What is Digg?Sponsored by Travelzoo
Take Advantage of Ridiculously Low Holiday Airfares view!
travelzoo.com - Flights $52 and up for Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year. But move on it now.
146 Comments
- Dumbledorito, on 10/25/2007, -10/+207Why is he being dugg down? Firefox has memory leak problems out the yin-yang (as does IE, I've noticed), but it seems to be the elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about because they think it'll turn people off open source or go install Vista or something.
Problems don't fix themselves, and getting pissed when people bring them up doesn't make them go away.
And yes, I'm using Firefox. - 0011digger, on 10/25/2007, -18/+158Firefox has always been a memory hogger .. these steps really force him to diet.
- brasso, on 10/12/2007, -3/+97I agree, Firefox is using too much memory. I don't care if its a feature, a leak or whatever, it uses more than other browsers without actually being faster or having more feature than others and it uses to much.
Still, I am using Firefox because it’s worth it, but it would be nice to free up some RAM for other programs. - iTroll, on 10/12/2007, -16/+100This may help you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide - jasond315, on 10/12/2007, -5/+801. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.
I've had this little fix on my computer for a while, what happens is each time you minimize the browser, it restarts the memory usage down to about 4,000 k. will work if your sittin at 20,000 k, or 400,00 k. It will steadily go back up once restored, but can really make a difference if your unable to close your browser a few times a day like myself. - Th0Rr, on 10/12/2007, -7/+68This after browsing for roughly an hour then having only google homepage open.
http://i16.tinypic.com/441nt04.png - sinembarg0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+59The fact that frequent restarts help is a sign of memory leaks.
- geminitojanus, on 10/12/2007, -10/+44Revert back to the old, non-caching Firefox and you hear "Oh god why is Firefox so damned slow, come on, every time I hit back it takes 10 seconds!"
You just can't win. - sigloiv, on 10/12/2007, -6/+40http://duggmirror.com/software/How_to_reduce_the_memory_usage_on_Firefox/
http://duggmirror.com/
I don't really care which you prefer... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+34Stop promoting your blog you ***** spammer. You've been reported.
- sid0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28A lot of people don't use multi-GB systems for web/email. Including me.
- FrankieB078, on 10/12/2007, -3/+30Err. I need to close Firefox to fix Firefox? How am I supposed to view the steps?? I have to use IE????? ????? No!!!!!
- str3ama, on 10/12/2007, -4/+30if I hadn't gotten so used to Firefox, I'd use my copy of Opera a lot more - it's so much more light weight and can do everything firefox, but I'm just so used to firefox's commands and interface that I stick with Firefox even though it eats memory through the roof.
- xShad0w, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27True comparison of firefox to opera, with the same page open - google personalized home
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/8496/comparisoncb4.png
I still go for firefox but it does have its problems - onidraky, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19I would have movied to Opera a long time ago, but it doesn't have the extensions. There are a number of extensions I use on a regular basis that offers functions no other browser has. Even for quick usage on other computers, I'm just so used to Firefox it's not worth switching. Also, I'm not sure there's an AMD64 version of Opera for Linux, though it could just be me not caring enough. Not to mention I really don't care about memory usage all that much as I've got 2 GB and close Firefox periodically.
- Archon810, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17ad blocking != adblock plus.
- kahrn, on 10/12/2007, -5/+21@DeusNova, please leave digg. Your part of a breed of ultra-***** and we don't want you here.
Really... who could be dumb enough to make such a statement? I hope you realize that most people don't have souped up Intel Pentum IIII's or AMD64's for browsing the web with 512MB RAM. If you're average Joe and you only need to use a computer for email and web, then you don't need such stupidly high specs. You shouldn't be forced to go and buy the latest system. Most people are happy with what they already have.
You do realize that many far more people run Intel Pentium II class systems and lower (with ram < 128MB) in the world, don't you?
If not, you're more of a ***** I thought you was. Congratulations. Just because you have massive amounts of resources to waste on simple things, does not mean we all do. Just because you have an Intel Pentium IIII class system or whatnot, does not mean we all do. Just because you're a ***** ***** that loves bloatware, does not mean we all are.
I use firefox myself, but using it on a Pentium II class system or below is almost _impossible_ for just day to day browsing. That's the reason why Firefox will never take the majority of the browser share - because most people just can't use it. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+23And then reinstall it? I've tried it, it doesn't do much.
- blaze03, on 10/12/2007, -5/+19@Deus
So are you saying that ***** computers don't exist, or that nobody will find this article useful because everyone has an awesome computer?
What a useless comment. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12@onocdh
It's not just a windows problem. I've seen the same exact behavior on OSX and Linux as well. - MasteRR, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Note: Only works on Windows. Mac & Linux it has no effect.
