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I don't think your usage is an anomaly at all. People use open tabs like a read-it-later list, and so far I couldn't get used to a service like that (or bookmar

I don't think your usage is an anomaly at all. People use open tabs like a read-it-later list, and so far I couldn't get used to a service like that (or bookmarks) because I forget that I even added them in the first place (out of sight, out of mind). Right now, Tree Style Tabs, Tab Mix Plus, Session Manager and loading tabs on demand are what help me manage my tabs well. I have had several hundred tabs open in Firefox many a times (yes, there are valid reasons), and that affects startup time (even with loading tabs on demand) and exit time (the time taken for process to terminate after the windows disappear). I have read about people who do the same (or a lot more). In my observation over several years, Firefox has been able to handle many more tabs with lesser CPU and memory usage (aka sluggishness) than Chrome ever could. Chrome is always sluggish after opening several tabs and consumes a lot more memory. What's worse is recovery in Chrome. Restoring sessions and tabs in Firefox has been a breeze for a long time, and even as recent as a few days ago, I had to struggle doing that in Chrome (the session manager extension there is not reliable at all, nor is Chrome's own crash recovery). On the multi-process model, Firefox is now using one process for the entire browser chrome (UI) and one process for the content. I have also dreaded that Firefox multi-process would become sluggish like Chrome, but we'll have to wait and see how the development progresses. The Firefox developers do know a lot more about Chrome's issues on this front, and I'm sure they will tread cautiously and adopt some kind of trade-offs that provide adquate security (better sandboxing), stability and performance. To check memory use in Chrome, go to about:memory and you should be able to get details of all Chrome processes and the totals. Pressing Shift+Esc when in Chrome would also show all the Chrome tab stats (similar to a task manager window).

tracker1 10y ago
Thanks so much for about:memory and shift+esc ... I always forget about them.
flushandforget 10y ago
Periodically I keep coming back to HN to pretty much say the same thing. Which is that tabs are used as a replacement for bookmarks. And that's pretty much because of the failing of a good browser bookmark UI. I've tried many tab extensions and haven't been happy with any of them. You can easily leapfrog Chrome with a better web interface and web page helpers. I see no radically visible innovation with Firefox or Chrome for that matter. I had an Apple Powerbook, that with age couldn't cope with 'modern' web sites. So I took great pains to make browsing easier. Now I notice the same creep on 'modern' machines. JS may be processed faster, and pages rendered quicker, but many web resources are becoming more bloated and this ruins the browsing experience. I have gone back to having one browser with no javascript running, just so I can read some pages, as I'm fed up with the inherent slow down. Yeah some 'appy' sites/pages are impressive. But the bog standard web pages that eat my computer's resources to display a few adverts alongside a passage of text or a picture is pretty dreadful. Being able to easily identify and manage these laggy sites would be a help. There are tools but they aren't that accessible or easy to read or use. And after running Windows 10 for the first time at the weekend, I can see how the Desktop UI and admin interface is still comparatively stuck in the stone age. So in short I think there is plenty of room for improvement, across the board.
- superkuh 10y ago
  Session files of tabs are also better than bookmarks since they save per-tab history so you can see how you arrived somewhere. The per-tab process switch is bad for users like us (I have 300+ tabs right now) but what is even worse in FF48 is the implementation of a walled garden for extensions.
  - flushandforget 10y ago
    That's a good point about tab/session history. That's another area that could see improvement. I frequently open a link in a new tab, so also having that web of history between tabs could be useful. I've been terribly unproductive today. Darting back and forth to sites. I have a tendency to close tabs if I can. But sometimes when distracted, open something back up, like a forum to see if there is change. And I may in truth have only opened it about 10 minutes earlier. Last visited/popular site list helper could be of use there. Or of course not procrastinating in the first place.
    - ComodoHacker 10y ago
      >Last visited/popular site list Don't both Firefox and Chrome have it, right in the URL bar?
      - flushandforget 10y ago
        Where? Assume you mean: Chrome -> burger menu -> History and recent tabs. Firefox -> History -> Recently closed tabs/windows. Not the best or easiest method to get to that info. Nested menus are only useful for occasional functions. They are a bit of a faff.
        ComodoHacker 10y ago
        In Firefox, go to URL bar and click drop-down list button (or press Alt+Down). Not sure about Chrome now, I thought it was the same but turns out it doesn't work.

tracker1 10y ago

Thanks so much for about:memory and shift+esc ... I always forget about them.

flushandforget 10y ago

Periodically I keep coming back to HN to pretty much say the same thing. Which is that tabs are used as a replacement for bookmarks. And that's pretty much because of the failing of a good browser bookmark UI. I've tried many tab extensions and haven't been happy with any of them. You can easily leapfrog Chrome with a better web interface and web page helpers. I see no radically visible innovation with Firefox or Chrome for that matter. I had an Apple Powerbook, that with age couldn't cope with 'modern' web sites. So I took great pains to make browsing easier. Now I notice the same creep on 'modern' machines. JS may be processed faster, and pages rendered quicker, but many web resources are becoming more bloated and this ruins the browsing experience. I have gone back to having one browser with no javascript running, just so I can read some pages, as I'm fed up with the inherent slow down. Yeah some 'appy' sites/pages are impressive. But the bog standard web pages that eat my computer's resources to display a few adverts alongside a passage of text or a picture is pretty dreadful. Being able to easily identify and manage these laggy sites would be a help. There are tools but they aren't that accessible or easy to read or use. And after running Windows 10 for the first time at the weekend, I can see how the Desktop UI and admin interface is still comparatively stuck in the stone age. So in short I think there is plenty of room for improvement, across the board.

superkuh 10y ago
Session files of tabs are also better than bookmarks since they save per-tab history so you can see how you arrived somewhere. The per-tab process switch is bad for users like us (I have 300+ tabs right now) but what is even worse in FF48 is the implementation of a walled garden for extensions.
- flushandforget 10y ago
  That's a good point about tab/session history. That's another area that could see improvement. I frequently open a link in a new tab, so also having that web of history between tabs could be useful. I've been terribly unproductive today. Darting back and forth to sites. I have a tendency to close tabs if I can. But sometimes when distracted, open something back up, like a forum to see if there is change. And I may in truth have only opened it about 10 minutes earlier. Last visited/popular site list helper could be of use there. Or of course not procrastinating in the first place.
  - ComodoHacker 10y ago
    >Last visited/popular site list Don't both Firefox and Chrome have it, right in the URL bar?
    - flushandforget 10y ago
      Where? Assume you mean: Chrome -> burger menu -> History and recent tabs. Firefox -> History -> Recently closed tabs/windows. Not the best or easiest method to get to that info. Nested menus are only useful for occasional functions. They are a bit of a faff.
      - ComodoHacker 10y ago
        In Firefox, go to URL bar and click drop-down list button (or press Alt+Down). Not sure about Chrome now, I thought it was the same but turns out it doesn't work.