Why does Linux take up so much RAM... And why does it run so smooth?

[RussianVodka]

I remember checking the information about my linux... And it one of the things that shocked me was that when idling it took up slightly more than 500mb, with many many daemons (I believe that\'s what they are called) running in the background. I tried killing some of them, but quickly realized that unlike in windoze it\'s not a good idea (my desktop froze up and I had to alt+f5 out of it).

But what realy startled me is that in windoze, If I were to use anywhere near 500mb the system would be runing at a snails pase, where as with linux (FC3) it was doing just fine.

Comments?

[lynx_lupo]

You think the wrong way. Unused ram is *unused* therefore a waste. Also note that it\'s not using 500mb just for ram stuff, there are buffers and caches accounted in it too, speeding up disk access.

Look at this:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-175419.html

[fken]

look at your swap memory : as long as its empty, I think you may understand that there is no RAM problem  

@russianvodka :

Q: How many Planeshifters does it take to expalin a simple concept to a newb?
A: Six. Five to argue on who\'s explanation is right, and Moogie to lock the thread.

lol