After a quadrupling of its RAM, my laptop can now run the VM and make requests against its Apache server without any noticeable pause for swap. Quite a dramatic improvement from Monday, when any context switch between the real and emulated systems made the poor lappie stagger about the room, clutching its chest and groaning.
I put the memory in yesterday after printing out this guide. As with its author, my first attempt resulted in a laptop that wouldn't start up, since the RAM modules don't seat easily - you have to push them very firmly, a little moreso than is obvious. I appreciated the reassuring observation.
While I was in the mode, decided to go ahead and pay a visit to the local Apple Store for a copy of Leopard, too. So that's running. So far I haven't used any of its new features, other than the feature of its breaking my ancient copy of VoodooPad, which I fixed with a $20 upgrade. (Not that I mind terribly; VP is one of my favorite applications. And, whee, it supports tabbed browsing now.)
On the downside of all this, my laptop appears to consume battery somewhat faster faster now, with my total unplugged lifespan dropping from about three to a little over two hours, if my battery gauge tells true. I dunno how much each factor of the denser RAM, the new OS, and my keeping VMWare running contributes to this. Shucks.
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