What is the best Linux (or at least ABI-compatible) OS distribution to use for building a custom image for small 1GB 1cpu VMs?

Hey Robert,

Faced with a similar challenge, I had to get a bit creative with my VM setups. For 1GB 1CPU VMs, 64-bit has become quite efficient these days.

While there’s some concern about the memory overhead with 64-bit, in practice, it’s not usually a dealbreaker. With 1GB of RAM, the difference can be negligible, unless every megabyte counts for your application. Plus, with the way things are going, 32-bit support is becoming rarer, and you might find yourself with a better long-term path sticking to 64-bit.

You can always add a swap file for some extra memory buffer:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorial-collections/how-to-add-swap-space

If you still want to try out a custom image, I’ve used Puppy Linux in the past, as it is a lightweight OS. Given its minimal resource needs, it’s perfect for VMs that don’t have much to spare.

I will pass your feedback internally as well!

Best,

Bobby

Heya,

Overall, it is recommended that you use a 64-bit OS, even if you have a VM with less than 3GB of RAM. This is because 64-bit OSes offer several advantages over 32-bit OSes, including:

• The ability to address more RAM
• Improved performance for certain types of applications
• Increased security

Additionally, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find software that supports 32-bit systems. This is because most software developers are now focusing on developing 64-bit software. As a result, you may have trouble running some software on a 32-bit system.

Hope that this helps!