You're describing the difference between deterministic and non-deterministic garbage collection, not between garbage collection and some other concept. Even non

You're describing the difference between deterministic and non-deterministic garbage collection, not between garbage collection and some other concept. Even non-deterministic tracing garbage collectors may make use of reference counting. Some interesting references: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_science) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_sc... http://www.research.ibm.com/people/d/dfb/papers/Bacon01Concurrent.pdf http://www.research.ibm.com/people/d/dfb/papers/Bacon01Concu... http://www.google.com/search?q=garbage%20collection%20reference%20counting http://www.google.com/search?q=garbage%20collection%20refere...