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When it starts up completely, I cas see that about 400-500MB of my 2GB Ram is being used.

Right now that I have only started Firefox (and System monitor), I can see that about 1GB of ram is full with about 5 loaded and active tabs and 3 others that are not active (the 3 tabs are restored from previous session and not loaded)

I have 2GB Ram and a 3.7GB swap partition which is not used at all.

Is that normal? I really think that there should be something wrong.

My system is updated and I had installed a windows 7 before installing Ubuntu. It is a Core i3 Lenovo thinkpad edge 14".

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RAM is there to be used what is the problem? SWAP is not used because you have yet to run out of physical RAM. I suggest you read all the Related questions on the right ----> – Uri Herrera Dec 10 '12 at 19:10
@UriHerrera I think 1GB is too much to be usued just for a responsive Ubuntu 12.04 system and a Firefox. I doubt that 1111GGGBBB is normal. Is that really ok? – smhnaji Dec 10 '12 at 19:12
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Unity is by no means "light" and neither is Firefox. If you're concerned with RAM usage try a lighter environment, LXDE or XFCE. – Uri Herrera Dec 10 '12 at 19:15
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Firefox is a resource hog as far as browser go. Even with four tabs open on mine right now, it alone is sitting at over 300MiB of RAM usage. – Shauna Dec 10 '12 at 19:18
Firefox can go well over 1GB on it's own with extensions, and multitab browsing. – Brandon Bertelsen Dec 10 '12 at 20:08

1 Answer

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Yes, it's normal. Unity is a 3D desktop environment, which is resource-intensive, and Firefox is no slouch, either. Additionally, Ubuntu (and Unity itself), runs a number of things under the hood, including, but not limited to:

  1. Ubuntu One
  2. Search indexing
  3. Window management
  4. State management
  5. Update checking/installation
  6. Pulseaudio (audio)
  7. Network service
  8. SSH and SSH-Agent
  9. Unity lenses
  10. Online account services (email checking, chat, etc)
  11. Security services (SELinux stuff)

All this stuff adds up. If you go into "System Monitor" and look at the running processes, you'll see a breakdown of what's using your system resources. Dollars to donuts the bulk of it is Unity and Firefox.

Also, to give you an idea of just how resource intensive a window manager and desktop environment actually is, the minimum recommended RAM for Ubuntu Desktop is 512MiB, while Ubuntu Server (which has no window manager or desktop environment by default) only requires 128MiB, and the only real difference between the two is the presence of the desktop environment and window manager.

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to give you an idea of just how resource intensive a window manager and desktop environment actually is, the minimum recommended RAM for Ubuntu Desktop is 512MiB, while Ubuntu Server (which has no window manager or desktop environment by default) only requires 128MiB, and the only real difference between the two is the presence of the desktop environment and window manager. Perfect. Thank you very much :) – smhnaji Dec 10 '12 at 19:47

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