7 ms·

I wish I knew but something has always bothered me about people jumping browsers due to open tab usage for tab counts above 20. Is that really the only feature

I wish I knew but something has always bothered me about people jumping browsers due to open tab usage for tab counts above 20. Is that really the only feature people care about?

hombre_fatal 7y ago
It's one of the biggest practical differences between browsers that can completely cripple the experience. Why wouldn't it matter?
SkyMarshal 7y ago
When it completely bogs down the browser so that opening a new window stakes 5s and other normal actions are extremely laggy, no other features matter. This can happen even on my 64GB workstation when Firefox hasn’t consumed all the available memory yet. Performance is a feature. (That said I continue to use Firefox exclusively b/c 1) Firefox is really good now, 2) best addon/extension support, 3) Google’s leadership is Evil now, and 4) I don’t want a rendering engine monoculture).
- webmobdev 7y ago
  That's understandable. But what exactly is the thought process in having so many tabs (10+) open in the first place?
  - newscracker 7y ago
    Having multiple tabs (or "too many tabs") is a neat and very visible way to keep track of what's to be read and processed. It does result in keeping things for far too long sometimes, but there is no better interface that surfaces all the different sites/URLs to be processed. It's very useful when you're troubleshooting or researching something (could be some tech stuff in general, some software development/debugging stuff or anything else you're researching).
    - webmobdev 7y ago
      Ok, using browser tabs as "bookmarks". I used to do something similar too with Opera (the original one with Presto engine) but with their "Speed Dial" feature. I miss Presto Opera - it was light-weight, fast and wasn't bogged down by even with 100's of open tabs and had fantastic browser features that nearly all their competitors copied.
      - newscracker 7y ago
        It's actually way better than bookmarks because it stores the content in a quickly accessible way (unless the tab has been unloaded manually or through another extension), and it also stores history (you can go back and forward in each of those tabs). Bookmarks and "Speed Dial" (which is available on Firefox) do not support tab history. I do not know how Opera's Speed Dial worked though.
        webmobdev 7y ago
        > It's actually way better than bookmarks because it stores the content in a quickly accessible way I am skeptical about this part. If you tag your bookmark's, it then becomes easy to look it up right from the address bar by just typing a tag name. That is actually much easier and faster than searching through 100's or 1000's of tabs. > ... and it also stores history That's a very good point that I hadn't considered.
      - SkyMarshal 7y ago
        I used to do the exact same with Presto Opera, still my favorite browser UI of all time. MDI > tabs. Wish modern browsers would understand that.
  - aliceryhl 7y ago
    It's an easy way to manage things I want to go back to at some point in the future.
  - tofflos 7y ago
    I can’t imagine getting by with so few. My tab counter extension is currently showing 1053.
  - paulryanrogers 7y ago
    For me it was a read-later queue that I rarely ever used. Now after purging it more often I don't need things like vertical tabs as much.
  - duhi88 7y ago
