Date:	Tue, 10 Oct 2000 10:28:02 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
To:	Rogier Wolff <R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] VM fix for 2.4.0-test9 & OOM handler



On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Rogier Wolff wrote:
> 
> So if Netscape can "pump" 40 extra megabytes of memory out of X, this
> can be exploited. 
> 
> Now we're back to the point that a heuristic can never be right all
> the time......

I agree. In fact, we never left that.

Nothing is perfect.

In fact, a lot of engineering is _recognizing_ that you can never achieve
"perfect", and you're much better off not even trying - and having a
simple system that is "good enough".

This is the old adage of "perfect is the enemy of good" - trying too hard
is actually _detrimental_ in 99% of all cases. We should have simple
heuristics that work most of the time, instead of trying to cajole a
complex system like X to help us do some complicated resource management
system.

Complexity will just result in the OOM killer failing in surprising ways.

A simple heuristic will mean that the OOM killer will still fail, but at
least it won't be be in subtle and surprising ways.

			Linus

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