4 ms·

This paragraph: 'But what do you call memory that is both used for something and available for applications? You would call that "free", but Linux calls it "use

by wzdd 16y ago

This paragraph: 'But what do you call memory that is both used for something and available for applications? You would call that "free", but Linux calls it "used".' is IMO the best way I've ever seen of explaining the issue. It also reveals the solution: call it free! It is free, after all. Nobody cares about how much free ram is cache unless they are doing something really specific, in which case they should be passing specific flags, or using a specific tool, to report it. Unfortunately there is no chance Linux will do this, as the relevant reporting tools are too entrenched (and with good reason).

hernan7 16y ago
Maybe add a new (end user-friendly, preferably graphical) tool to report memory usage the user friendly way? Then vmstat can be left as is, and end users can be directed to use the new tool. By the way, this behavior is not Linux-specific. AIX and other Unices have been doing this forever. And end users (who should have known better, BTW) would complain too. The only machine that I remember as showing a sizable percentage of the memory as "free" was a just-imaged top of the line server. Half a gig or RAM, and almost all empty! -- this was the early '90s. Edit: Just noticed that graphical tools that report memory usage in user-friendly terms already exist (gnome system monitor). My bad, I always use vmstat and sar myself, and only recently found out about /proc/NNNNN/status
wrs 16y ago
Or just rename "free" to "wasted". I usually tell people the free number indicates how much RAM they paid for but aren't using.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  It is admittedly difficult to re-learn what you know about computers, and what Windows has taught people (including myself) is that RAM usage must be below ~75% for optimal performance. It has been my experience that paging becomes much more blocking above that.

by wzdd 16y ago

hernan7 16y ago

Maybe add a new (end user-friendly, preferably graphical) tool to report memory usage the user friendly way? Then vmstat can be left as is, and end users can be directed to use the new tool. By the way, this behavior is not Linux-specific. AIX and other Unices have been doing this forever. And end users (who should have known better, BTW) would complain too. The only machine that I remember as showing a sizable percentage of the memory as "free" was a just-imaged top of the line server. Half a gig or RAM, and almost all empty! -- this was the early '90s. Edit: Just noticed that graphical tools that report memory usage in user-friendly terms already exist (gnome system monitor). My bad, I always use vmstat and sar myself, and only recently found out about /proc/NNNNN/status

wrs 16y ago

Or just rename "free" to "wasted". I usually tell people the free number indicates how much RAM they paid for but aren't using.

sliverstorm 16y ago
It is admittedly difficult to re-learn what you know about computers, and what Windows has taught people (including myself) is that RAM usage must be below ~75% for optimal performance. It has been my experience that paging becomes much more blocking above that.