Or more. And why is Mozilla using up 177MB of RAM? I only had like 40 tabs open... :D (okay, that one makes sense... :))
I like a lot of things about Windows Vista, but not how much of a ridiculous memory hog it is... I know that there are a few things I could disable, though I did some of that already, but disable too many things and something might stop working...
I've heard that it preloads a lot of things to memory.
Still though, given that I have 2GB of RAM I really shouldn't expect to see the 'how much RAM is being used' meter on the desktop sidebar at 40% when I'm doing nothing...
It's worse than that. Windows, and OSX actually, both insist on creating a bunch of files I don't want being made on every portable drive I temporarily hook up to the thing. No, I DON'T want you using this drive for recovery data. No, I don't want you creating virtual memory files. Stop doing that.
What's worse is that's the default setting, which only means one thing. Even when I configure MY computers to not do that nonsense, everyone else's will do it anyway.
Hmm... I don't have that problem. I have a USB flashdrive (1GB) and a floppy drive (1.44MB... if anyone forgot... :D) in this computer and I've used both (well, I also have some memory card slots for SD cards and stuff, but I don't actually own any of those so I haven't used those slots yet) and the computer hasn't put anything onto the flashdrive that I didn't put there. I know that there's an option that can make your flashdrive into an extension of your virtual memory, but the option isn't on by default and I chose not to use it...
That's good. It doesn't do it with memory cards (and it certainly wouldn't do it with floppy disks). It does it with portable hard disks though...
What I want to know is what would be the point of "extending my virtual memory" with a memory card. Those things don't have the fastest access times, and if you are so low on HD space that you can't afford a few extra megs in that virtual memory file, you have bigger problems.
I know OS X creates those "invisible" files because I see them every time I copy thing from my flash drive over to Windows. I say "invisible" because I never see the files in OS X but they are sometimes visible in Windows depending on the Show Hidden Files setting. I'm not even sure what all the invisible files are used for, but I do know an invisible file is created for every file you create. I imagine it has something to do with recovering data, but I can't be sure.
For my part it just makes a mess of everything that I'd rather not have to deal with during clean up.
Quote:What I want to know is what would be the point of "extending my virtual memory" with a memory card. Those things don't have the fastest access times, and if you are so low on HD space that you can't afford a few extra megs in that virtual memory file, you have bigger problems.
I know, it's definitely kind of weird... I don't really understand the point either.
Quote:I know OS X creates those "invisible" files because I see them every time I copy thing from my flash drive over to Windows. I say "invisible" because I never see the files in OS X but they are sometimes visible in Windows depending on the Show Hidden Files setting. I'm not even sure what all the invisible files are used for, but I do know an invisible file is created for every file you create. I imagine it has something to do with recovering data, but I can't be sure.
What, Apple doesn't allow you to see hidden files? Typical...
Well Apple's own file system involves a weird double data setup thing with basically two files embedded under one heading, but even in those cases it still shows up as one file under Windows (one unreadable file in most cases due to the nature of how the file is set up).
Then there's the iPhone, an item with a neat touch screen and nothing else going for it. I heard it had a whole OS put in there, which is nice, except you can't really use it because Apple doesn't let people download custom apps onto it. The "solution" Apple came up with, and actually ADVERTISED, was using "net apps". Great, so I can play flash games and use google maps. Nice job Jobs! I will say this though. Apple does user interface right, so if anything it'll force all the other phone companies to finally put together a USABLE user interface.
A Black Falcon Wrote:What, Apple doesn't allow you to see hidden files? Typical...
No, there is a way to do it, but it's not as simple as in Windows where you just have to tick a check box. I've never needed to see the hidden files so I haven't had to do it myself.
Well, in Windows unless you have 'view hidden files' checked and 'don't let me see my main drive or C:\Windows folder' unchecked, you can't see the hidden 'trash' folders, the whole Windows folder, numerous folders all over the computer holding a huge amount of stuff (MS loves to hide important things in hidden folders...), etc, etc. That was one of the first things I changed after getting my new computer... since MacOS doesn't want you to actually get into the system (file system or whatever) and just wants you to stay at a higher level, Apple making it even harder than MS does is something I would have expected. Apple doesn't really want you to actually know what you're computer is doing or what's on it. MS doesn't either, since they sometimes like to copy Apple (and vice versa -- Apple's greatest dream, I'm sure, would be to be Microsoft), but they don't go quite as far with it...
(*insert usual 'I can't stand MacOS' stuff here*)
It's really about preventing users from destroying their own system in painful ways to critical files, but yes I always turn on any option I can find to see every hidden file, and I uncover some annoyances. For one, a folder full of photograph (or my custom comic folder, or anything full of images really) tend to be viewed as thumbnails. That's a nice option, but it insists on "caching" it in a thumbnail file. When one of those is put inside every single image folder, it gets just a tad annoying. I'd like to turn off that auto caching as my computer, well both of them, are plenty fast enough to thumbnail all the images on the fly.
DMiller Wrote:I know OS X creates those "invisible" files because I see them every time I copy thing from my flash drive over to Windows. I say "invisible" because I never see the files in OS X but they are sometimes visible in Windows depending on the Show Hidden Files setting. I'm not even sure what all the invisible files are used for, but I do know an invisible file is created for every file you create. I imagine it has something to do with recovering data, but I can't be sure.
I did a little mac programing, they are called "finder hidden" files, that is every mac program can see them but the finder which is equivalent to windows explorer just doesn't show them.
I used to use norton utilities for mac to make finder hidden files just for fun, and to hide my top secret documents. There were invented because mac OS basically started out as an operating system for idiots and Steve Jobs didn't want users erasing the file association tables for instance while Bill Gates included regedit32 with every copy of windows and we all know how well that went over.
I use regedit all the time. I am in fact glad it's there.
Dark Jaguar Wrote:I use regedit all the time. I am in fact glad it's there.
Yea, but your not an 80 year old grandma who's curious about deleting things. You represent only a small percentage of Apples target market.
An 80 year old grandma doesn't know how to access regedit to begin with. I know this myself from my own. There's no worries there.
I'm fully aware of what Apple is trying to do by locking up certain customization options like that. I know it's an issue of idiot proofing. I've talked, at length, about this before on this board myself a number of times. I still would prefer the option, and generally any OS that wants to grant it simply need keep the system locked as a "default" option and allow the user that knows what they are doing to unlock "advanced" mode. Certainly during a system install selecting such a mode from the start would make it easier on me than having to run through all the hidden menues unlocking things slowly bit by bit. If the average user is the sort that actually would immediatly always select "advanced", label it something else I guess, but I would like it there.