has been updating its version after versions and in the process is adding more and more features which is expected.
However, what it also is doing is that it is getting heavier and heavier as an application.
I'm sure people using Firefox 2.0 will definitely agree if they're in a habit of having umpteen number of tabs open and continue working with other applications as well.
The problem I want to talk about is that the Firefox which used to consume only around 6-11 MB in the good old times now ends up consuming around 60MB sometimes even 100MB of memory!
And if you have other heavy applications running on your computer (read Windows) just stops responding...gives you time to have some coffee and come back whilst it comes back to life as in it finishes processing whatever it is processing and comes back to interactive mode.
Now that's frustrating...at least I find it frustrating.
Is there a way out??
Yes I found it....though most you may know and most of you may not...
but it is always good to share knowledge (I'm a firm believer of ancient Indian philosophy which states that "Knowledge always increases on sharing") :)
Ok Enough of theory…lets get our hands dirty.
The question is how?
1. Open Firefox
2. Open a new tab
3. Type “about:config” (without the quotes of course)
4. You will see a configuration panel
5. Right click on any value on the leftmost column
6. Select New > Boolean
7. Enter the preference name as “config.trim_on_minimize” (without quotes)
8. Set the value to True
Restart firefox and see the magic!
Open task manager and see the processes tab. Click on memory usage,
Open a few tabs and websites on firfox and see the memory used, minimize Firefox and see the memory usage, you’ll see magic!!!
Normally Firefox, as I mentioned, will take around 40-60 MB of memory (v 2.0, click on Help> About to see version), but after doing as stated above,
each time you minimize Firefox you’ll see the memory usage drop down to around 3-6 MB!
Isn’t that great????
But remember you have to click on minimize to see the difference!!!
If you run tons of applications as I do, and are forced to keep a track of the memory usage when you have only 1 GB of RAM, this is a great respite!
Oh yes there are other alternatives I forgot to suggest:
- Get more RAM!!
- Get Linux!
Enjoy!
1 comment:
Aaaah, we're 1G of RAM buds, i.e., I feel your pain...typically have a couple ram sucker programs running like PS (with adobe bridge too), and DW along with 5 FF tabs open, email and a couple .txt files along with a media player blasting metal or 80s music. May just have to do some fiddlin' as per your suggestion.
Totally digging your blog...ya just don't hear the word "dearth" enough these days!!
Here's one for ya:
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.
Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"
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