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From: Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,alt.comp.os.windows-11
Subject: Re: How To Speed Startup Of Microsoft Office? Have It Running All The Time!
Date: 29 Mar 2025 11:17:26 GMT
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Borax Man <rotflol2@hotmail.com> wrote:
> ["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.advocacy.]

  Ignored. This - and your response - is about both OSs.

> On 2025-03-28, Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
[...]

> The problem with the "memory is there to be used" argument is when devs
> just then use all your memory, because they think its spare.  But memory
> that YOUR app takes, is less memory for other apps.

  The "memory is there to be used" argument is about that the *OS*
should 'use' (allocate) nearly all memory in the machine. Unallocated
memory is wasted memory. The argument is *not* about applications.

>						       Sure, use spare RAM
> for caching, like Linux does, that is better than leaving it idle, but
> you must be able to DROP the RAM when someone more important needs it.

  That's exactly what I described. If it's still allocated, for example
for a program whose previous invocation (i.e. process) has ended and
something needs memory, but there is no unallocated memory left, the
still allocated memory gets re-used, i.e. the program content gets
dropped. That's what any sane OS does. That's what BSD Unix did four
decades ago and what any modern OS still does.

> The problem with this Windows approach, is these processes remain in
> RAM, regardless of whether you need them or not. This IS a waste
> because it blocks that RAM from being used for something where it could
> deliver more of a benefit to the user.

  You're confusing a program with a process. You can drop a program
which is no longer in use, i.e. has no process associated with it, but
you can't drop a still 'active' (even if suspended) process (at least
not without the cooperation of the process/program).

>					  Also, preloading slows boot
> time.

  The article referenced in the OP doesn't give any details on this
particular 'Startup Boost task'. As it's a scheduled task, it can only
run *after* boot. so it doesn't slow *boot* time. Considering how other
similar tasks work, they normally run after login (no use having a
user-level program when there's no user) and are normally schedulled
with a delay. As noted in the article, the 'Startup Boost task' will not
be enabled on small (less than 8GB) memory systems and can be disabled
by an option in Word (Word only?).

>        Swapping it out is counter productive.  The best optimisation is
> slimming the program down.

  Yes, paging or swapping is the last resort when memory pressure is
(too) high.

> Linux does the right thing here IMO.  Store what has been accessed from
> the filesystem in RAM, but drop it when needed.

  Windows - and, as Paul noted, all other OSs - does the exact same
thing.