EndeavourOS KDE or Arch Linux KDE, which is lighter?

[u/Able-Farm6295]

I’m planning to use KDE Plasma and wondering which one uses less RAM and runs lighter overall.

For those who have tried both, is there any noticeable difference?

Or is it pretty much the same since both use KDE?

Would appreciate your opinions!

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[u/c0d3g33k]

They're the same picture.

Almost 99% or more of the packages on an EndeavourOS system come directly from official Arch Linux repositories, while the custom EndeavourOS (endeavouros) repository supplies only a tiny fraction (typically around 20 to 50 utility and theming packages).

[u/atlasraven → u/c0d3g33k]

You'll have better luck making your own tweaks. Replacing Dracut with Booster for example, removing yay and only using Pacman.

[u/marcellusmartel]

You're coming into this from an uninformed position. That is not how RAM works. Less RAM  =/= runs lighter or better 

[u/driftless → u/marcellusmartel]

WAY too many folks think less ram is good, when non-windows operating systems are concerned, free ram is wasted ram. I guess it stems from too many years of shitty coded windows programs leaking and slowing down systems, and because of that, folks thought that ram use was bad.

OP, aside from the one or two programs that endeavour may run, they’re practically identical in system usage. Endeavour is easy-mode arch.

[u/fultonchain]

The difference is negligible for all practical purposes.

EOS has some quality of life utilities and themeing but none of them are invasive and you can always remove the EOS repos. At least you'll have an AUR helper with yay.

[u/mr_bigmouth_502]

Admittedly, I've never installed "vanilla" Arch with KDE, but EndeavourOS is quite minimal and doesn't add anything really heavy enough to notice.

You can go the Arch route if you want control over every last thing that gets installed, but I don't see a reason to unless you're on a severely RAM-constrained system (i.e. something with less than 8GB).

[u/Brilliant_Estate_967]

Its un both cas arch, pure arch. EndeavourOS come already tweaked. So.maybe a very little bit heavier for a huge win of time and configurations

[u/FOSS_Graybeard]

Here is a cap of my system monitor running EOS KDE Plasma. I think this is a fairly typical EOS KDE P setup.

[u/TomB1952]

They will be approximately identical, however, the distro isn't the factor here.

If you overcommit RAM, the system will move inactive memory pages to swap based on a least recently used algorithm. You can install a surprising amount of libraries, utilities, and other doo-dads with zero impact on a linux KDE system, other than a single migration from RAM to swap. The linux swap algorithm is very sophisticated. It has nothing to do with KDE, other than KDE being a particularly light desktop.

EndeavourOS does install the Arch Update Checker by default and a couple of services which aren't used and Arch doesn't install by default.

Now, if you're going to use all of those doo-dads, those pages will become active and will contend for RAM occupation. If your usage is light, system resource usage will be light.

Honestly, I highly doubt there will be any operational difference at all.

If you're curious, here's a list of services on my EndeavourOS KDE system:

systemctl list-unit-files --type=service                                                            ✔  52s   
UNIT FILE                                    STATE           PRESET   
accounts-daemon.service                      disabled        disabled
[alsa-card-wait@.service](mailto:alsa-card-wait@.service)                      static          -        
alsa-restore.service                         static          -        
alsa-state.service                           static          -        
archlinux-keyring-wkd-sync.service           static          -        
arptables.service                            disabled        disabled
audit-rules.service                          disabled        disabled
auditd.service                               disabled        disabled
auth-rpcgss-module.service                   static          -        
[autovt@.service](mailto:autovt@.service)                              alias           -        
avahi-daemon.service                         enabled         disabled
avahi-dnsconfd.service                       disabled        disabled
blk-availability.service                     disabled        disabled
bluetooth.service                            enabled         disabled
breakpoint-pre-basic.service                 static          -        
breakpoint-pre-mount.service                 static          -        
breakpoint-pre-switch-root.service           static          -        
breakpoint-pre-udev.service                  static          -        
brscan-skey.service                          disabled        disabled
[btrfs-scrub@.service](mailto:btrfs-scrub@.service)                         static          -        
canberra-system-bootup.service               disabled        disabled
canberra-system-shutdown-reboot.service      disabled        disabled
canberra-system-shutdown.service             disabled        disabled
[capsule@.service](mailto:capsule@.service)                             static          -        
[configure-printer@.service](mailto:configure-printer@.service)                   static          -        
console-getty.service                        disabled        disabled
[container-getty@.service](mailto:container-getty@.service)                     static          -        
cronie.service                               enabled         disabled
[cups-lpd@.service](mailto:cups-lpd@.service)                            static          -        
cups.service                                 enabled         disabled
dbus-broker.service                          disabled        disabled
dbus-org.bluez.service                       alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service           alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.hostname1.service       alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.import1.service         alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.locale1.service         alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.login1.service          alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.machine1.service        alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service   alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.portable1.service       alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.sysupdate1.service      alias           -        
dbus-org.freedesktop.timedate1.service       alias           -       

My system is currently using 8.1GB of RAM. I have a *LOT* of apps running and windows open across 12 virtual desktops, including Qt Creator, two copies of firefox (each with about 15 tab), the Strawberry media player currently melting through my smooth jazz playlist, and a bunch of other stuff I won't bother listing. KDE linux is an extremely resource efficient system.

free -h
total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            60Gi       8.1Gi       7.2Gi       381Mi        44Gi        52Gi
Swap:           66Gi       7.3Mi        66Gi

I seem to recall my system boots to about 4.3GB of RAM used. That probably holds for any linux KDE system with an AMD video card.

[u/Mundane-Mortgage-624 → u/TomB1952]

Ho CachyOS con gpu AMD ed in idle occupa 1.2GB di ram

[u/fthecatrock]

You are basically comparing served meal vs prep your own meal, in which the meal is the same thing

if you want it very light, just headless/no-de linux

[u/ak47_triggered]

I'll suggest cachy if going for kde, it's snappier