Yes, I can see dozens of people exploding in front of their screens at the mention, yet again, of linux - get over it.
The difference with Linux is that swap is only used when it has to be, i.e. when you run out of physical memory. On my 2Gb laptop, with full screen video running on one monitor, browser, IRC, email, a compiling job running (yes I'm a programmer), an IDE with 20 files open plus a whole bunch of background applications I'm only 2Mb into swap.
This is very different to the model Windows uses where swap is used constantly, even if it's not required.
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Why linux is different
Yes, I can see dozens of people exploding in front of their screens at the mention, yet again, of linux - get over it.
The difference with Linux is that swap is only used when it has to be, i.e. when you run out of physical memory. On my 2Gb laptop, with full screen video running on one monitor, browser, IRC, email, a compiling job running (yes I'm a programmer), an IDE with 20 files open plus a whole bunch of background applications I'm only 2Mb into swap.
This is very different to the model Windows uses where swap is used constantly, even if it's not required.