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I use XFCE.
Should be xfce.
Also, in most cases xrdp is preferred over VNC for much smoother user experience at similar latency level.
Another option would be LXDE, if you wish to use the bare minimal RAM possible. I used LXDE in the past, when RAM was an issue.
i3wm
i always like xfce
sway, it uses wayland
by my experience, linux with de xfce is fast
I tried Ubuntu desktop. Horrible experience.
Even with 4 core 9950x, 8 GB RAM it was sluggish as hell.
In the other hand, windows 11 runs butter smooth. Sometimes I forget that I was working on the vps and not on the laptop.
Xfce is light and easy to use.
webdesktop is the smallest
While Xfce likely is the smallest of the better known ones it's not as small as it once was. More importantly though there are way smaller ones, to name just one (somewhat extreme) example, 'jwm'. Those however are less easy and convenient to install and configure and usually require other programs to become and feel like a "micro-Xfce" like for example a task bar program, a menu program etc.
But IMO they are the best way to have a reasonably decent desktop on small or even tiny machines where Xfce would run very sluggishly if at all.
Bear in mind that by default VNC is not encrypted.
The real question is: what is the lightest os?
This is the way.
Whats the usecase?
Depending on that, even the lightest gui will be a pain to run on 2gb ram.
something different
linux mint cinnamon latest working with 3 busy firefox tabs and qbitorrent active 34 seeding torrents only 1.4 GB RAM now occupied.
Remote desktop connectivity is with rustdesk latest with direct ip connection.
rustdesk is working as a service so no need to login everytime with novnc console etc.
Alpine Linux?
Xfce + TigerVNC on Ubuntu would work well for you
Yeah Alpine is one of the lightest but they don't have desktop as priority. Basic Arch or Debian install should be slim too. Not sure what exactly you want to run in GUI with 2GB RAM, anything browser based will hit the ceiling pretty fast.
You can try webtop, I feel it has less overhead
I use Joe's Window Manager on mine, beats XFCE in memory usage. With 1 GB of installed RAM, I can open 10 browser tabs and play youtube concurrently. Half the reason to buy it was to test websites on a tablet-sized screen:
Uhm, no. I once had a really old pentium 4/mobile laptop and linux (Alpine) running quite nicely and let's call it very bearably kind of fast with JWM + taskbar + menu etc. on less than 1 GB. I also could browse kind of graphically with (IIRC) elinks.
Btw, Free or Open BSD are quite nice and slim options as well.
Re Firefox: Forget it, that's a bloated fat monstrosity.
Re Ubuntu: Are you kidding? That's also a bloated fat monstrosity.
twmEverything was lighter 10y ago. Id try android.
Puppylinux?
I use LXQT
https://lxqt-project.org/
tried it both debian & ubuntu version with virtualbox and i like it
dwm
i3
Again its about usecase
So yes I have used Linux with less than 1g ram with a full bloated gui and just works fine. But add more simultaneous tabs and all, it struggles to keep up.
OP probably sounds like trying to maximize the buck by getting the cheapest vps and expecting quantum level performance simply by using a light weight skin