    "read it later" window, sites for research, Slack in the browser, podcasts or music in the background, etc. I usually don't close my research tabs until I've completed the task I was working on. Not having to worry about memory means I don't have to worry about finding useful webpages again.
    - webmobdev 7y ago
      Ok, looks like you all prefer to use the tabs as bookmarks! If I have too many tabs open, I just bookmark and tag the site I still may want to want peruse later, and close the tab.
      - SAI_Peregrinus 7y ago
        Bookmarks discard information (history, non-url parameters, parent tab, etc). Often that information is important!
      - SkyMarshal 7y ago
        Open tabs = bookmarks for unread stuff, basically. Once I’m done, optionally bookmark it if necessary and close the tab. The problem with bookmarks is my list of bookmarks eventually grows even larger than my open tabs, far larger, and stuff just gets lost in there. Once out of site, then out of mind. Leaving it open in a tab I’m more likely to go back and read it when I have time.
      - barrkel 7y ago
        Inbox, rather than bookmarks. Bookmarks suggest repeated visits; an open tab is something to be visited at least once, but not known to be worth keeping a link to.
  - eitland 7y ago
    Seeing things in context. Multi tasking (each task can easily have a good number of tasks open)
- aliceryhl 7y ago
  It's weird, I keep seeing people complain about the memory usage and it being slow, but I've literally never experienced any of these kinds of issues, and I have 80 tabs open right now. Are you using some weird plugin or what?
  - eitland 7y ago
    It is dependent on machine, OS and what plugins are installed. I'm fairly certain I used to have hundreds of tabs open back in the old Firefox with even less lag than I see today.
    - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
      I'm pretty sure it depends a lot on profile cruft too.
  - SkyMarshal 7y ago
    I do have a bunch of plugins installed, is there any way to profile them and see if any of them are the culprit? (Ubuntu 18.04)
- vsareto 7y ago
  If people are so concerned about tab performance, why not use the history pane?
mqus 7y ago
I'm using firefox and am currently at over ~20 Tabs (TreestyleTab makes this easy ;), usually I have more) with ~600MB mem usage on a 8GB machine. I care about the feature but i don't see any reason to switch away from Firefox for it...
- webmobdev 7y ago
  What exactly is the thought process behind having so many tabs open? For example, I close tabs when I am done with a site and / or when I can't read the site title on the tabs any more.
  - dx87 7y ago
    My wife leaves all of her tabs open, but it's not for any specific reason. If she opens a new tab and goes to a website, the browser will just switch to the tab that's already on that website instead of fetching the website again.
    - webmobdev 7y ago
      > ... the browser will just switch to the tab that's already on that website ... Which browser?
      - eppsilon 7y ago
        Safari does this
      - Drdrdrq 7y ago
        Firefox has that feature (configurable).
  - CathedralBorrow 7y ago
    > For example, I close tabs when I am done with a site I also do this, but my definition of done is very flexible and blurry.
globalproctd 7y ago
OP here on this comment chain. I'm a front end and back end developer that uses multiple libraries and tech stacks and need to find answers to stuff immediately. I leave them open as a resource while I'm working, which may be on multiple things at once. In addition, I have mail, messaging, music, and other work-related things open in the browser. It's really one of the only features that matters.

