Yes, this is a really obnoxious bug. It's been around longer than Ubuntu has (I've been using Linux since 1999). It seems to me to be a completely unacceptable behavior to have the entire operating system grind to a halt and freeze due to too much RAM being in use.
I have 8GB of RAM and swap TURNED OFF, yet this still happens where I'll have a lot of work tasks and windows open, then all of a sudden the system freezes with the HDD stuck in a fury of swapping, with no other recourse than ALT-SysRQ-SUB emergency shutdown (or hitting the power button). An issue of this severity being left unsolved for years is one of the things that irks me as a fanatical Linux evangelist. My mother runs Linux and the fear of her having issues like this keeps me up at night... -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/159356 Title: System freeze on high memory usage -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
