What’s even worse is Debian running on 256 MB environment, you’ll need swap or pip will be killed by the OOM reaper.
Linux used to be embedded first but nowadays most Linux distros are strangely oriented toward desktop and don’t work correctly on low memory environments without heavy customization.
Linux was NEVER embedded first. Linux was unix for 386s PCs a very expensive machine.
Not sure how desktop orientation is at all strange as any linux distro you are likely to install on your PC has been specifically prepared to install on a PC. If its anticipated to also be used as as server it also provides a minimal install which will almost certainly be less useful.
Linux used to be embedded first but nowadays most Linux distros are strangely oriented toward desktop and don’t work correctly on low memory environments without heavy customization.