[Tfug] Memory usage question

[earljviolet at deserthowler.com]

On Fri, April 2, 2010 8:40 am, Jeff Breadner wrote:
> On 04/02/2010 08:36 AM, earljviolet at deserthowler.com wrote:
>> I run Ubuntu 9.10.  I have 1GB memory installed.
>>
>> When using System Monitor I show about 218 MB memory used.
>>
>> When I run free from the terminal I get the following results:
>>               total       used       free     shared    buffers
>> cached
>> Mem:       1009560     805740     203820          0     137416
>> 437904
>> -/+ buffers/cache:     230420     779140
>> Swap:      2389020          0    2389020
>>
>> Is the difference in used memory between the two results because System
>> Monitor shows only the 'active' memory whereas free shows everything in
>> memory?
>>
>> Earl
>>
>
> Linux likes to cache disk to RAM; your 218MB usage is the "active"
> application memory, add to that the buffers & cached numbers and you
> come pretty close to the used number, above.
>
> As your applications consume more RAM, Linux will cache less data.  You
> only have to worry about memory usage once the swap space starts climbing.
>
> cheers
>    Jeff

Thanks, Jeff,

I'm working with a couple of recent Linux converts and wanted to confirm
my explanation.  I was asked to fix virus problems in Windows so I
salvaged the data and installed Ubuntu.  They are happy but curious.
Earl
-- 
If you play a Windows install CD backwards it has satanic verses.