As a follow up to my previous post I have decided to re-run the tests, this time with the updated distributions (where available of course). Again I will be testing all of this within VirtualBox on ‘machines’ with the following specifications:
- Total RAM: 512MB
- Hard drive: 8GB
- CPU type: x86
The tests were all done using VirtualBox 3.2.6 on Windows, and I did not install VirtualBox tools (although some distributions may have shipped with them). I also left the screen resolution at the default 800×600 and accepted the installation defaults. All tests were run on July 3rd, 2010 so your results may not be identical.
Results
As before I have provide state of the art graphs for your enjoyment.
First boot memory (RAM) usage
This test was measured on the first startup after finishing a fresh install.
Memory (RAM) usage after updates
This test was performed after all updates were installed and a reboot was performed.
Memory (RAM) usage change after updates
The net growth or decline in RAM usage after applying all of the updates
Install size after updates
The hard drive space used by the distribution after applying all of the updates.
Conclusion
As before I’m going to leave you to drawing your own conclusions. I will point out though that almost all of the distributions have done a good job of lowering memory usage with system updates, which is very commendable. Also it’s important to note that even though RAM and disk space increase with updates so might performance so it’s all about which metric you hold as most important.
Why Debian is so large after upgrades:
You probably didn’t do
apt-get clean
after you did it.
All the .deb files will remain in your local archive if you don’t clean it out.
Desktop distros tend to have that automatically happen, but base Debian is ‘the universal operating system’.
I knew I forgot something! … Not to sound overly sarcastic but as someone who prefers GUIs over CLIs (and I do believe that puts my firmly in the mass market) I don’t think you can expect people to remember to do this manually.
Furthermore I didn’t run any clean commands on any of the other distros either AND debian testing was installed from a netinstall so it should have only pulled down the most recent packages anyway. What a strange result.
“Not to sound overly sarcastic but as someone who prefers GUIs over CLIs (and I do believe that puts my firmly in the mass market) I don’t think you can expect people to remember to do this manually.”
Well, it’s probably more realistic to expect *Debian users* to do it =)
Well this is true.
Since all distros were treated equally (no yum clean all in F13 either) I don’t see any issues with the disk space usage comparison.