Some of your 'not free' RAM is probably being used for caching. Does the output of your free command give you any more info? Here's what mine looks like:
Code:
# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 4039 3827 212 0 221 3150
-/+ buffers/cache: 455 3584
Swap: 511 0 511
I know it doesn't look like I have much free RAM, but the memory allocated to caching will be released if/when necessary.
You can also take a look at the memory info from the 'top' command. It should tell you if you have RAM allocated to caching or buffers.
MSJ