Why is available memory more important than free memory

Available memory=Free Memory+Disk Cache

Disk cache Memory is borrowed to application to use

When a need arise e.g. for new application/processs, system will purge this cache and make this memory available for new processes

Memory available includes this cache while free memory metric does not include this cache

So memory available is more relevant and correct metric

Available memory=Free Memory+Disk Cache

an interesting article on why disk cache doesn’t prevent applications from getting the memory they want

https://www.linuxatemyram.com/play.html