What should I do?

[CM Xtasy]

Right now I have a laptop with 2GB, Intel GMA950, C2D @ 1.66ghz, and I believe linux distros such as Ubuntu take up more RAM because of graphics due to my integrated chipset. Since my RAM is clocked very low for normal sticks now, I was wondering do you think I should buy 4GB of G.SKILL RAM for my laptop, or should I sell and buy a Macbook? I wont be playing games either way, but I dont want to use Windows anymore, and Im sick of Ubuntu taking up so much memory on my laptop. I easily go past 300mb just running plain Ubuntu and starting up Firefox :|

[cardinals_fan]

Try a lightweight WM like Openbox.

[LaRoza]

Right now I have a laptop with 2GB, Intel GMA950, C2D @ 1.66ghz, and I believe linux distros such as Ubuntu take up more RAM because of graphics due to my integrated chipset. Since my RAM is clocked very low for normal sticks now, I was wondering do you think I should buy 4GB of G.SKILL RAM for my laptop, or should I sell and buy a Macbook? I wont be playing games either way, but I dont want to use Windows anymore, and Im sick of Ubuntu taking up so much memory on my laptop. I easily go past 300mb just running plain Ubuntu and starting up Firefox :|

Well, what are you running?

My ram usage is very low. I use wmii and Opera and only terminals. If you are running Compiz, turn it off.

[CM Xtasy]

Well, what are you running?

My ram usage is very low. I use wmii and Opera and only terminals. If you are running Compiz, turn it off.

I'm running plain Ubuntu, with Compiz off and I get around 260mb without Firefox or any other program running. I turn off the services I dont need too. My fan always starts running fast when hitting 300mb, and XP doesnt nearly take up that much memory as Ubuntu.

[karellen]

buy aditional RAM. it's a lot cheaper than a Mac

[the6step]

Right now I have a laptop with 2GB, Intel GMA950, C2D @ 1.66ghz, and I believe linux distros such as Ubuntu take up more RAM because of graphics due to my integrated chipset. Since my RAM is clocked very low for normal sticks now, I was wondering do you think I should buy 4GB of G.SKILL RAM for my laptop, or should I sell and buy a Macbook? I wont be playing games either way, but I dont want to use Windows anymore, and Im sick of Ubuntu taking up so much memory on my laptop. I easily go past 300mb just running plain Ubuntu and starting up Firefox :|

2GB Should be fine for what your doing, I don't get it....

In any case, please do not buy a Macbook, it's pointless. If you buy a Mac laptop, you have to get a MacBook Pro. Let me ask you a question:

When you are runing Ubuntu, you DO have Ubuntu installed right? I hope your not trying to run it from a Live CD, that would easily explain why you are having memory issues.....

Furthermore Firefox has tons of memory leaks depending on which version your using....Try updating to the Firefox 3 beta, it's in the Release Candidate stages and you should get considerably better performance and considerably less mem leakage.

But yeah unless you are a .Net developer or an AutoCad user (which almost 100% probably doesn't apply to you), stop using Windows. To me, Mac is so great but it's closed platform, and Linux is so open but doesn't have it's act together like Mac does. Windows is some sick kind of cross between the both, being that is both closed, AND does not have it's act together. And honestly it seems like your short on money so I would have to suggest going with Linux ,unless you are particular to Mac in any way(and/or if you have money to spend), in which case I would suggest the Mac Pro.

[handy]

If you want speed, install ArchLinux.

Here is an introduction much of which is applicable to your machine too:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IMac_Aluminium

[kaiju]

can only recommend arch, too. the really good thing is that it doesn't push any software as default this or that, above the basic gnu/linux installation. just make sure you have the installation how-to at hand because the people on their forum & freenode irc channel are far less noob-friendly than the ubuntu people.

[handy]

Really, you want to use your RAM, it is the fast way for a computer to run.

I have an iMac with 1Gb of RAM, it is used to play Guild Wars, & a variety of other things, I never feel the need to add more RAM to the machine.

This machine has runs Leopard, has run Ubuntu, & currently runs Arch, which used to be big (for Arch) with Gnome & now runs Openbox.

I have never needed to use virtual memory with 1Gb of RAM. In fact I will delete my /swap partition as it is useless.

Would you buy a really big suitcase, so you never put any strain on it because it was always less than half full? That is a waste of resources.