I am using Debian with KDE and I was looking at my System Guard and it shows that although my CPU load is quite low and so is my Swap use (negligible at 4kb) my RAM use is nearly total at app. 510MB (out of 512). This cannot be right can it? Am I reading this all wrong? The process table shows very little percentages, normally between 2% - 0%. What is eating all my RAM?
I think Linux uses as much physical RAM as needed to run faster, then delegates it to other applications that you start. If your PC was using a lot of swap space then I would be worried about memory usage. On my system, Ubuntu 8.04, with Compiz and Screenlets, plus running Firefox (with a ton of extensions) and Rythmbox, I am using 544MB out of 2GB with 0 swap space being used.
Yup, "free RAM is wasted RAM" as I always say. But there's a big difference between RAM that's being used for applications, and RAM used for buffers and cache. Buffers and cache are expendable, and the OS will sacrifice them if you need more RAM for apps. For instance, see the attached screenshot. I have 8GB of RAM on my workstation, and all of its used, but only a little is used for actual programs. The rest is just helping to smooth out HDD and network access for me. Try a program that breaks up the different types of memory usage, like htop. You'll get a better picture of what's really going on.
Thanks guys... I just thought perhaps I was hit by one of these bugs that eat up all you resources.... or maybe I have? I got the Linux bug.... hehe. My jokes are getting worst at the hours are wearing..... OK, I'll shut up.... :doh: Did I say thanks? Thanks! [ot]AT - Man, you have a shit load of icons on your top bar..... have you noticed?[/ot]
[ot] Yeah, it's intentional. I keep the top bar available for often-used applications so I don't have to dig on a menu for them. Windows never cover the top bar unless I fullscreen them, so they're always available to me.[/ot]