- DigitalJester, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Ahhh...here is the article explaining all the limitations...I knew there was a 470MB limit somewhere...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223"
Keywords:
kbpubtypecca kbpubmvp kbhowto KB555223
Who the hell is gunna remember those keywords? - SirDaShadow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Ahhh...here is the article explaining all the limitations...I knew there was a 470MB limit somewhere...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555223 - konforce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Myth from the article: "Firefox doesn't use memory cache and uses system memory by default, it is good to assign a fixed memory cache to reduce the usage of memory. Here's how you do it:"
Truth from Mozilla: "Allow decoded images, chrome, and secure pages to be cached in [system] memory. (Default)"
I hope the article writer doesn't think the images are being stored in CPU cache now as opposed to RAM... The only thing his "tweak" is doing is reducing the amount of RAM (system memory!) Firefox uses for its standard page caching. See the default settings at:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.cache.memory.capacity - mjpatey, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Those digging you down haven't had the problem, I guess. I believe it's the default Ubuntu "ati" driver that slows Digg to a crawl. If you're able to switch to the proprietary "fglrx" driver (that is, if your card supports it), that should fix the problem.
- regeya, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9"Why is he being dugg down? Firefox has memory leak problems out the yin-yang (as does IE, I've noticed), but it seems to be the elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about because they think it'll turn people off open source or go install Vista or something.
Problems don't fix themselves, and getting pissed when people bring them up doesn't make them go away."
Cluestick: The linked article isn't a discussion on fixing FIrefox. It's a basic guide. Don't run too many extensions, don't have too many plugins, don't leave it running all the time. Duh, let's call it "Not Hating Firefox for Mouth-Breathers", because that's what it is. Most the biggest complaints I've read are from people who want to run a couple dozen extensions, have a full stable of plug-ins, use a gazillion Greasemonkey extensions, and want to leave Firefox running for months on end. Look, it's a web browser, not an enterprise-level operating system. Get over it and restart it periodically. And evaluate whether or not you need all those add-ons. :-)
I have an old PC with 512MB of RAM, and often have a lot running while Firefox is running. I don't have that much trouble with excessive memory usage, really. Then again, the longest uptime for this Linux box this year is 14 hours, IIRC, rather than the Firefox-has--been-running-two-months-and-now-its-consuming-a-lot-of-memory-this-is-unacceptable-fix-your-*****-Mozilla whiners' examples. - hidetoshi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7FF's memory usage doesn't bother me but the unstable flash plugin for linux does.
- paroxsitic, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Digg this man up, this tweak works like a charm. I went from 300K to 4K just by minimizing.
- ShBm, on 10/12/2007, -9/+14I prefer Firefox, and with enough RAM you don't even notice a problem.
- hiPpymIck, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10im no expert but i find restarting Fx every hour or so seems to help
(as article says)
Quick Restart gives you a toolbar button
Tab Mix Plus for session manager - fkr3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Having a community is fine but the product should be the focus - not the community. Especially when the community is just a brainwashed mass of teenagers who've been trained to believe any fault with Firefox is really the person's fault, not the browser, because the browser is perfect.
The Mozilla corporation should spend more time creating a solid product instead of cultivating the belief that it's alright for a program to crash regularly, corrupt profiles, retain and leak memory erratically.
A really nice example - the number of people posting on this story that there's no memory leaks, or that it's really a feature (one of the retention problems can be traced to that, not all), or that it's alright that Firefox chews assloads of memory, or that it's acceptable a program need to be restarted frequently to release memory.
Here's another great example of what their community has been raised as:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=539357
Memory leaks on FF 2.0.0.3 (ff using 1gb of ram with "m$ vista"
- reply #1 says not to post big screenshots and tries to distribute the blame by pointing out something else is using the other gb of ram in the system
- reply #3 says the operating system's using too much memory and suggests creating a new profile
- reply #4 blames the original poster
And another
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=483517
Frequent hangs / freezes / lock ups in FF2
- reply #1 tries to share the blame with IE7
- a few people confirm they have problems
- reply #10 blames the original poster
- reply #12 says nobody he knows has problems so it can't be widespread
And sure, plenty of opera users just suggest "Get Opera" as some sort of blanket solution. Those comments deserve to be buried whether it's from an Opera, Firefox, Mac, Microsoft, Ubuntu or any other fanboy. Plenty of valid comments are modded down just to squash differing opinions though. - praveenmarkandu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10Firefox = customization unlike any other browser = browser for me
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This tutorial was useless for me, like all the other tutorials that I've read before. Firefox leak memory like crazy and that's something that the developers have to fix (or a voluntary) not the user, and less if when you ask to the devs to fix the memory problem in the next release they tell you "memory is to be used and that was firefox does" straight to face...
