Swap Memory Usage

Looking at quite a few threads on this forum it becomes apparent that the system information DA with regard to memory usage is not very accurate because of the way linux uses memory(using any spare for housekeeping etc making it look live very little is free.)
Is there any way of finding out what percentage of the memory is being used for essential activity, thereby finding out how much is effectivly spare.

Drew

If you know how to read the ps output you can get an idea of which processes are using how much memory.

A good Linux Systems Administration book might lead you in a good direction.

Jeff