Re: [ext3][kernels >= 2.6.20.7 at least] KDE going comatose when FSis under heavy write load (massive starvation)

[Linus Torvalds]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007, John Anthony Kazos Jr. wrote:
> 
> Could[/should] this stuff be changed from ratios to amounts? Or a quick 
> boot-time test to use a ratio if the memory is small and an amount (like 
> tax brackets, I would expect) if it's great?

Yes, the "percentage" thing was likely wrong. That said, there *is* some 
correlation between "lots of memory" and "high-end machine", and that in 
turn tends to correlate with "fast disk", so I don't think the percentage 
approach is really *horribly* wrong.

The main issue with the percentage is that we do export them as such 
through the /proc/ interface, and they are easy to change and understand. 
So changing them to amounts is non-trivial if you also want to support the 
old interfaces - and the advantage isn't obvious enough that it's a 
clear-cut case.

		Linus
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