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Is that 600MB of used RAM? Why is it so much? I've seen KDE environments use less than 400MB and when i use Window Maker i get something around 250MB or so.

(all of them are ridiculous sizes considering something like Windows NT 4 needs 16MB of RAM for the entire system and applications to run while providing a ton of functionality out of the box, but still even relatively your setup looks to use a lot of memory)

oops, my bad. notice the mistake I made with sudo so this includes all the other things currently running. Limited to my current user the correct value would be:

  smem -c pss -t | tail -1
    220678

EDIT: reply inline to @Crinus because rate limitation:

no this is only current user because hidepid on proc in fstab

  proc    /proc    proc    defaults,hidepid=2     0     0

Still, isn't it the entire system's load?

Well I had working KDE 1 on a machine with 16MiB, and you can setup a working X11 + FVWM with 4MiB of RAM. Obviously using older versions of Linux kernel and userland.

More ridiculous could be a full GUI OS on a machine witch less RAM, like an Amiga 1000/500 or a early Macs.

I'm talking about the current versions, not old stuff, i also had KDE 1 working on a 32MB machine.

I do not expect current versions to be easy to run even in 32MB (although i've heard - but didn't verify - that Xorg can be configured and built from source to use as little as 600KB) but i'm curious where those hundreds of MBs go even for something like Xorg + Window Maker.

fvwm is current stuff, being the default window manager in OpenBSD.

Transparency in terminal (urxvt) in i3wm is achievable without compton. It's also the kind of transparency that doesn't make image previews in ranger transparent, too.

What is the point? Sometimes you need software that relies on KDE and there is no alternative for it.

yes your mileage may vary. haven't been in a situation where KDE or Gnome had something which I couldn't get done cheaper:

just an idea of what happens if I were to install konqueror on a non-kde system:

