[GTALUG] Firefox memory usage (was GTALUG Meeting on Tuesday 10 October at 7:30pm)

[o1bigtenor]

On Sat, Sep 30, 2017 at 3:00 PM, Myles Braithwaite 👾 <me at mylesb.ca> wrote:

> o1bigtenor via talk wrote:
> > Am a serious browser user - - - in the past have had up to 18 windows
> > open and from 3 to 50+ tabs on any one window. There isn't a browser out
> > there that can handle that kind of usage especially NOT FF! ( I have
> > north of 20 GB of RAM plus a system to match so its really not a
> > resources issue). The issue is that browsers are quite memory wasteful
> > and somehow can't use ram neatly. When can we expect the present malaise
> > to change - - - - 2030?
> >
> > Maybe his response to my comment/question could be transmitted back - -
> > - please?
> >
> > Yes I've tried using the 'help' section but dev types don't seem to ever
> > read anything there.
>
> Resource usage in web browsers depend on a given web site. The greatest
> example is The Verge[0] a technology blog that requires 274 HTTP
> requests and 3.0 MB of data[1]. According to the Firefox extension Tab
> Data[2] on first load that take ~30MB of RAM and comes down to ~17MB
> after all the requests get processed. Interesting side note this
> article[3] can use anywhere from 40MB to 100MB of RAM.
>
> Browser developers build better optimized browsers while web developers
> make heavy web pages which use up all the resources (usually with ads).
>
> Extensions also take out a lot of memory as while, checkout about:memory.
>
> Though your question is warranted, it's not really appropriate as it
> will result a bunch of questions from the speaker (i.e. what web sites
> are you visiting, how many extensions are you using, what's your
> internet connection, etc).
>
> [0]: <https://www.theverge.com/>
> [1]: <https://tools.pingdom.com/#!/dbE4hE/https://www.theverge.com/>
> [2]: <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-data/>
> [3]:
> <https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/29/16387706/wonder-
> woman-batman-dc-expanded-cinematic-universe-warner-bros-standalone>
>

OK - - - -what you're saying is that 'its the customers fault'. That I'm
visiting
websites that just use too many resources.

Except - - - I don't run flash (haven't for a number of years in fact) and
the
longevity of a browser is minimal. (Where I go is very much business
related
and my business stuff is mostly related to computer information relating to
my
business projects and business information - - often from governmental
agencies
and I don't think that they generally generate web pages like the one you
referred
to above.) By that I mean that after a few days the
best way to get through put out of the miserable POS is to kill it and then
restart. That process feels quite a bit like M$ where when the system gets
'used' something hangs and the best solution is to reinstall. As a logic
system
that is, to put it quite bluntly, unacceptable.

If software can't handle the functions being asked of it - - - well that
software needs
changing. As browsers as a group seem to be at very least somewhat infected
with
this malaise (and FF hugely so) its time for changes. Methought it would be
useful
to find out from someone who might actually know something about the
internals
and their present and proposed development - - - but of course 'the emperor
has
no clothes' !!

Regards

Dee
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