bodhi linux 5.1 (ubuntu 18.04-based) with default moksha de (an elementary fork) is about 450 mb. i just started playing with slackware 14.2 with xfce and it boots in around 250 mb.
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That was my exact same reaction first time I ever tried KDE… 
But even LXDE (e.g. Pixel desktop on RPi) reminds me too much of Windows XP (always remove it from RPi and leave it headless, or install XFCE)… so when I last tried KDE for any length of time, I hated the look and feel, and it seemed bloated at the same time as looking/feeling like Win95/98…
Anyway - to be fair to KDE, I did recently briefly “sample” it via KDE Neon ubuntu based KDE variant (in a VirtualBox VM)… it seemed okay… not sure about it as a daily driver… not saying no…
But all my main Linux desktops have about 16 GB of RAM… and I’ve never hit the ceiling…
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I had the same thoughts, when I tried this children’s DE. I never wanted to touch it again. Then my friend showed me KDE Plasma and worlds changed. KDE actually evolved to a really neat looking thing that also is not known as the “bloated DE” anymore. Since then I am using KDE and am pretty satisfied with it. KDE pretty much made a 180° turn when Plasma came out.
Therefore I prefer to refer to it as “KDE Plasma” so people know what is being talked about. KDE Plasma is a completely different experience than the original KDE.
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My old HP G60-120EM 
Intel(R) Core™ Duo 2.00Ghz 3.00 GB RAM runing Trisquel GNU-Linux 8.0 shows 460MiB 15% of 2.9GiB with System Load Indicator running in the panel. With LibreOffice Writer working on a document this is recording 560MiB. So pleased with this though don’t know if this due to Trisquel install being 64bit as the old Vista Home Premium original install was a 32bit OS? It used to get real hot with pop-up warning notifications but now runs cool; Core Duo at 10% with just gentle fan even when using wine PhotoPlus program.
Use my old HP more now than Dell ubuntu - better English keyboard and larger more vivid screen. Bought her a new battery and thinking of new digital internal hard drive with perhaps four flavours on it - for Play Time 