[plug] Memory question - Debian Sarge

[Bret Busby]

I am using Debian Sarge.

After the latest day of crashes and instability, after rebooting last 
night, I left the computer running overnight, with no applications 
loaded; just the OS and the utilities loaded at bootup, running.

When I had rebooted the computer, just before I locked the screen and 
turned the screen off for the night, the memory usage applet showed 21% 
in use, 11% cache.

When I turned the screen on this morning, and logged in, the memory 
usage applet showed 68% in use, 16% cache.

The computer has a Duron CPU and 768MB of RAM.

Is the usage of memory, of 68% of 768MB -> 522MB of RAM, reasonable, 
for just running the Debian Sarge OS, with no applications running, and, 
is the increase of memory usage (and not releasing) of (68-21)-> 47% of 
768 -> 360MB of RAM, reasonable, when no applications are loaded, and 
the system is apparently idle?

If so, how much RAM is needed to run Debian Sarge (apart from running 
applications that would show in the taskbar)?

I am assuming that the screen saver is not responsible for using (and 
not releasing) 360MB of RAM.

Thanks in anticipation.

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
  you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
   Chapter 28 of
   "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
   A Trilogy In Four Parts",
   written by Douglas Adams,
   published by Pan Books, 1992

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