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Microsoft confirms Windows 11 is a memory hog, promises 8GB RAM PC optimization by end of 2026
(www.windowslatest.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2026
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No matter what they do, they'll still be far greater in terms of memory consumption than the most bloated Linux desktop environment.
Linux desktops aren't that light either
That's a bold statement. KDE is often (and unfairly IMHO) accused of being memory hungry, but it runs just fine on my 10 year old Dell Latitude with 8GB of memory. And by fine, I mean I'm running Firefox, a coding editor (Zed) and build tools. Sure my builds could be a bit quicker, but most people aren't doing that, they're browsing the web.
My personal Nobara install idles at 2.5GB. Meanwhile my W11 laptop at work idles somewhere between 8-11GB. That's a lot of data getting used up when the computer is doing literally nothing.
No matter how "bloated" you think Linux distros are, none of them are remotely close to W11. The worst I know of is Bazzite, which can sit around 4Gb at idle. Still low enough to do a lot of things on a system with only 8GB
It depends on how the windows installation was configured. My work machine is bloated as hell, 7gb idle, but my personal pc starts at 5.5. However when you do a VM and only give it 8gb of ram, you will see it hover around 3.5-3.9. Windows caches a lot of crap, but it can "make room" if you are asking for more ram. My Cachy on KDE launches at 2, which like I said isn't that light either, although a lot less