Kubuntu uses too much memory. What is the cause?

[Derek Broughton]

Chris Jones wrote:

>>> Hi,
> 
>> many times, when i really need to put everything in RAM again (i hate
>> waiting for swapp->ram moving while in the middle of working), i do a:
>>
>> cat /proc/swaps   (not necessary, i like to know how much is used)
>> sudo swapoff -a   (everything in swap moves to RAM)
>> sudo swapon -a
>> cat /proc/swaps   (make sure 0 swap is used)
>>
>> i have the above 4 lines in a script called "freeswap", chmodded and
>> put
>> in /usr/local/bin . and i use it very often :)
> 
> Just curious, but I am not sure I see how this saves any time. 

I don't believe it does.  I can't imagine how anything so crude as just 
turning off swap can improve on the performance of a paging system that's 
been 15 (?) years in the making.

If you're "waiting for swap" while working, it's because you have too many 
applications running, that you're not really using (typically monitoring 
processes - like "top", because the daemons that you aren't using are 
generally completely swapped out).

> The only real solution I know of to cure a system that is swapping a
> lot, is to add more ram...

Or to close applications (ie, to _use_ less ram); or (and this is a far less 
useful method) to get swap onto a faster device.
-- 
derek