[TEAM] Clarifying the minimum requirements to install/try/run

[Bryan Quigley]

Shameless plug:
https://bryanquigley.com/memory-usage/ubuntu-16-04-livecd-memory-usage-compared

I believe I only did it to an accuracy in chunks of 128MB.  (but it
should be pretty easy to reproduce / do your own more accurate tests)

Of course, many things may have change these results by now..  (new
kernels/ Firefox going multiprocess)

On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 4:24 PM, Pasi Lallinaho <pasi at shimmerproject.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> based on a discussion that happened a while ago, and after checking if the
> council was OK with the general direction, I want to start a discussion on
> the minimum system requirements – and changing them to suit our needs
> better.
>
> Currently, our website [1] says the following:
>
> To install or try Xubuntu within the Desktop/Live DVD, you need 256 MB of
> memory, if you are using the Minimal CD, which uses the non-graphical Debian
> Installer and downloads packages as you install, you need 128 MB of memory.
>
> Once installed, you should have at least 512 MB of memory.
>
> There are several things I'm proposing to change here. First, the minimum
> requirements for installing or trying Xubuntu should match the minimum
> requirements of actually using Xubuntu. There are (at least) three reasons
> to do this:
> – It's very unlikely that somebody will install/try Xubuntu with less memory
> than they'll have after they have installed the system
> – The experience the user will get when trying Xubuntu with 256MB memory
> will not be ideal, or even close
> – To avoid confusion; we don't want to let people think there is even a slim
> chance that 256MB is enough
>
> Another thing I want to propose is the removal of the mention to the minimal
> CD. Again, there are a few main reasons for this:
> – While the minimal CD can be helpful for some, it isn't Xubuntu
> – Installing the Xubuntu desktop from the minimal CD will still require a
> minimum of 512MB to run at least somewhat smoothly; we want to avoid
> confusion and not make people think they can run Xubuntu with as little as
> 128MB memory
>
> As you can see from the argumentation above, the main target is to clarify
> the minimum requirements and avoid any confusion.
>
> If anybody has anything against the proposed above, please reply to this
> mail within a week with argumentation. If no objections are made, I will
> start the process to change this information on the website.
>
> Another question that is related, but out of the scope of this exact
> discussion is if we should make the minimum required amount of RAM higher
> than it is now. If people have ideas about this, feel free to share them on
> this mailing list – but please start another thread.
>
> Cheers,
> Pasi
>
> [1] http://xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/requirements/
>
> --
> Pasi Lallinaho (knome)                    › http://open.knome.fi/
> Xubuntu Website Lead & Council member     › http://xubuntu.org/
> Shimmer Project co-founder                › http://shimmerproject.org/
> Ubuntu member
>
>
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>