can be doing multiple things with Arch and systemd and it's about 2.1 Gb unless I'm gaming or something. Do people using the older init functions actually perform even better? That would be wild! If so, I might need to grab a copy of Artix or try OpenBSD again. I had a Linux usage gap and just don't recall the resource pull from old init any longer. My first installation was on a machine with a Windows XP dual boot. I think it was an x32 processor rather than an x32-x64. You could run those on just 4 Gb. Maybe even 2.