1. Forum
  2. FidoNet
  3. comp.misc

  • Memory usage

    From Sylvia Else@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 20:32:31
    I start Firefox, and before any web pages are opened it's already using
    almost 700 Mb of memory. That's nearly three times the size of my first
    hard disk.

    What on Earth is it doing?

    How did we get here?

    Sylvia.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Scott Dorsey@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 08:24:20
    Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
    I start Firefox, and before any web pages are opened it's already using >almost 700 Mb of memory. That's nearly three times the size of my first
    hard disk.

    What on Earth is it doing?

    How did we get here?

    It's libraries all the way down.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Tuesday, January 13, 2026 19:43:10
    On Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:32:31 +0800, Sylvia Else wrote:

    How did we get here?

    One new HTML feature at a time.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Computer Nerd Kev@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, January 14, 2026 07:26:17
    Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
    I start Firefox, and before any web pages are opened it's already using almost 700 Mb of memory. That's nearly three times the size of my first
    hard disk.

    I get around 300MB on Linux with Firefox 140ESR opened to my
    default blank tab, but I've turned off lots of features I don't
    want. It's still stupid when Dillo and Links start to a blank
    page using just 4MB.

    In about:performance everything there adds up to 261MB which is
    34MB less than used RAM reported by "free" after subtracting RAM
    still shown used after Firefox is closed (the computer isn't doing
    much else). That computer has 2GB RAM total and it works for my
    usage (I don't watch videos in Firefox, that's what video player
    programs are for).

    There's a comparison of memory use and other performance metrics
    between versions here (text in the SVG graphs doesn't display in
    Dillo unfortunately):

    https://www.phoronix.com/review/firefox-benchmarks-120-141

    What on Earth is it doing?

    Maybe caching history data in RAM from the SQLite databases in your
    profile? It also makes connections to Mozilla servers at start-up,
    some with undisclosed purpose.

    How did we get here?

    I wish we didn't, and whenever I have half a chance to avoid it, I
    don't. I use Dillo instead.

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Computer Nerd Kev@3:633/10 to All on Wednesday, January 14, 2026 07:31:36
    Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
    Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> wrote:
    I start Firefox, and before any web pages are opened it's already using >>almost 700 Mb of memory. That's nearly three times the size of my first >>hard disk.

    What on Earth is it doing?

    How did we get here?

    It's libraries all the way down.

    I doubt that's the problem, most of the libraries used by it
    overall are for GTK3, and GTK3 programs aren't all as bad as that
    for memory usage.

    Well probably not as bad as that, it seems every other GTK program
    I use is GTK2 or earlier.

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)