3GiB ram, gnome-system-monitor now says 2.9GiB

Nils Kassube kassube at gmx.net
Wed Apr 8 13:19:49 UTC 2009


Liam Proven wrote:
> So whereas yes, we can campaign for this to be changed, for *now*,
> the real answer is education. One day they might not, but for now,
> when "top" says 4321MB, it means MiB, and when the brochure says
> "80GB hard disk", it means 80 GiB.
>
> People have to know the difference.

According to your reply to my message yesterday it seems you don't like 
precision anyway, so why is it important for you to make a difference 
between e.g. MB and MiB? I mean, if you think decimal prefix (MB) and 
get decimal prefix instead, like for harddisks, it is OK. And if you 
think decimal prefix but get binary prefix (MiB wrongly named MB) 
instead, like for RAM chips, you even get more than you expected. 
Therefore it would be an advantage to only expect decimal prefixes.

Yes, I know binary prefixes make sense for memory size (and only for 
memory size IMHO). But there was no necessity to steal the decimal 
prefix names and use them for something different. Alas we can't easily 
change bad habits.


Nils




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