How to configure ubuntu for lightweight low-memory usage?

Posted by augustin on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by augustin
Published on 2011-03-04T07:52:16Z Indexed on 2011/03/06 8:18 UTC
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memory-usage

I just upgraded an old, secondary computer to the latest Kubuntu (10.10). It seems the effort was a bit too much for the hardware and one 512MB memory module died. I tried to take it away, clean the connectors, put it back several times, but to no avail.

Until such a time I can find a second hand DDR memory module, I am left with a meagre 256MB RAM, which is below the official requirements (384MB) to run Kubuntu/KDE. Indeed: the computer constantly swaps the memory, making everything painfully slow.

Since Kubuntu is already installed and I use it on all my computers (and I want to keep KDE for when I really need it), how can I configure ubuntu to squeeze out every bit of unnecessary memory usage?

This is a secondary computer but still very useful. We use it mostly for web browsing.

A "lightweight" tag is missing.

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