i have 2 gigs of ram installed but applications wont launch once 1 gig is
used up.

The performance monitor never shows more then 1 gig of memroy used up, yet
applications wont launch when its near the 1 gig of used memory. how to free
up that other gig so that I can use 2 gigs of ram instead of 1. Its like i
have 2 gigs of ram and 1 gig is wasted. also, why dont applications launch?
do i need to configure some swap space or something to ensure applications
launch?