  sudo apt-get install konqueror
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree       
  Reading state information... Done
  The following additional packages will be installed:
    baloo-kf5 catdoc dolphin kactivities-bin kactivitymanagerd
    keditbookmarks kfind kimageformat-plugins kinit kio
    kio-extras kio-extras-data kpackagelauncherqml
    kpackagetool5 kwayland-data kwayland-integration
    libdbusmenu-qt5-2 libdolphinvcs5 libfam0 libhfstospell10
    libkf5activities5 libkf5archive5 libkf5attica5
    libkf5auth-data libkf5auth5 libkf5baloo5 libkf5balooengine5
    libkf5baloowidgets-bin libkf5baloowidgets5
    libkf5bookmarks-data libkf5bookmarks5 libkf5codecs-data
    libkf5codecs5 libkf5completion-data libkf5completion5
    libkf5config-bin libkf5config-data libkf5configcore5
    libkf5configgui5 libkf5configwidgets-data
    libkf5configwidgets5 libkf5coreaddons-data
    libkf5coreaddons5 libkf5crash5 libkf5dbusaddons-bin
    libkf5dbusaddons-data libkf5dbusaddons5
    libkf5declarative-data libkf5declarative5 libkf5dnssd-data
    libkf5dnssd5 libkf5doctools5 libkf5filemetadata-bin
    libkf5filemetadata-data libkf5filemetadata3
    libkf5globalaccel-bin libkf5globalaccel-data
    libkf5globalaccel5 libkf5globalaccelprivate5
    libkf5guiaddons5 libkf5i18n-data libkf5i18n5
    libkf5iconthemes-bin libkf5iconthemes-data
    libkf5iconthemes5 libkf5idletime5 libkf5itemviews-data
    libkf5itemviews5 libkf5jobwidgets-data libkf5jobwidgets5
    libkf5js5 libkf5kcmutils-data libkf5kcmutils5
    libkf5kdelibs4support-data libkf5kdelibs4support5
    libkf5kdelibs4support5-bin libkf5khtml-bin libkf5khtml-data
    libkf5khtml5 libkf5kiocore5 libkf5kiofilewidgets5
    libkf5kiogui5 libkf5kiontlm5 libkf5kiowidgets5
    libkf5kirigami2-5 libkf5konq6 libkf5newstuff-data
    libkf5newstuff5 libkf5newstuffcore5
    libkf5notifications-data libkf5notifications5
    libkf5package-data libkf5package5 libkf5parts-data
    libkf5parts-plugins libkf5parts5 libkf5pty-data libkf5pty5
    libkf5quickaddons5 libkf5service-bin libkf5service-data
    libkf5service5 libkf5solid5 libkf5solid5-data
    libkf5sonnet5-data libkf5sonnetcore5 libkf5sonnetui5
    libkf5textwidgets-data libkf5textwidgets5 libkf5wallet-bin
    libkf5wallet-data libkf5wallet5 libkf5waylandclient5
    libkf5widgetsaddons-data libkf5widgetsaddons5
    libkf5windowsystem-data libkf5windowsystem5
    libkf5xmlgui-bin libkf5xmlgui-data libkf5xmlgui5
    libkwalletbackend5-5 libminizip1 libphonon4qt5-4
    libpolkit-qt5-1-1 libpoppler-qt5-1 libqt5quickcontrols2-5
    libqt5quicktemplates2-5 libqt5script5 libqt5texttospeech5
    libqt5waylandclient5 libqt5waylandcompositor5
    libqt5webengine-data libqt5webenginecore5
    libqt5webenginewidgets5 libre2-5 libssh-4 libvoikko1
    phonon4qt5 phonon4qt5-backend-vlc
    qml-module-org-kde-kirigami2 qml-module-org-kde-newstuff
    qml-module-qtqml-models2 qml-module-qtquick-controls2
    qml-module-qtquick-templates2 qtwayland5 sonnet-plugins
  Suggested packages:
    tk | wish dolphin-plugins konq-plugins fam voikko-fi
    phonon4qt5-backend-gstreamer hspell
  The following NEW packages will be installed:
    baloo-kf5 catdoc dolphin kactivities-bin kactivitymanagerd
    keditbookmarks kfind kimageformat-plugins kinit kio
    kio-extras kio-extras-data konqueror kpackagelauncherqml
    kpackagetool5 kwayland-data kwayland-integration
    libdbusmenu-qt5-2 libdolphinvcs5 libfam0 libhfstospell10
    libkf5activities5 libkf5archive5 libkf5attica5
    libkf5auth-data libkf5auth5 libkf5baloo5 libkf5balooengine5
    libkf5baloowidgets-bin libkf5baloowidgets5
    libkf5bookmarks-data libkf5bookmarks5 libkf5codecs-data
    libkf5codecs5 libkf5completion-data libkf5completion5
    libkf5config-bin libkf5config-data libkf5configcore5
    libkf5configgui5 libkf5configwidgets-data
    libkf5configwidgets5 libkf5coreaddons-data
    libkf5coreaddons5 libkf5crash5 libkf5dbusaddons-bin
    libkf5dbusaddons-data libkf5dbusaddons5
    libkf5declarative-data libkf5declarative5 libkf5dnssd-data
    libkf5dnssd5 libkf5doctools5 libkf5filemetadata-bin
    libkf5filemetadata-data libkf5filemetadata3
    libkf5globalaccel-bin libkf5globalaccel-data
    libkf5globalaccel5 libkf5globalaccelprivate5
    libkf5guiaddons5 libkf5i18n-data libkf5i18n5
    libkf5iconthemes-bin libkf5iconthemes-data
    libkf5iconthemes5 libkf5idletime5 libkf5itemviews-data
    libkf5itemviews5 libkf5jobwidgets-data libkf5jobwidgets5
    libkf5js5 libkf5kcmutils-data libkf5kcmutils5
    libkf5kdelibs4support-data libkf5kdelibs4support5
    libkf5kdelibs4support5-bin libkf5khtml-bin libkf5khtml-data
    libkf5khtml5 libkf5kiocore5 libkf5kiofilewidgets5
    libkf5kiogui5 libkf5kiontlm5 libkf5kiowidgets5
    libkf5kirigami2-5 libkf5konq6 libkf5newstuff-data
    libkf5newstuff5 libkf5newstuffcore5
    libkf5notifications-data libkf5notifications5
    libkf5package-data libkf5package5 libkf5parts-data
    libkf5parts-plugins libkf5parts5 libkf5pty-data libkf5pty5
    libkf5quickaddons5 libkf5service-bin libkf5service-data
    libkf5service5 libkf5solid5 libkf5solid5-data
    libkf5sonnet5-data libkf5sonnetcore5 libkf5sonnetui5
    libkf5textwidgets-data libkf5textwidgets5 libkf5wallet-bin
    libkf5wallet-data libkf5wallet5 libkf5waylandclient5
    libkf5widgetsaddons-data libkf5widgetsaddons5
    libkf5windowsystem-data libkf5windowsystem5
    libkf5xmlgui-bin libkf5xmlgui-data libkf5xmlgui5
    libkwalletbackend5-5 libminizip1 libphonon4qt5-4
    libpolkit-qt5-1-1 libpoppler-qt5-1 libqt5quickcontrols2-5
    libqt5quicktemplates2-5 libqt5script5 libqt5texttospeech5
    libqt5waylandclient5 libqt5waylandcompositor5
    libqt5webengine-data libqt5webenginecore5
    libqt5webenginewidgets5 libre2-5 libssh-4 libvoikko1
    phonon4qt5 phonon4qt5-backend-vlc
    qml-module-org-kde-kirigami2 qml-module-org-kde-newstuff
    qml-module-qtqml-models2 qml-module-qtquick-controls2
    qml-module-qtquick-templates2 qtwayland5 sonnet-plugins
  0 upgraded, 147 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
  Need to get 72.7 MB of archives.
  After this operation, 310 MB of additional disk space will be used.
  Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

