3 ms·

You have a buggy program. Zswap has been available for quite a while.

baq 5mo ago
I'm yet to see a linux distro with memory configured correctly out of the box. (I haven't looked too hard, but the defaults are abysmal.)
- cromka 5mo ago
  Still can't help the fact memory management on macOS is vastly better with its use of pages compression and unlimited swap.
- mixmastamyk 5mo ago
  Interesting. I'm now working on some admin scripts and will add this to the list.
cromka 5mo ago
>You have a buggy program. As in memory leak? No. > Zswap has been available for quite a while. Zsawp is not Zram, which is a distant relative of the macOS on-the-fly compression I was talking about. Zram is buggy and still advised against regular use (https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1i3mdrw/comment/m7plkkx https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1i3mdrw/comment..., https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-what.html https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-...). Zsawp itself is enabled by default in Asahi. Zram and Zsawp are mutually exclusive on Linux. On macOS, both concepts coexist – except macOS is able to compress individual memory pages (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300432) on the fly. Zram is a compressed RAM block device with a hard capacity limit. There is really no comparison here at this point. macOS is vastly superior in that regard.
- mixmastamyk 5mo ago
  zswap works well in my experience. Don't need both. Combined with systemd-oomd I haven't had a swapping or memory issue in many years. 16gb here with VMs and lots going on. This doc clears some things up: https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-what.html https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-...
  - cromka 5mo ago
    > Combined with systemd-oomd That's my whole point: on Linux a process gets killed to prevent a system lock up if you're about to run out of memory or swap. That never happens on macOS, as long as you have some SSD left, period.
    - mixmastamyk 5mo ago
      That’s not what I want (rogue program swapping until disk full), nor do I think most people want. Current zswap+oomd behavior is the best choice imho.
      - cromka 5mo ago
        > (rogue program swapping until disk full) OMG why do you keep on insisting on this? The point is you can run as many apps in the background and at no point will they get OOM-ed. This isn't about a rougue app, this is actually a very obscure reason to run out of memory! I get OOMed weekly on Asahi with 16GB only because my Brave/Chromium session grows too big. THIS NEVER HAPPENS ON MACOS. > Current zswap+oomd behavior is the best choice imho This isn't up for debate, Linux memory management is less advanced. How about you actually read up on the advantages of how macOS handles the memory and stop the speculation OK? EOT here.
        mixmastamyk 5mo ago
        Either the programs are operating normally, or they aren't. You don't get to pick and choose to suit your argument. Above someone else is complaining about a browser on asahi. There's obviously a leaking problem but you are uninterested in solving it, just keep repeating "macos more advanced," which is not a useful argument. The oomd memory pressure threshold is tunable, you know. So are browsers/plugins, etc. As I mentioned I've been using Linux and 16gb RAM since ~2010 and haven't had ooms in the last decade+ since firefox was overhauled.

baq 5mo ago

I'm yet to see a linux distro with memory configured correctly out of the box. (I haven't looked too hard, but the defaults are abysmal.)

cromka 5mo ago
Still can't help the fact memory management on macOS is vastly better with its use of pages compression and unlimited swap.
mixmastamyk 5mo ago
Interesting. I'm now working on some admin scripts and will add this to the list.

cromka 5mo ago

>You have a buggy program. As in memory leak? No. > Zswap has been available for quite a while. Zsawp is not Zram, which is a distant relative of the macOS on-the-fly compression I was talking about. Zram is buggy and still advised against regular use (https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1i3mdrw/comment/m7plkkx https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1i3mdrw/comment..., https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-what.html https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-...). Zsawp itself is enabled by default in Asahi. Zram and Zsawp are mutually exclusive on Linux. On macOS, both concepts coexist – except macOS is able to compress individual memory pages (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38300432) on the fly. Zram is a compressed RAM block device with a hard capacity limit. There is really no comparison here at this point. macOS is vastly superior in that regard.

mixmastamyk 5mo ago
zswap works well in my experience. Don't need both. Combined with systemd-oomd I haven't had a swapping or memory issue in many years. 16gb here with VMs and lots going on. This doc clears some things up: https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-what.html https://chrisdown.name/2026/03/24/zswap-vs-zram-when-to-use-...
- cromka 5mo ago
  > Combined with systemd-oomd That's my whole point: on Linux a process gets killed to prevent a system lock up if you're about to run out of memory or swap. That never happens on macOS, as long as you have some SSD left, period.
  - mixmastamyk 5mo ago
    That’s not what I want (rogue program swapping until disk full), nor do I think most people want. Current zswap+oomd behavior is the best choice imho.
    - cromka 5mo ago
      > (rogue program swapping until disk full) OMG why do you keep on insisting on this? The point is you can run as many apps in the background and at no point will they get OOM-ed. This isn't about a rougue app, this is actually a very obscure reason to run out of memory! I get OOMed weekly on Asahi with 16GB only because my Brave/Chromium session grows too big. THIS NEVER HAPPENS ON MACOS. > Current zswap+oomd behavior is the best choice imho This isn't up for debate, Linux memory management is less advanced. How about you actually read up on the advantages of how macOS handles the memory and stop the speculation OK? EOT here.
      - mixmastamyk 5mo ago
        Either the programs are operating normally, or they aren't. You don't get to pick and choose to suit your argument. Above someone else is complaining about a browser on asahi. There's obviously a leaking problem but you are uninterested in solving it, just keep repeating "macos more advanced," which is not a useful argument. The oomd memory pressure threshold is tunable, you know. So are browsers/plugins, etc. As I mentioned I've been using Linux and 16gb RAM since ~2010 and haven't had ooms in the last decade+ since firefox was overhauled.