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2

@ChrisH You also probably wouldn't be able to load a sql database into a word processor, since those run entirely in RAM :-)
– TylerH
Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 13:19
9

This answer is incorrect and contains lots of misinformation. But the simple way to see why it's wrong is this -- the people who designed your operating system's memory behavior are probably some of the smartest people in the world. Why would they design a system such that giving it more options (the option to swap if, and only if, it thinks that's best) would make its performance worse? Only an idiot would design a system like that.
– David Schwartz
Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 15:38
24

@DavidSchwartz, I don't see how the fact that people who developed memory management algorithms are smart, makes any difference to original subject. OP has asked whether disabling swapping can improve performance and I have explained that it can, under certain conditions and can lead to problems under other conditions. Answering your question of why (?) - I can say, because algorithms are not perfect and it is up for the user to fine tune them. This is why there is a swappiness parameter in Linux and this is why disabling swapping is at all possible.
– Art Gertner
Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 16:00
12

@smc There's nothing unusual about the OP's use case. The notion that operating systems are not properly tuned for bog standard use cases is complete nonsense. (See my answer for more on why you don't want to do this.)
– David Schwartz
Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 16:27
6

The assumption that a given algorithm will always make a desirable decision for the user is flat-out untrue. They make decisions based on a set parameters the programmers have decided are important. This might well be at direct odds with what a user needs to have happen.
– Anaksunaman
Commented Sep 12, 2014 at 5:49

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