18 ms·

What ever happened to computers being at least somewhat usable when all RAM is in use? I seem to remember that being a pretty common condition back in the 90's

What ever happened to computers being at least somewhat usable when all RAM is in use? I seem to remember that being a pretty common condition back in the 90's. Things would get slow, sure, but not completely and utterly hosed. When this happened to me recently (unattended Firefox process used up all RAM) the machine was simply never able to recover, even after killing the offending process (thereby making 30GB or so of RAM available) and waiting a half an hour.

young_unixer 6y ago
For some reason, Linux is specially bad at working under load, both memory (too many applications & browser tabs open) and I/O (copying large files into USB drive).
- fire7000 6y ago
  How much performance are you expecting moving data over usb that should be moved over sata/sas
- lasagnaphil 6y ago
  Is it because Linux is optimized more for server purposes rather than desktop ones (For example, when it comes to process scheduling)? I’m curious.
  - boring_twenties 6y ago
    Not really seeing how being unable to recover without Alt-SysRq is any better on the server
- pxtail 6y ago
  Ohh this is absolutely infuriating for me (and for others as well [0], for quite a bit of time) on Linux desktop machine, when RAM is fully used OS just freezes and nothing besides reset with a button and potential loss of work can be done about that. [0]https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/159356 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/159356
souprock 6y ago
It was nice when the OS was 64-bit and multi-threaded, but the browser was not. The browser couldn't grab more than 1 CPU and 4 GiB.
- rock_artist 6y ago
  On modern macOS/Chrome it'll be impossible. But on other platforms you can still run 32bit chrome (other browsers)
- boring_twenties 6y ago
  Haha, yeah. I mean you can still use cgroups or something to accomplish this, right?
dannyw 6y ago
Back then, needing to smartly manage RAM (i.e. reserve space for what you REALLY needed; manage your own requests otherwise) was done. Now, not so much. Dev machines rarely run out of RAM anyway.

young_unixer 6y ago

For some reason, Linux is specially bad at working under load, both memory (too many applications & browser tabs open) and I/O (copying large files into USB drive).

fire7000 6y ago
How much performance are you expecting moving data over usb that should be moved over sata/sas
lasagnaphil 6y ago
Is it because Linux is optimized more for server purposes rather than desktop ones (For example, when it comes to process scheduling)? I’m curious.
- boring_twenties 6y ago
  Not really seeing how being unable to recover without Alt-SysRq is any better on the server
pxtail 6y ago
Ohh this is absolutely infuriating for me (and for others as well [0], for quite a bit of time) on Linux desktop machine, when RAM is fully used OS just freezes and nothing besides reset with a button and potential loss of work can be done about that. [0]https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/159356 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/159356

souprock 6y ago

It was nice when the OS was 64-bit and multi-threaded, but the browser was not. The browser couldn't grab more than 1 CPU and 4 GiB.

rock_artist 6y ago
On modern macOS/Chrome it'll be impossible. But on other platforms you can still run 32bit chrome (other browsers)
boring_twenties 6y ago
Haha, yeah. I mean you can still use cgroups or something to accomplish this, right?

dannyw 6y ago

Back then, needing to smartly manage RAM (i.e. reserve space for what you REALLY needed; manage your own requests otherwise) was done. Now, not so much. Dev machines rarely run out of RAM anyway.