I wish I knew but something has always bothered me about people jumping browsers due to open tab usage for tab counts above 20. Is that really the only feature people care about?

hombre_fatal 7y ago

It's one of the biggest practical differences between browsers that can completely cripple the experience. Why wouldn't it matter?

SkyMarshal 7y ago

When it completely bogs down the browser so that opening a new window stakes 5s and other normal actions are extremely laggy, no other features matter. This can happen even on my 64GB workstation when Firefox hasn’t consumed all the available memory yet. Performance is a feature. (That said I continue to use Firefox exclusively b/c 1) Firefox is really good now, 2) best addon/extension support, 3) Google’s leadership is Evil now, and 4) I don’t want a rendering engine monoculture).

webmobdev 7y ago
That's understandable. But what exactly is the thought process in having so many tabs (10+) open in the first place?
- newscracker 7y ago
  Having multiple tabs (or "too many tabs") is a neat and very visible way to keep track of what's to be read and processed. It does result in keeping things for far too long sometimes, but there is no better interface that surfaces all the different sites/URLs to be processed. It's very useful when you're troubleshooting or researching something (could be some tech stuff in general, some software development/debugging stuff or anything else you're researching).
  - webmobdev 7y ago
    Ok, using browser tabs as "bookmarks". I used to do something similar too with Opera (the original one with Presto engine) but with their "Speed Dial" feature. I miss Presto Opera - it was light-weight, fast and wasn't bogged down by even with 100's of open tabs and had fantastic browser features that nearly all their competitors copied.
    - newscracker 7y ago
      It's actually way better than bookmarks because it stores the content in a quickly accessible way (unless the tab has been unloaded manually or through another extension), and it also stores history (you can go back and forward in each of those tabs). Bookmarks and "Speed Dial" (which is available on Firefox) do not support tab history. I do not know how Opera's Speed Dial worked though.
      - webmobdev 7y ago
        > It's actually way better than bookmarks because it stores the content in a quickly accessible way I am skeptical about this part. If you tag your bookmark's, it then becomes easy to look it up right from the address bar by just typing a tag name. That is actually much easier and faster than searching through 100's or 1000's of tabs. > ... and it also stores history That's a very good point that I hadn't considered.
    - SkyMarshal 7y ago
      I used to do the exact same with Presto Opera, still my favorite browser UI of all time. MDI > tabs. Wish modern browsers would understand that.
- aliceryhl 7y ago
  It's an easy way to manage things I want to go back to at some point in the future.
- tofflos 7y ago
  I can’t imagine getting by with so few. My tab counter extension is currently showing 1053.
- paulryanrogers 7y ago
  For me it was a read-later queue that I rarely ever used. Now after purging it more often I don't need things like vertical tabs as much.
- duhi88 7y ago
  "read it later" window, sites for research, Slack in the browser, podcasts or music in the background, etc. I usually don't close my research tabs until I've completed the task I was working on. Not having to worry about memory means I don't have to worry about finding useful webpages again.
  - webmobdev 7y ago
    Ok, looks like you all prefer to use the tabs as bookmarks! If I have too many tabs open, I just bookmark and tag the site I still may want to want peruse later, and close the tab.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 7y ago
      Bookmarks discard information (history, non-url parameters, parent tab, etc). Often that information is important!
    - SkyMarshal 7y ago
      Open tabs = bookmarks for unread stuff, basically. Once I’m done, optionally bookmark it if necessary and close the tab. The problem with bookmarks is my list of bookmarks eventually grows even larger than my open tabs, far larger, and stuff just gets lost in there. Once out of site, then out of mind. Leaving it open in a tab I’m more likely to go back and read it when I have time.
    - barrkel 7y ago
      Inbox, rather than bookmarks. Bookmarks suggest repeated visits; an open tab is something to be visited at least once, but not known to be worth keeping a link to.
- eitland 7y ago
  Seeing things in context. Multi tasking (each task can easily have a good number of tasks open)
aliceryhl 7y ago
It's weird, I keep seeing people complain about the memory usage and it being slow, but I've literally never experienced any of these kinds of issues, and I have 80 tabs open right now. Are you using some weird plugin or what?
- eitland 7y ago
  It is dependent on machine, OS and what plugins are installed. I'm fairly certain I used to have hundreds of tabs open back in the old Firefox with even less lag than I see today.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    I'm pretty sure it depends a lot on profile cruft too.
- SkyMarshal 7y ago
  I do have a bunch of plugins installed, is there any way to profile them and see if any of them are the culprit? (Ubuntu 18.04)
vsareto 7y ago
If people are so concerned about tab performance, why not use the history pane?

mqus 7y ago

I'm using firefox and am currently at over ~20 Tabs (TreestyleTab makes this easy ;), usually I have more) with ~600MB mem usage on a 8GB machine. I care about the feature but i don't see any reason to switch away from Firefox for it...

webmobdev 7y ago
What exactly is the thought process behind having so many tabs open? For example, I close tabs when I am done with a site and / or when I can't read the site title on the tabs any more.
- dx87 7y ago
  My wife leaves all of her tabs open, but it's not for any specific reason. If she opens a new tab and goes to a website, the browser will just switch to the tab that's already on that website instead of fetching the website again.
  - webmobdev 7y ago
    > ... the browser will just switch to the tab that's already on that website ... Which browser?
    - eppsilon 7y ago
      Safari does this
    - Drdrdrq 7y ago
      Firefox has that feature (configurable).
- CathedralBorrow 7y ago
  > For example, I close tabs when I am done with a site I also do this, but my definition of done is very flexible and blurry.

globalproctd 7y ago

OP here on this comment chain. I'm a front end and back end developer that uses multiple libraries and tech stacks and need to find answers to stuff immediately. I leave them open as a resource while I'm working, which may be on multiple things at once. In addition, I have mail, messaging, music, and other work-related things open in the browser. It's really one of the only features that matters.