free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 997 950 47 0 21 805
Why?
How can i reduce used memory?
openSUSE 11.3 (i586)
VERSION = 11.3
This is good. In Linux used means has useful info, rather than random contents. Free memory is idle memory. Notice that 805M of that used memory is cached.
This question gets asked all the time, search for “why is Linux using all my RAM?”.
When I run this command on my computer, I get a couple more lines. In particular, the swap space usage:
james@LinuxUser:~> free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 8002 3018 4983 0 245 2111
-/+ buffers/cache: 661 7340
Swap: 2055 0 2055
So cached memory can be reused as is or reused for a different purpose and is still available to the system. It is my understanding that if the swap space you set aside is not being used, then you are not running out of memory. The more memory you add, the more that can be used as a cache.
If you happen to be doing something that is reading a lot of your disk, then the cache will be come larger, from its original size when you just rebooted your computer, while less uses of disk reads might show a smaller cache used. The less memory you have or the longer you leave your computer running, the closer the cache total will become to the total memory you have installed. There is no direct correlation to the time your PC has been running since its last reboot however as it does depend on programs run and the disk activity that they cause or use. Idle PC’s use less memory every time.
ken_yap suggests that you search for “why is Linux using all my RAM?”, which is good. I wanted to add something about the swap file operation, as I understand it. I always expect to be corrected here should I be wrong on this point.
Thank You,
The main problem is kde takes more time to boot/load desktop than lxde.Why?
I think i should go for lxde now rather than using kde4.4
kde is more featureful. lxde as the name suggests is more lightweight. It’s getting more popular and many distros have a lxde variant now.
It’s your choice.
Use what you like. KDE though, once up and running should perform well.