Graham Anderson said the following on 06/04/2010 06:52 AM:
Swapping isn't only the reason to hit the disk. Starting new applications requires searching the directory trees and inodes, paging in blocks that weren't already in memory. Ditto opening files. Having more memory means these too can be 'cached' - or at least not paged out ONCE THEY ARE READ IN.
And the first time you read the files when launching your app, pray tell exactly how having more RAM will help me here?
Yes, context is everything ;)
I don't understand this obsession with booting. If my file system is already in RAM .... Years go, there were people (developers of course) who wrote to the magazines like Dr Dobbs going on about how slow compilers were. Or at last that they weren't fast enough. No attention was paid to the real issue which was how fast the resulting applications ran when they were in the hands to the end users. So, when I'm on the road I do actually turn my machine (laptop) off. In the morning I wake and stumble from my hotel bed and as I go past my desk I turn the laptop on. When I get back from the bathroom its booted. If it booted in 8 seconds or 8 minutes I'm not going to see the difference. If I'm at home my firewall and my mailhub/server are 'always on'. I have a friend who works for a company that sells SSD to major corporations. I've seen their sales presentation. It does not mention booting; it does not mention application start-up time. They pitch to database users. That is the context that big SSD is selling into. -- "The Air Force is reacting to the EPA ban on CFC's by replacing them in the cooling systems of the ICBMs. If they are ever fired, it will be an environmentally friendly nuclear holocaust, not threatening the Ozone layer." -- _Access to Energy_, July 1993 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org