If you are reading this on a box that does not have an impressive amount of RAM (say, 512 MB or less) and is running a fairly recent Linux, then for goodness sake, drop everything you are doing right now and follow the instructions in this entry. I’m going to show you how to make your system use the memory in a more efficient way, yielding an effect almost equivalent to increasing its amount — with no expenses whatsoever! Sounds good? Read on.

Yesterday, my level of frustration with my old operating system at work exceeded a critical point, and I installed a fresh daily build of the not-yet-released Ubuntu 8.04 in place of it. Then, in addition to usual post-installation chores like setting up mail, hardware, etc., I performed a couple of steps to make the system more pleasurable to use. Here’s what I did, just in case someone finds this useful.