zlacker

> Linux starts trashing

You mean intensive use of swap memory? You could turn off swap and get OOM errors instead if you like a snappy system, but I don't know if it's fair to criticize an OS for running out of memory. It's the user fault for using software that demands more resources than the equipment has, or for not expanding the RAM when it's clearly needed.

>>ASalaz+(OP)
I've experienced this too. Swapping seems very slow and inefficient on Linux. No matter how large your swap is, once you hit the point where you're using twice your physical RAM, the system become unresponsive. My guess is Linux doesn't prioritize processes properly for desktop use, and background threads, despite being from minimized windows (minimized by the user in a desperate and futile attempt to open a terminal so I can kill some processes), are free to demand memory with the same priority as everything else.

>>ASalaz+(OP)
On the other hand I absolutely can blame an OS for not letting me set a minimum amount of memory for the disk cache.

Even if I disable swap, when Linux gets very low on memory you get the exact same symptoms when it starts discarding increasingly-active program code.

>>ASalaz+(OP)
I have swap turned off and I don't get OOM errors. System just crawls and is unresponsive. Usually happens because of Chromium. If I manage to kill it, then it comes back to normal.

>>ASalaz+(OP)
I've turned off swap, it still happens.

It's not the users fault. Every other major OS handles this situation.