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From: "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Linux doesn't seem to manage memory very well
Date: Wed, 01 May 2024 10:06:25 -0400
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On Wed, 01 May 2024 06:32:18 -0400, James Harris <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote:
> Not a question, just an observation.
> I say that Linux doesn't seem to handle memory well because my laptop
> had 8GB RAM (which, frankly, Windows seems to find perfectly adequate
> for a similar workload). Under Linux the RAM would fill up and then swap
> space would be used. Then the machine would become largely unresponsive
> - e.g. taking minutes to switch between windows.
> So I upgraded the RAM. It now has three times as much (i.e. 24GB)! But
> even so, RAM has still steadily filled up until reaching the full 24GB.
> What's more, it's now showing 4.8GB of swap space in use.

Likely you're using a system that's configured for maximum total throughput,
not best response time.

Create a file, /etc/sysctl.d/tales.conf with the contents ...
# Reduce applications being swapped
vm.swappiness=1
# Don't shrink the inode cache
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

Then run the command "sysctl --system" (as root).

See https://rudd-o.com/linux-and-free-software/tales-from-responsivenessland-why-linux-feels-slow-and-how-to-fix-that
for an explanation.

Regards, Dave Hodgins