Linux LOVES memory

I just dropped another 256MB of memory in my laptop, which runs Linux. This makes a total of 1GB, and it makes a big difference in the way it runs. Everything runs smoother, there's less lag when switching between applications or starting apps I've recently run. It's all good.

I like the way Linux uses memory. Windows, confronted with a machine with, say, 2GB (like my work laptop) uses maybe 800MB when I'm using it in my normal fashion. The rest of it is apparently unallocated. Linux, on the other hand, uses it all. It uses whatever it needs for actual allocation, and the rest seems to go to cache. (At least that's what my little memory meter says on the taskbar.)