Linux tries to keep everything in memory, in order to make things work fast. Disk buffers, active processes, processes that have already terminated, etc. are all kept in memory, if memory is available. So if "free" or "top" shows very little free memory, that is no indication that you can not run big programs anymore.
GUI programs are not the only programs that use a lot of memory. Right after a "make" that uses gcc or g++, the different passes of the C compiler are kept in memory, and so "free" will report similar large memory usage. This is actually a GOOD THING, as it makes Linux work fast. PMana --- Shae Tan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am basically a GUI person. Lately, I observed that > desktop > environments are using too much memory. For example, > my KDE reveals in > "top": > > Mem: 516036k total, 512348k used, 3688k > free, 183688k buffers > Swap: 1060248k total, 916k used, 1059332k > free, 98500k cached > > I want to know what PLUG members are using for their > desktops and how > they manage the memory used by these GUIs. Do you > recommend that I buy > another 512mb of RAM? > > This is my system: Linux localhost 2.6.8.1-24mdk AMD > Athlon(tm) > [XP2200] prosussor GNU/Linux > > -- > Shae > -- > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) > Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph > Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph > . > To leave, go to > http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug > . > Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go > to > http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/ -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
