FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: openbeos Digest V1 #100

[jaf <jaf@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alex Jeppensen wrote:

>Even the biggest programs will
>not use this memory,

Watch yourself, or you will end up in people's .sig files along with
Bill Gates' prediction about nobody needing more than 640k... ;^)

>and if they do get 2 gigs of ram. virtual memory is
>hard to write and slows even the fastes computer reading and writing
from
>the HD.

Virtual memory doesn't slow anything down unless it is actually used,
and it doesn't get used unless/until all your RAM has been allocated.
So on a 1-2 gig machine, it's very likely (for now ;^)) that the VM
system
will never access your hard drive at all.

>Is it really worth the effort?

Yup.  Not everyone has a gig of RAM lying around.  And even if they
did, there will be a time when everyone has 10GB of RAM and 5TB of
hard disk, and programs that occasionally need to allocate 50GB at
once, and VM will be the solution then, same as it is now.

Jeremy