this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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That's a crazy high amount of RAM to just run Windows. Roughly double 10-15 years ago. IDK why but I assume any increase in that time is just unnecessary bloat.
A lot of it is a genuine increase in package content (oi, oi), including extra tools to run 64bit programs, higher resolution textures, more features means more code, and as time goes on standards change and so do dependency requirements.. Take Minecraft, V1.0.0 is (because you can still download it and yes it's legal) ~50MB after asset downloads, and version 1.21.11 is ~1.2GB. That's because of everything I mentioned before it.
But Windows is a different matter. I'd say probably more than half is bloat, but at least they let you choose to download some things like a hypervisor or IIS server tools. Copilot should've been a Windows Feature off by default. "Please, please put it behind a paywall!"
As it stands my Linux OS runs on <2GB and it's not affected by the amount of programs I have installed.. The only OS that's sustainable on the RAM that Microsoft, Google and Apple are selling, is Linux.
I'd say more than half of the commonly recommended Linux distros are bloat. When you mix software from multiple toolkits, you're pulling in a lot of bloat with them.
You're not specifying what you consider bloat here. -It is a matter of preference. There are services I appreciate in Windows that you may not. In Arch, it would mount a drive without checking it (which cause a seize). A Linux seize is what caused the issue to begin with (Linux is supposed to have ECC memory btw because it's not designed or evolved for desktop). -And that explains more "bloat" as Windows provides several mechanisms to deal with bit flips while Linux has nothing.
Had I only used Linux, I wouldn't have been able to try the drive on Windows (which checked the drive before mounting, found the error caused by Linux seizing (probably for lack of ECC mem, but also issues like it had with VLC which were actually Linux' fault, not VLC) and fixed it automatically before mounting it. Had I not had Windows available, I would have tossed the 4tb external drive.
The whole 'bloat' propaganda gets old to people who know what they're talking about. A link to a cloud service like Co-Pilot being called bloat is also laughable.
My personal Nobara install idles at 2.5GB. Meanwhile my W11 laptop at work idles somewhere between 10-11GB. That's a lot of data getting used up when the computer is doing literally nothing.
No matter how "bloated" you think popular 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
Crikey. Yeah before I used Linux I had Windows, and I'm not a casual user. I know what I'm talking about.. My first self-hosted services were on Windows: Emby and Home Assistant OS. With those two (VERY minimal) services, and of course Microsoft's antivirus program MsMpEng.exe, as well as a pretty constant NTFS error scanner on my hard drive, the system would regularly run out of memory, have I/O delay and crash at least twice a week. The reason? Microsoft's programs.
I switched to Proxmox, based on Linux with exclusively Linux containers and VMs, and now have near flawless (months-long) uptime, minimal resource and power usage.. And I now have nearly 30 services full-time.
But I'm sure that user is referring to a PC experience, not a server. With which I can also disagree, on account of a very easy control over what is and isn't installed, what does and doesn't leave files and Registry settings after uninstalling, and what has the most freedom. Plus, I'd hazard, any current and maintained stock Linux distro has no issues whatsoever running VLC.
Sorry for being broad, I refer to completely unnecessary and unused programs as bloat. Like the AI component and cloud connectivity in Windows' Notepad, or the Start menu's adware and the fact that it is an inefficient React app, or the big one, Internet Explorer. Last I checked in the files (which was 6 years ago now) that was still installed alongside Edge. On Linux, the easy to install-and-start distros are full of potential bloat - I mean software that was never asked for, and may not be wanted, such as LibreOffice Suite, NVidia proprietary graphics drivers, or the big one - a Desktop Environment that mimics Windows.
But circling back to AI, the fact that it is a "link to a cloud service" doesn't take away it's pointlessness, and using their models is far, far worse than using a local or even decentralised one.
I would be interested in a few other points, were they not absolutely untrue. For one, Linux was literally created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 on a budget, non-ECC 386 desktop PC.
As for any potential actual issues, I recommend trying Linux again - but a maintained distro; avoid the distros which are heavy on the preinstaled apps; and format a storage drive to a Linux friendly filesystem. I mean, Windows' NTFS usually runs fine in Linux, but ext4 or ZFS puts the system in a more level playing field.
We don't have internet explorer anymore and Edge is objectively the best browser by far with only Opera comparing in the feature set. Curated extension store, so MV2 with better security than mv3 providing full uBlock Origin. It has memory management for better performance on low spec PCs. Built in ad-blocking and tracker protection. And co-pilot integration is great. -You might call all that bloat, but native features > extensions if they're good (they are).
I tried local AI, didn't like it. Cloud link is fine, was easy to remove (and restore). Windows does a great job of introducing us to great new features without having to hear from others.
Windows is more resilient to bit flips. -Fact. It cannot correct them, but it can survive them better. I've written about this before as it has multiple mechanisms to help deal with them.
Damn me for responding before reading your whole reply.
You're an actual fucking moron
Sees username
Sorry, you're an insane moron
Double 10-15 years ago isn't that bad when you consider that a machine ran fine with 16MB RAM (1000x less than today) 30 years ago.