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Any idea why some provides have minimal templates but it uses more ram than your link?
I have Debian 6 32bit minimal uses ~ 10MB RAM freshly installed.
128 MB? That's a bit on the high side. Optimal case for 64 Bit OS is around 8 MB.
Seriously now, 64-Bit OS actually is disadvantageous for machines with less than 4 GB RAM because a lot of kernel data and structures are using more RAM!
Simple rule: Use 32-Bit OS versions on all them small VPSs.
Btw, Debian minimal is doing a very nice job in terms of low RAM needs.
My guess is that either the template changed since I posted that last July or your provider is not using the same template provided by OpenVZ.org (there are a lot of 3rd party "minimal" templates out there, OpenVZ.org just started maintaining their own last July). Next time I have some free time I'll go through them again and post my findings. 10MB still isn't bad but the results in the first post of this thread are shocking.
@bsdguy
I used to only use 32bit OSes on less than 4GB of RAM because 64-bit processes will always use more RAM than the same process running as 32-bit BUT there is a performance gain for running 64-bit processes instead of 32-bit (I think it's measured in single digit percentages but it's still measurable). Is it worth using extra RAM for a tiny performance boost? Some don't think so but I personally stick with 64-bit every time since it's easier to upgrade something past 4GB of RAM than it is to rebuild the OS to 64-bit down the road (experienced this many times in my youth and I could have saved hours of migrations and downtime had I just started with a 64-bit OS).
If you need every byte of RAM for you application (caching?) or you run a VPN or something where 128MB of RAM is overkill then stick with a 32-bit OS. Only go 64-bit if you plan to scale your VPS up past 4GB of RAM (if you're running an kind of service for clients, always plan to scale past 4GB of RAM, it may never happen but you'll be happier if you do) or a 2% performance increase means the difference between users seeing a Error 500 or placing their order at your online store.
@KuJoe
Yes, 64-Bit apps are a little bit faster. But we're talking VPS here, and particularly small VPS.
And frankly, your "upgrading" argument, while per se true, doesn't weigh much here. The chances that someone with a 128 MB or 256 MB VPS will want to suddenly upgrade to >= 4GB are quite slim.
Moreover, the real potential for speed gains is in proper selection, config buffering and other tricks and hardly in 64-Bit OS/apps, which btw. also have spots where it's actually slower than 32-Bit OS/apps.
That said, yes, 64-Bit absolutely has its place. But then, my point wasn't "64-Bit is evil!". It was "Think! And then chose wisely and reasonably for your scenario!"
@bsdguy I agree, I updated my post (added the second paragraph) to reflect that also.
Mine are about 3 to 4MB if nothing is running.
Op din't mention if he's testing on OVZ or KVM, they are different you can't get that little memory footprint since it load kernel and such.
Graphs in this post are from Ramnode OVZ 128MB VPS. I will edit the post and enter that here.
Hmmm... seems that I can't edit it anymore
with init and dropbear ovz can do with 3 MB.
My first linux machine had 4 MB of ram and it run desktop slack. Today, without the kernel, you can only run a low footprint ssh server...
That being said, small VMs, i386, big or which may be upgraded, amd64. I draw the line at 1 GB, past that point the couple of MBs of RAM saved and some 50-100 MB on disk do not justify the performance penalty.
Of course, YMMV, depending on what you are using.