Solus with 8 GB of ram or lower

wazjf

I am curious, I have a laptop I got used last year for very cheap. It is a lenovo x1 carbon from 2018 with 8Gb of ram. It is currently running debian trixie with gnome since I mostly use it for watching youtube or anime in bed but I will have to use it for more in the future since I will be away from home more often. So I plan on using Solus on it. I want to know what edition of Solus are you using on computers that have 8GB of ram or less?

espio999

wazjf

Hello!

Solus Budgie and LM Studio is running on Intel 8th Core i5 with 8GB RAM.
Performance is 7.52 tok/sec.

Anyway, Solus with 8GB RAM is practical enough.

https://impsbl.hatenablog.jp/entry/LMStudio_en
https://impsbl.hatenablog.jp/entry/AnythingLLM_en
https://impsbl.hatenablog.jp/entry/BreathOfVibeCoding_en

qk4-li3

wazjf Budgie / 4GB here. Do-able like @brent said.

Harvey

This is my test laptop but it was my main laptop for a long time running Solus Plasma. Its now on AerynOS Plasma for testing and is significantly worse specs than an x1 Carbon. It runs fine. So use whatever you want, it does not matter.

harvey@aerynos ~> inxi -Fz
System:
  Kernel: 6.18.16-133.desktop arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Console: pty pts/1 Distro: AerynOS 2026.02
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E5510 v: 0001 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 09M4GV v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: A16
    date: 12/06/2013
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 14.2 Wh (31.1%) condition: 45.7/86.6 Wh (52.8%) volts: 11.19 min: 11.1
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: Intel Core i5 M 540 bits: 64 type: MT MCP cache: L2: 512 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1466 min/max: 1199/2534 cores: 1: 1466 2: 1466 3: 1466 4: 1466
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Microdia Integrated Webcam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: unspecified server: Xwayland v: 24.1.9 driver: gpu: i915 tty: 213x55
    resolution: 1600x900
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: crocus,swrast platforms: gbm,wayland,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 2.1 vendor: mesa v: 26.0.1 note: console (EGL sourced)
    renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (ILK), llvmpipe (LLVM 21.1.8 128 bits)
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 drivers: llvmpipe surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor
    wl: wayland-info x11: xprop
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.18.16-133.desktop status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.6.1 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5761e Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface driver: btusb type: USB
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 state: up address: N/A
  Device-2: Dell DW375 Bluetooth Module driver: btusb type: USB
  Report: ID: hci1 state: up address: N/A
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 20.36 GiB (8.7%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 227.77 GiB used: 20.36 GiB (8.9%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/sda3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 3.62 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 60.0 C mobo: N/A sodimm: 33.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0
Info:
  Memory: total: 4 GiB note: est. available: 3.62 GiB used: 1.22 GiB (33.6%)
  Processes: 238 Uptime: 1m Init: systemd Shell: fish inxi: 3.3.39

BuzzPCSOS

I run two laptops with 8Gb of ram one with an i3 CPU and another with an i5 CPU. I also run a tablet with 4Gb ram and an i3 CPU. They all run Plasma fine.
You should also pay attention to what processor your laptop uses. An Intel i3 or i5 CPU (or AMD equivalents) will perform well. Budget CPUs like Atom or Celeron tend to struggle more regardless of what operating system you choose.

brent

BuzzPCSOS Budget CPUs like Atom or Celeron tend to struggle more regardless of what operating system you choose.

add Satellites to that

georgeonsolus

I'm running Budgie happily on multiple machines, even on a 4GB one. It works flawlessly except for when it freezes, but ain't they all do that 😉. I would recommend going with whatever you prefer (most DEs use around ₁.25GB RAM, leaving you with about 6.75 on 8GB RAM), but if you are going to multitask a lot or compile tons of code, I would recommend going for a compositor or XFCE.

paracetamol

I am normally daily driving GNOME, but been on OpenBox for the past nearly half a year due to some issues with the big G that I've been too busy to try and sort out. And that reminded me how heavy GNOME, despite all the optimizations that went into it in the past few years, tends to be. So my advice would be go with anything but GNOME if you're resource constrained.

The differences between full blown desktop environments and window managers tend to be negligible once you add all the extra components one would need for normal interaction with a computer to the latter, so it really shouldn't matter all that much what else you pick.

Sticky

So I'm the weirdo using gnome with a 15+ yr old i3 4gb vizio ultralight. Honestly, the slightly slower performance....(ok maybe worse than slightly) really isn't that bad. Of course it's not my daily, but still not worthless. Makes a great travel notebook because if it breaks or gets lost....ppsff.

Sebastian

My parents run their 2007 iMac with 4Gb RAM with Solus Budgie. Even GNOME is possible with this setup. And in my opinion GNOME looks great on an iMac. But they prefer more classic desktop paradigm.

Axios

Computer overclocked Laptop
Budgie never any issues
Well I shouldnt say any intel screen tearing and firefox if not using the LTS kernel

Clintre

I have my elderly mom setup with Solus Budgie on an old Dell laptop with an 7th gen i3 and 8Gb of Ram. Granted she just browses the web and gets her email, but it performs really well and despite playing games on the browser and having 40+ tabs open, it has not had an issue.

I have an old XPS with 8Gb of ram I use as a couch laptop and it even has KDE PLasma on it.

Below 8Gb I think I would go with openbox or similar.

brent

from experience 4GB is do-able for Budgie, but you may feel the strain if you tax it (a sluggishness).

8GB to me is optimal. Budgie was my vote.

qsl

HP 2530p (hey, it still works) upgraded to 4GB on Xfce.

Once it gets running (come on computer! you can do it!) it's fine. Same use case as Sticky and some low tier game emulation. Certainly not zippy, but perfectly acceptable.