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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
The other part of the explanation is virtual memory.
Linux, like other modern OSes, divides installed RAM into pages. If you ry to do something, like laod another program, that needs more RAM than is currently available, the OS will take pages in RAM not recently used and move them to a storage area on the hard drive. In Linux, that area is swap, and is a separate slice on the drive. In Windows, it's the page file, and exists as a large file on the hard drive in the root of the Windows file system.
If something tries to access what is in a swapped out page, a page fault occurs, and the OS swaps the page back in to RAM.
Total memory is considered the amount of installed RAM plus the amount of allocated swap space.
One reason for adding RAM to a computer is the reduce the need to swap. RAM is an order of magnitude faster than HD. If you have more RAM, the OS can do a better job of caching disk access, and will have less need to read the disk. It wall also have less need to pages in memory out to the HD is RAM gets filled.
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Great explanations. Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
So they have the stock 256MB RAM that is the base model? I'd add more RAM. Ubuntu runs in 256 but really wants more. The other Linux flavors you switched to do better in low RAM systems.
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You know, they really work great as word processors as is. The LO is lightning fast. I don't do anything with them online.
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
One is likely adequate. I still don't think the kernel was your problem.
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Yeah, agree.
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Thanks a lot. I am definitely going long term from now on. Like I said I'm not a beta guy.
Not by intent, at any rate.
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Ha ha. Good observation!
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Do the apps get updated (like I have Sigil and mkusb and Kate etc) via the regular 'software updates' Xubuntu sends?
You can always check for new versions. Most of what you have is likely in Canonical's repositories. I have a few things here that aren't or I want to stay bleeding edge on, and those have been added as PPAs to the places Ubuntu will look.
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But where am I checking? Xubuntu has "Software Updater" in the applications menu, but that's the same thing as the 'software updates' it sends regularly.
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
I'd advise trying to find out a bit more than you currently know before making such changes. I'm pleased to help, but I've reached a point elsewhere of simply not bothering to respond to some requests. There are people too lazy to Look Stuff Up, who do something, get bit by it, then whine at others for solutions they could probably discover for themselves, and wouldn't need if they'd actually bothered to learn before doing.
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I misspoke earlier about the 95% stuff (trusting others and winging it by the seat of my pants, that is). In the very beginning, yes, because I really had very little other choice than to trust others because the whole Linux thing was
so new to me. But as time has gone by I've learned a ton on my own. (I'm just finishing up "Ubuntu Unleashed." It's for 11.04. I got it at a used book sale, but it still had a lot of great stuff in it. (I just learned how to make "hard links.")) I really enjoy learning about it.
So yeah, for me, now, I really do try to figure things out on my own. Still I have to draw the line because I'm really a writer and I really should be writing most of the time, not learning how to make "hard links." LOL
But you're great for people like me when we get stuck and you're great at explaining stuff too. (Some very knowledgeable computer guys are not.)
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
"Oh, no! Not another learning experience..." 
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Dennis |
Ha ha. I'm afraid so.