The rule of thumb is that you want at least the same amount of ram that you have (plus a little more just in case) if you have a laptop or similar where you’re going to use hibernate, since that works by moving whatever is in the ram into the swap.

Also, note that swap is basically emergency (and slow) ram. You want enough to handle any emergencies. Although I think it gets used before ram fills up completely. There are a lot of uses of ram where swap works just as well. Like if you got a program and/or browser tabs open in the background that you’re not presently using, it needs somewhere to store that data. And don’t forget about all the programs you may use that handle or process large files. Typically that gets loaded into ram (or direct to swap if fast access isn’t needed), and if ram can’t hold it, something that is used less is moved to swap.

But if there is no room, it keeps trying any way and it all freezes up like what op describes.

So… since people often have 16 gigs of ram in their machines, no, that isn’t a huge amount of swap to have. Even on my desktops I generally have at least 32 gigs swap just because I often do things that fill up a lot of ram. One of them has 64 gigs ram, and it can fill a good chunk of the swap as well if I try to render something heavy in Blender. Add on to that, I may have a vm open as well. That often uses swap along with filling ram. And of course general web use where it is normal to keep several tabs constantly open.

I want to make sure I have more swap than will ever be used. Because if it does get used, then that means it and ram is full and the computer will freeze.

Is your swap big enough? Some installers default to only 1gig. That isn’t big enough normally.

If it fills the ram and the swap, it will cause what you are seeing. Typically the suggestion is a little more than however much ram you have. Personally I set it at either 16 or 32gigs or more. Depending on the machine and what I intend on doing with it and how much drive space I have available.

You can keep a system monitor open (or top, htop etc) and keep an eye on it when you’re doing something ram hungry, like having a bunch of browser tabs open or whatever. If it freezes and you look over and see the ram usage pegged to the top, that will suggest that that is your problem.

Completely automatic should be one of the options. Not just ‘reminders’ and ‘don’t check’. I know that I used to use it several years ago.

Thank you!! That is exactly what I was looking for.

That is a big help. I was stuck on the idea that that option wasn’t available when making a new doc and didn’t think to look under the change mode menu.

I think that as a photo editor, GIMP is the best option for open source. But as a print designer the lack of being able to work in CMYK and 1 bit images is a big problem.

Fortunately Krita does the CMYK thing extremely well, but it also lacks the ability to handle 1 bit images.

Wondering if anyone out there has discovered a lesser known open source app that works with 1 bit images well? Maybe something made for old school pixel art?

It seems strange to me, since even a more modern format like png supports 1 bit.

To be fair… that is more of a MS Paint kind of tool. I’ve been using Photoshop professionally for over 3 decades and I don’t think I have ever used it. It took me a bit just to find it just now. Don’t think I’ve ever used the rectangle tool either. A vector editing program like inkscape/illustrator or scribus/indesign are better tools for that kind of thing.

With that said. GIMP does have an ellipse selection tool, and that is something that I use often enough. And if you really wanted to draw a circle in a pixel pusher program you could just use that tool, invert it and delete on a separate layer.

Fair question.

It is something I turn off so I don’t remember for sure. Typically it comes up during the installation process. If your distro is using “Software Updater” it should be an option in it’s settings called “automatically check for updates”. This is on Ubuntu 25.04. Although it has been updated a few times from the version it was originally.

But whatever program is being used for updates should have options that will probably get you there.

typically the default is autoupdate to be activated…

Cause ‘muh freedom’

The younger users may not be aware of this… but privacy and freedom were big concerns about the internet since at least the early nineties. We knew that the moment of being ignored was only going to last a little while and it was commonly discussed. And it was already discussed about how insecure windows was and rumors of their back doors and the like.

In that light… when I first heard about linux in 1995 and gave slackware a try one weekend I knew that eventually I was going to switch. But I was/am a graphics artist and 1995 was too soon for doing that kind of stuff at the professional level on linux. But I knew the day would come, so I consciously started switching to open source apps instead of cracked proprietary apps.

Around 2006-2007 there was a lot of talk about projects like Ubuntu making linux highly functional for a graphics person and relatively “easy” to get running. By that time the only proprietary software I was using was Adobe, which I only cared about using while at work and a couple games. And even then, running adobe inside of virtualbox was an option. I dual booted and after about 1-2 months I reached the point where I finally was comfortable enough to not ever go back. After about a year and realizing I hadn’t booted into windows for about 4 months, I erased that partition. I’ve never looked back.

Ubuntu phones were already miles better

Unfortunately none of them shipped with a modem that worked on american networks. ;[

I would have loved to have given one of those a chance.

I was using the nokia N900 since it was first released and then I’d buy new or used ones every couple years when it broke. Apparently some factory in China made a bunch of extras. That lasted about a decade.

Then when the librem5 was first announced I sent them some money. Funny enough that after that Pine64 both announced and finished developing their pinephone before the librem5 got released. So I got one of those and then one of the pinephone pros.

Eventually the librem5 came out and I’ve been using that since then. The functionality of the switches makes all the difference for me. That, and the extra thickness makes it more portable and easier to use and handle than the pinephones.

Nothing has come close to competing with the N900. That has been the best cell phone I have ever had by a lot… since I got my first winmobile phone back in 2002. It was the perfect size and the keyboard was extremely functional. The stylus was super handy as well, although you typically never needed it, but it did make using more desktop type software on a small touch screen a lot more handy.

The impression that I get from modern linux smartphone developers is that almost none of them have any experience outside of the limited design model of iphone and android phones. So even if they are aware of the N900 and what they are, they don’t have an understanding of what has been lost when Steve Jobs insisted that not having a keyboard was a “good thing” just because they wanted to cut manufacturing costs. Remember, this is the guy that use to insist that mice should only have 1 button. I’m an artist, I like aesthetics too, but functionality comes first when you are developing tools.

To summarize the strengths of the N900 outside of running linux: the small overall pocket friendly size, the fold out keyboard was easy to use when needed and out of the way when not needed. The stylus wasn’t needed for software designed for the mobile platform, but it made all the difference when using software not made for the mobile platform. That and the hardware keyboard. When you got all that functionality built in, you don’t have to fake it on an overly large screen that barely fits in your pocket. And that screen does a crap job of it.

Sorry about the rant. I’ve developed strong opinions on this topic over the last couple decades.

As for my current use… mostly I’ve moved away from using a smartphone as much. Its not healthy and isn’t an efficient tool for doing computer stuff. And as I mentioned, they aren’t that portable since they’re so damn big now. They make them thin now, but that just makes them harder to use/hold and doesn’t increase the room in your pocket any. I now find doing phone calls with a voip setup to be easier. I got everything routed through my email inbox and find that to be easiest.

Most people aren’t going to agree with me on this. Most people first learned the iphone/droid model and they base their opinions on that.

Probably not really relevant for you specifically, but if anyone else is reading this who is thinking about making the change, then I want to say that they should work on switching to open source applications that have linux versions first. Typically the biggest challenge is in switching those apps that we use a lot. Already having switched to those apps and only having to learn a new OS makes everything a ton easier.