This example is kind of unfair for two reasons:

1. Konqueror is basically the Swiss army knife of KDE. No wonder it pulls in everything and the kitchen sink.

2. You present an intimidatingly large package list to make your point, but that list is that long 'because KDE Frameworks (formerly known as kdelibs) is now deliberately packaged in a lot of tiny pieces to reduce the amount of libraries that an average application needs to pull in.

Well you can try the same with konsole. On my XFCE system it wants to install 71 packages, including stuff that a terminal emulator probably doesn't need like phonon. To be fair, this could also be due to Debian's packaging and it may well be possible to have a leaner konsole package.

The Phonon dependency probably comes via libknotify.

I always saw these tons of little packages as a bad idea as they make package management (from the user's perspective) harder, they do not really provide any space benefit (code is small), if anything they make loading slower (i wrote a benchmark some time ago and a binary linked against a single dynamic library with tons of exports was faster to load than a binary linked against several dynamic libraries with fewer exports - but overall the same number of imports) and AFAIK the OS wont keep the entire library in memory anyway if it isn't needed (if anything the extra housework needed to all the libraries are probably a net negative). And of course these intimidating lists.

And in practice applications do not use one or two of them, they use several of them and those libraries bring in several others, etc like spaghetti (so you have Konsole relying on Phonon as mentioned in another reply).

Krita?... Mypaint isn't that good.

Edit. Or KCachegrind, okteta

If you run an application that needs the KDE (or GNOME) libs and you focus on it (e.g. an IDE, a browser, a document viewer, etc) then it doesn't matter that it uses the KDE/GNOME libs since you can consider them as part of the program itself and they'll be gone once you close the program (still take disk space but that isn't much of an issue outside of VMs).

Auxiliary stuff you leave at the background (e.g. an IM or music player) tend to have multiple applications and you can always find an alternative.

There are exceptions of course but they can be limited in general.

And chances are you want to avoid the latter stuff for the former stuff, it isn't like RAM exists to be unused (even for file caching). In other words, if i run a heavy program as a primary task then there is even more of a reason to want auxiliary programs to be lightweight so that this program will have more resources for itself.

(Also as an extra bonus, sometimes as a programmer i want the primary programs - IDE - to be lightweight themselves since i want the resources to be available for the program i am working on)