Swappiness

Theres one parameter that can be configured on runtime that affects the way the kernel manages the memory swap.

You can view the percentage of memory swappiness is managed by your kernel:

ubuntu# cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
70

The greater number you set the greater amount of ram memory required by your programs or the operating system will remain in ram before being swapped.

This can be made at runtime in two ways:

ubuntu# echo "70" > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
or
ubuntu# sysctl -w vm.swappiness=70

Setting it permanently in:

Play with this parameters according to your needs.
If you have a big amount of ram memory you may wish to set this value high to run faster your applications.