Something I’ve been surprised to find over the years working at software companies is just how many C++ writing, Linux using senior engineers there are who simply do not understand how allocation works and what HTOP is actually telling them.
I really think a sizable chunk of people in the “omg my RAM!” camp are basing it on vibes, backed up by a misread of reported usage.
This reminds a long time ago when I was trying to figure out why the heck my Intel Mac was allocating all my RAM and most of my swap to Preview or Chess.
I’m surprised how many people bring up “Erm that memory is actually not being used” as if there isn’t plenty of knock on effects from how memory pressure is actually done. For example, if I keep chrome open long enough my builds slowly use less and less threads because the build thinks there’s less memory available, so I have to periodically close chrome and reopen and restore last session.
It’s true reported memory allocation does not equal actual memory used and that’s very clever of everyone who brings it up, but it does actually cause real annoyances.
>so I have to periodically close chrome and reopen and restore last session.
I thought ublock was forced out of Chrome months ago... how are you people still using it? I switched back to Firefox a couple years ago already, even if it's occasionally painful.
Yeah I actually use Firefox almost exclusively, I only use Chrome when websites mysteriously don't work in firefox, 99% of the it's lack of firefox support.
But in my example I was thinking of a particular 2-month stretch where this kept biting me and I was using Chrome at that point. In terms of memory usage, Firefox is no better though (at one point it was, but not any more).
Now I'm afraid of saying "memory usage" lest someone pops out to comment "that's not how memory works" like whack-a-mole.
Maybe we're all idiots who look at some irrelevant numbers and declare the sky is falling. Or maybe we notice everything running really slowly because the computer is constantly paging.
Top-ish utilities should just be preconfigured to only show RSS unless you absolutely need to know what's virt. A lot of griping would diminish.
There are many specialized allocation patterns -- especially for larger system things like DBs, virtual machine / runtimes etc. -- that will mmap large regions and then only actually use part of it. Many angry fingers get pointed often without justification.
I think the griping occurs when things actually slow down, or system perceived available memory cripples resources. Maybe they point the finger to the wrong place due to misreading virtual, but I doubt people are getting angry when their system is running smoothly.
And this attitude "oh memory usage problems are a misreading of top" promotes poor memory management hygiene - and I think there's a strong argument that's all good in server applications / controlled environments but for desktop environments this attitude causes all sorts of knock on effects.
I really think a sizable chunk of people in the “omg my RAM!” camp are basing it on vibes, backed up by a misread of reported usage.
This reminds a long time ago when I was trying to figure out why the heck my Intel Mac was allocating all my RAM and most of my swap to Preview or Chess.