GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 324048
Misleading tooltip for memory
Last modified: 2010-01-24 01:05:44 UTC
Reporter : dh@mailempfang.de (Daniel Holbach) Version details: 2.13.2 Distribution/Version: Ubuntu Dapper Forwarded from: http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=20973 Forwarder from: #324043 [snip] The memory usage panel is also misleading in that if you hover the cursor over it, right now mine says "95% in use, of which 35% is cache", when really, only 50% of my memory is really "used", 35% is cache, and the rest is buffers, which is just another form of cache. This really should say 50% of memory is in use, or at least say that 50% is used for cache ( the 35% in cache plus 15% in buffers ). This is most noticiable when updatedb runs, the memory usage graph steadily climbs when it's just the buffer cache that is growing. Also by default, the panel colors in buffers and cache memory on the graph so it looks like it is in use. This memory is really free so the default should be to not color in that area but leave it black so it looks like it is free. A user who does not know better will look at the default graph and wonder why one earth 100% of their memory is used, and think ubuntu sucks, when half that memory is really free.
*** Bug 324769 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
What about : "Memory: ???% is user memory ???% is cache" English is not my mother tongue, i'd like some help :) Then i'll make a patch
Created attachment 56466 [details] [review] patch Should work :) Also cleaned some stuff. Not tested, not even compiled. I'll try to compile this code tonight when i'll be at home.
Created attachment 56500 [details] [review] same patch + missing semicolon I've compiled and tested it again gnome-applets 2.13.1 (tarball) and it's fine.
Benoit, is "user memory" the best way to describe this? Is that memory in use by the user, or memory in use by userspace? Perhaps something like: Memory: xx% in use by programs, xx% in use as cache
Yes i think user memory is the best way to describe this. Caches and buffers belong to the kernel, but they may be shared with userspace (mmap) (on linux at least). system-monitor uses 'user memory'. KDE ksysguard uses "Applications Memory". From a technical point of view, i think "user memory" is fine. But one who shares his system with other users may understand that HE is using "user memory" ?
I think it is much too unclear, is it memory used by userspace, or memory used by a user?
let's say userspace.
Benoit, did you decide on a final wording? Once you've done so, did you want to commit the patch?
No i didn't. Memory: xx% in use by programs, xx% in use as cache seems fine. programs/applications/user means the same. So, if you're OK, please commit my patch with " Memory: xx% in use by programs, xx% in use as cache"
I'll do it this evening, before I roll a release, if you don't do it before hand.
2006-01-16 Davyd Madeley <davyd@madeley.id.au> * main.c: fix misleading tooltip for memory. Patch from Benoît Dejean <benoit@placenet.org>. Closes #324048.