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Sindi Keesan wrote:
>
> I have been running linux in 32MB RAM, including some 
> compiling, with no swap file.  

And you have had some dramatic problems, haven't you?
A newbie would be unwise to take your advice on this 
matter.

It is true that Linux is usually able to run without swap, 
but things get tricky when it runs out of RAM.  If Linux
has some swap to work with, it is able to deal with the
RAM shortage efficiently and safely.  If not, it must take
more drastic action, which is inherently less stable.

When I ran one of my systems (64mb RAM) with no swap, the 
browser crashed on pages with heavy javascript.  When I 
turned on 64mb swap, the browser no longer crashed on those 
pages.

Cheers,
Steven