- Trixrox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Speaking of Firefox, here on Digg, when I click show on a burried comment, it shows up really choppily. Is there a way to fix that? This is on Vista, if that matters.
- kahrn, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8@robbiekhan
Yeah. I like acting like a ***** sometimes too, but don't bring it too digg.
multi-gb systems? what a load of *****. Most of the world still runs with Pentium I's with like 64MB or so RAM. Libraries, schools, colleges, old peoples homes, local businesses, etc.. etc.. The list could go on forever. They don't need to go and buy a "multi-gb" system to take a look at some webmail or whatnot. Neither does almost anyone.
In a world where most people are still using older systems, firefox is not welcome. Why? Because opera and IE have to take it's place. People shouldn't have to go and buy an entire new system just to take a look at their webmail or whatnot. Most people won't.
Too many people (well, kids that recently bought a computer) seem to think that the entire world goes out to go and buy a new computer as soon as a new processor comes out. Well, I hate to break it to you, but most people don't give a ***** about having the latest processor. Average joe wants to get the job done, and spend all his money and time on hookers - not waiting for firefox to load. If he can't use firefox on his pentium I, then he'll just go and use Opera or IE. - robrecord, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I've been test driving a lot of browsers and I have fallen in love with Opera and Camino for their speed, but I just can't live without one Firefox extension: del.icio.us bookmarks. Nothing else compares anymore.
- SirDaShadow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5robbiekhan said:
>With todays multi-GB pc systems who sits there worrying about a browser taking up 20MB more than Opera or Internet Explorer? does it really matter >anymore given the price and size of RAM these days...
Well, as far as I know, there is a limitation on XP and 2K of ram in the non-paged area....fill this up with more than 470MB and Windows will flush a lot of the apps in ram to disk...this is why when Firefox or any app for that matter eats up more than ~256MB (on 1 GB) it swaps like crazy even after you tweak windows...if anyone here can confirm or deny this please do so. - eXCeSS, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I bought two gigs of ram to use it.
Thanks, but no thanks, I'd rather use my memory than waste it, at least in XP since Linux is always using all of it...in a good way. - elfofdoriath9, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Or you can utilize the state of the art technology known as "Pencil and Paper" to write down the steps. Just a thought.
- Appleboi4evr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4im all for open source, i run linux (ubuntu) on my main computer and by far firefox is my favorite. but on my average internet usage when i check my system resource/memory usage firefox gets around 200 mb of memory being used, its ridicules. and i only have 512 mb of ram so it definitely slow down my computer. but i love firefox too much to really fully switch over to opera all though it has so much better features and memory usage and it is a innovator. why isn't opera more popular?
- Jammerdelray, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9"You guys ought to move to Opera"
No thanks....While Opera is getting better with each version your not able to use Siteadvisor, Forecastfox for Weather, Tadsee for Digg etc. Firefox works on more sites than Opera Still. - Emachine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Firefox 2.0 was using something like 300MB of memory at one point for me, after 20 minutes of browsing. So I'm using Opera now, which uses 30-40MB, plus I love the little previews of tabs when you hover the mouse over the tabs.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Wow! This tweak actually works. Why isn't it turned on by default?
- SamuelDr2, on 10/12/2007, -20/+23@achen (#6171601)
eeeeeh, opera doesn't have the extensibility of firefox... You fail, sorry. - digitalarcanum, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6not to kill your thunder here and make everyone cry foul, but IE does this too, at least IE 6 does. now I know that IE 6 doesn't have multiple tabs or extensions and is phased out by IE 7, but when you minimize it, not only does it do the same as firefox and cut memory usage, it's memory footprint is smaller. The smallest I could get firefox to go with this tweak was about 6,000 k or so, and even with the tweak, minimized and with IE tabs being the only extension I have on my firefox install, firefox's memory usage slowly climbed up.. I got up to about 12,000 k memory minimized, doing absolutely nothing before I just closed it all together. IE6 stayed at a steady 3500 k when minimized. Even so I love firefox.
If Opera offered extensions with it's efficient use of memory, I'd be sold. I mean when all you do is open your browser and memory usage is at 60,000 k with all the above tweaks, you know there's something wrong here, caching/memory leak/feature or not. - sharkbaitbobby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If it's not working for you, you probably haven't restarted Firefox. Close ALL Firefox windows and start it up again and it -should- work now. That's how Firefox's about:config works.
- KnightMareInc, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7I cant remember the last time my firefox used tons of ram
- digitalarcanum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I tested this tweak in windows vista, don't waste your time, it doesn't work there.
- Predater, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Well, reducing the cache size from 76 MB to 32 MB did the trick for me.
You folks might want to do a little trial and error to get the best results. - bmartin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I just buried your comment and it was a bit choppy on Gentoo, as well. I think it's a platform-independent thing.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 146 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 
