My first X Window workstation ran pretty will with just 8 MB RAM. Nowadays even 2 GB RAM (i.e. 256 times as much) is not enough for personal use. My workstation runs 24/7, so I sometimes check what consumes all the memory capacity. I can usually identify the following processes being the cause:
- Firefox 2. When I upgraded to it from 1.5 I was happy my web browser didn’t crash anymore. But there’s another problem with it: it can easily consume up to several hundreds MB of RAM, so it has to be restarted from time to time. This is the most embarrassing case, the flagship free web browser is a memory hog even after so long time of its development .
- Vlc serving my DVB-T card. The vlc server gets sometimes completely crazy and starts consuming a lot of CPU time and memory. This is the most dangerous case because it can put the computer out of normal operation if the vlc process is not restricted.
- Some Xfce applets. There are clearly memory leaks in them. Well, unlike GNOME panel and applets, Xfce applets work as expected otherwise.
- Amarok audio player. I really don’t understand why an audio player needs more than 100 MB of memory.
Leave a Reply