Re: Memory usage

On 2026-01-13, Computer Nerd Kev <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sylvia Else <[email protected]> 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.
>

In my machine Otter browser uses about ~300MB on start  *but* 
it uses far less resources than Firefox. It's an n270 CPU based
netbook with 1GB of RAM (~1.5 with ZRAM). And I use dillo too
from a GIT build and the speed it's like a light photon.

On videos, I just use mpv+streamlink or mpv+yt-dlp, from 480p
tp 720p@30FPS. No slowdowns, ever.