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When I start the OS I have half of the memory used (1Gb) and now with chromium open this is the output of free:

piero@piero-Vostro-400:~$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       2039100    1462192     576908     195168      53136     672424
-/+ buffers/cache:     736632    1302468
Swap:      2084860          0    2084860

With thunderbird open and editing a libreoffice document the hard disk starts swapping continuously and the OS becomes really slow with a lot of freezes:

piero@piero-Vostro-400:~$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       2039100    1962188      76912     309484      29264     919964
-/+ buffers/cache:    1012960    1026140
Swap:      2084860          0    2084860

What I can do? Better to install a 32 bit version with this amount of memory?

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  • output the command top to see and monitor what's eating your ram and cpu. And yes if you have 2GB ram I'd rather prefer 32bit version because basically for 64bit it's required minimum+ of ram, if you want 64bit version to work normal it's better to have like 3GB of ram.
    – JoKeR
    May 30, 2014 at 15:32
  • and +f.y.i Google Chrome eats more resources than Firefox, I tested it on my machine, though I like them both.
    – JoKeR
    May 30, 2014 at 15:42
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    "the hard disk starts swapping continuously" are you sure? Your free output shows: Swap: used 0 Do you still get the disk noise if you turn off swap?
    – bain
    May 30, 2014 at 17:31

1 Answer 1

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Linux uses RAM very differently then Windows and I do not see any problem as long as you are not using swap.

See - http://www.linuxatemyram.com/

32 bit Ubuntu may use less RAM, you should boot a live usb and see before you install, but it is does not use significantly less

32 bit: uses 388 MiB of RAM right after booting, no additional applications running (from the screenshot, 397780KiB, which is 388MiB)

64 bit: uses 491 MiB of RAM (from the screenshot, 503452KiB = 491MiB)

What are the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit, and which should I choose?

The old adage - unused RAM is wasted RAM applies.

If you are running out of RAM, you are going to get more bang for your buck by increasing your RAM or using light weight applications, a lighter weight distro, such as lubuntu, over 32 bit Ubuntu.

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