Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> 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.

Would a swap file have prevented the problems I had untarring a 75MB 
kernel source code file, or deleting that same file?  

> 
> 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.

Are you using a Mozilla-based browser?  I think Firebird (or whatever it 
is called now) is more demanding of memory than Opera, Netscape 3, lynx, 
links, Dillo, and the other small browsers people on this list were 
discussing a while ago.  How much RAM does it take just to load it, 
compared with Netscape 3?  I can't check because I never installed the 
linux version, having tried the Win98 version and disliked it (no way to 
browse without images and then turn on one or all, that I could find).  

> 
> Cheers,
> Steven
> 
>  
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