Wouldn't killing off the process that has the lowest CPU use be best
(other than processes 1-10, which are reserved, and currently all not
terminatable without dire consiqunces), on the theory that it wasn't doing
anything anyway? That should atleast give you enough memory to kill -HUP
others instead of just destroying them.
Importance isn't related to how much CPU is being used. For example,
"inetd" doesn't use much CPU, but doesn't have a PID under 10. Killing
it would mean that you wouldn't be able to log in remotely to fix
things.....
- Ted