Broadly speaking I agree with much of your post, but I should point out that OS X *requires* virtual memory -- it cannot be disabled. Obviously, someone who has a lot of RAM is going to need it less than someone who doesn't, but the system *automatically* reserves a small chunk of disk space (increasing exponentially as needed) for VM purposes.From: Marcin Wichary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> On the other hand, if you have a lot of physical memory or run not that many programs, you might not need virtual memory at all, let alone 10-20% of your HDD.
I won't bore you with a long explanation of OS X's disk/RAM strategies, just letting you know that OS X *always* uses a bit of VM.
As somebody mentioned before --
having 20% of your disk free won't hurt, but in many cases it's way
more than needed and might unnecessarily scare people ("Oh my God! I
only have 19% free! I have to randomly delete something!")
Exactly. My rule of thumb is not that when you get to less than 20% free space you have to delete things, but more that it's a sign that you need to think about either doing some spring cleaning, or considering additional storage options.
Mac OS X certainly DOES "slow down" rather dramatically when the free space gets so low that the VM and temp files can't be properly written, but that exact amount varies from user to user because it's based in part on what you're doing with the machine. I personally like to keep at least 2GB free on any hard drive I'm using.
_Chas_
FL-MUG: central Florida's Macintosh User Group. Meetings: second Thursday of the month, 6-9pm, at the Orlando Science Center. http://www.flmug.org
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