[K12OSN] Quick Question about Swap partitions

[Jim Kronebusch]

> It depends on the use pattern, but on machines I've seen as you get 
> close to 2 gigs into swap the machine will be so slow and unresponsive 
> that you'll probably reboot it before it would recover - if it ever 
> does.  The main point is that you need enough RAM. Swap will keep the 
> machine from crashing if you run short momentarily but its not a real 
> substitute.

So then theoretically is there a problem with having too much swap available?  I want to
be sure I have enough in a just in case scenario, but if too much will also slow things
down I want to keep it to a minimum.  

For example let's say you have a system with 16GB RAM and a 2GB swap, would this perform
any differently than a machine with 16GB RAM and 10GB swap?  If both perform the same,
and you have enough space, wouldn't the setup with more swap be safer if a sudden high
use case came about?  Obviously if events kept repeatedly using all the RAM and digging
deep into swap usage, you would add more RAM for the future and hope to stay out of swap
completely.

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