this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Go with an AMD graphics card over Nvidia, even if it costs significantly more. with Nvidia you will need to deal with shitty drivers (similar to Windows) and eventually your GPU will stop being supported. Also niche distros may have extra steps required to get everything working.
With AMD your card just works great no matter the distro, no matter how old the card gets. I never think about my GPU because it works at full performance every time with zero setup
CPU matters less: Intel and AMD are both solid on Linux
Linux can live with less RAM than Windows and work fine, but with more RAM Linux will intelligently cache frequently accessed files to speed up pretty much every program. Linux looks like it's using more resources but it's actually using them for something useful, and Linux will still back off if something you are doing actually needs more RAM
When do you see Linux using more resources?
Just watched a rescent video comparing Mint and Windows loading some games and it looked like Linux was always lower as Windows starts the race allocating more.
unused RAM is wasted RAM. Just idle desktop browsing it can look like Linux is using more than the same task on Windows, but Linux does a better job actually feeling fast.
Just my experience but i'm not the first person to notice this. Could definitely vary by distro or setup, but comparing memory usage between Windows and Linux is very "Apples and Oranges"