I have a clean install of RH Wolerine installed and using kernel Linux version 2.4.1-0.1.9. I noticed when running gnome that I kept loosing memory. I have 160mb ram installed. When I start gnome I had 100mb free. Then after running netscape, or any other application I ran down to 1mb free. It starts paging and performance is reduced. I upgraded to 256mb. Before I started gnome I had 200mb free. It drops to 2mb then starts paging again. I tried not using any types of guis, and stuck to command line for various tasks, and noticed that free memory still drops.
You should upgrade to 2.4.2-0.1.49. It fixes most of the performance problems in the original Wolverine kernel.
1) "free" isn't a good indicator for many, as they aren't aware of Linux wanting to use as much as possible as cache - so if you run a program on a fresh system an exit t, free will report a lower number than before: It has the program in cache. Cache is freed when needed for programs - the kernel dynamically adjusts to provide the best performance 2) The kernel has been updated since then, and has much better performance.