

Ask HN: How to use Firefox better? - guojh0570

<p><pre><code>  Recently I use Firefox for my web browsing, but it seems that Firefox "eats" a lot of memory.
  I am on Mac(10.8.2), sometimes it can take 400MB or more.I don't install much add-ons.
  And before I use Chrome.And I alse wonder why Firefox always take so much memory?
  because the memory management doesn't work well or something else?</code></pre>
======
windsurfer
Firefox is great when it comes to memory management. My Firefox instance is
using 550 MB of RAM - and that's totally reasonable. I have some huge pages
loaded, and around 20 of them, but Firefox remains very fast.

If you want it to use less memory, open less pages or open pages that use less
memory. Other browsers won't help as they'll use around the same amount.
Chrome hides it's usage in separate processes and threads, by the way.

~~~
guojh0570
thanks for replying, and I know Chrome separates its processes. And I just
wander sometimes Firefox use the same memory when I open 4 or 8 pages. Even it
uses more memory for no reason(e.g. I open 2 pages, but it will increases).

------
sp332
How much RAM do you have on your machine? Are you running out because of
Firefox? Actually the memory management has been really tightened up over the
last year or so. Type "about:memory" into your address bar and you can see
exactly what's going on in there.

~~~
guojh0570
Yes, I always see "about:memory" and minimize memory usage. My machine doesn't
run out because of Firefox, but yesterday it took nearly 1G RAM. I have 4GB
RAM.

~~~
sp332
OK so if you're not hurting for memory, then I think it's using an appropriate
amount of memory.

~~~
guojh0570
I just wander why Firefox always takes more memory for no reason-Even I keep
the same pages.

------
AbhishekBiswal
The new version(s) doesn't "eat up" memory. I use it to test web design /
apps, I have ~5 background running addons, and it's fast.

