[lug] X is a huge memory hog, why?

[Jeffrey Siegal]

Peter Hutnick wrote:
> As I understand it this includes memory usage of all child processes as
> well.  You said you aren't running any other "desktop" apps, but does that
> mean you aren't running a window manager (and desktop)?
> 
> If, for example,  you are running KDE or Gnome with a taskbar full of
> applets I'd say you are getting off easy at 100MB.

Those are not child processes of the X server, though they do contribute 
to X server memory usage by allocating resources (bitmaps, windows, 
etc.) in the X server.

D. Stimits is right that the reported memory usage for the X server 
includes the video memory mapped into its address space.