OS uses too much memory. What can I do?

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Username : Date : Action : Comments [ close all ]
edisav : 26/10/03 08:27 PM : Incident created -   My PC has a 650MZ Athlon CPU and 376MB of memory; this doesn't make my box a state-of-the-art unit but neither a legacy one. I noticed that the CPU handles the OS' load half way decently; however, the use of memory is so high even when my box has nothing open, it uses about 300MB of memory. This is a lot for doing nothing! Right now, I have Mozilla and System Monitor open and the usage of memory shows at 327MB. I started using two virtual desktops instead of four, and I have even changed my XWindows manager from KDE to Gnome and even to BlockBox hoping that this would reduce the use of memory, but the change didn't do much. How can I improve this? Thanks
Linegod_7611 : 27/10/03 04:47 AM : Reply received -   Linux handles memory differently than other OSs. If you run 'free' in a console, you will notice that much of the memory is 'buffered' or 'cached'. This means that it is held in state for quick access if the program requires it again. If another program requires the memory while it is cache, it will get it. So, the important number is under the 'free' column beside -/ buffers/cache when you run 'free'. That is how much memory is readily accessible. --------- Note: If this answer resolves your problem, please remember to close this incident.
alaa : 30/10/03 02:10 AM : More info requested -   first of all you don't need to worry. most memory usage programs don't report acurately, you see most of the ram used is just caching which Linux (the kernel) will free whenever more memory is needed. as a general rule you should not consider yourself running out of memory until you see the swap being used. to have an idea about how memory is realy used try to run the command free this will show you three lines of output Mem: which is memory usage Buffers/Cache: which is the part of memory used in caching Swap: which is the swap memory usage now add the free part from Mem: to the free part from Buffers/cache and thats your current free memory the rest of buffer/cache can be quickly freed when needed. the Swap line is a good indicator of memory usage, its used part should be close to zero, if it isn't then you're using up memory. now assuming you are using much memory and want to find out how to reduce it, first you need to know which programs are using up your memory. try to run the command top then hit shift m this will show you a list of all processes sorted by memory usage, tell us about anything using too much memory. you can also use gnome-system-monitor or other similar tools if you prefer GUI. cheers, Alaa
edisav : 30/10/03 02:24 AM : Incident closed -   Thank you guys for your help. The explanation of this issue was addressed in an almost identical fashion by both experts; however, Linegod got the "Main Expert" points for responding more promptly.

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