memory usage analysis (was Re: FC5 (lack of) quality)

[Marius Andreiana]

On Sat, 2006-04-15 at 00:39 -0700, Panu Matilainen wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Apr 2006, Marius Andreiana wrote:
> > Greetings,
> > * on a 256mb RAM system GNOME it's hardly usable due to swapping with
> > more than 2 applications opened (firefox and another small one, no ooo).
> > Only minimal services (network, xfs..) are started automatically.
> 
> Mm.. GNOME in FC5 was supposed to use *less* memory than in previous 
> versions. Have you looked at where exactly does the memory go to - is it 
> really GNOME or something else, like Firefox?
after GNOME login, with gnome-terminal and gedit started:
$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers
cached
Mem:        248168     239816       8352          0       8012
108060
-/+ buffers/cache:     123744     124424
Swap:       514072          0     514072


The top apps listed in GNOME system monitor (clearer than "top" for me)
sorted by Resident Memory are:
nautilus (16.5m), gnome-panel, mixer-applet (14.8m!), gedit,
gnome-system-monitor, gnome-terminal (12.7mb, a single tab),
wnck-applet, nm-applet, gnome-session, clock-applet (9.6mb!), metacity
(9.2mb).

Started firefox (28mb in g-system-monitor)
$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers
cached
Mem:        248168     240804       7364          0       7320
87576
-/+ buffers/cache:     145908     102260
Swap:       514072          0     514072 

Started totem on a video file: 54.6mb ! 
swap usage >0 now:
$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers
cached
Mem:        248168     243360       4808          0        156
48968 
-/+ buffers/cache:     194236      53932
Swap:       514072        120     513952

So it looks like totem does have a problem, but some of the applications
listed shows quite a high memory usage too, is it normal?

Thanks,
Marius