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Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

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Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8GB of RAM is about $50 right now. If you have to replace that every $2 years, are you really complaining about the cost of $25 per year on your $1,000 computer system? It's a rounding error. Chrome, in particular, is generally be used for far more tabs (I have like 30 open right now on a MacBook Air) and increasingly complex web sites every year. It's easy to look at memory usage and complain, but the fact is that o…

It's not about the money, it's about the complete disregard of quality. The applications we create should only use the resources they need.

If hogging lots of RAM makes my program legitimately run better, then that's what it should do! Chrome runs a process per domain (or something like that) for security and stability reasons. That adds a lot of overhead for lots of tabs. But that's OK because there's actually a reason for using all that RAM.

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#202
post #10

OneTab developer here: thanks for all your suggestions, I'll be working on them :) A few FAQs: 1. The OneTab tab persists even if you close your web browser. 2. If you ever close your OneTab tab, this doesn't lose your tabs. You can always get it back by clicking the blue extension icon. 3. Your tabs are never sent to our servers unless you press the button to 'share as a web page'.

Does it only store the GET information or will it store a POST search request as well?

It stores the URLs of your open tabs, including any GET requests. It does not store POST data.

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#203
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, no. If you've got all those tabs open and you're flitting between their contents, it's appropriate. It's not the wrong way to use the tool, it's a way to use it that's perfectly appropriate in some cases. There's no reason I should be fighting against my browser because my optimal workflow causes it to chew through memory!

no. when number of open tabs < 10-20, yes sure, but when that number reaches 100, your doing it all wrong. Its not about how much memory it consumes, that's irrelevant, if you need more memory just go to crucial.com, it's dirt cheap. Its about using the tools properly.

I can't argue the position for this workflow better than I already have. I refute the idea that I'm "doing it all wrong". No, I'm not and this was the only efficient way to get what I needed to do done.

My laptop's motherboard can't handle more than 8GB, so I don't even have the option of putting more RAM in it as it already has 8GB. Also, I shouldn't have to keep throwing in memory to handle applications whose coders feel it is fine and dandy to gobble memory with reckless abandon. Why should I bear the financial cost of a poorly designed application?

I'm most certainly using my tools properly whether you agree or not. I'm not bitching about 5,000 tabs causing excessive memory usage, I'm complaining about 100 which is not that many during research that requires going from page to page, or opening lots of links without having to remember where I was at in each part of my stack; I've got less working memory than my computer!

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#204
post #10

OneTab developer here: thanks for all your suggestions, I'll be working on them :) A few FAQs: 1. The OneTab tab persists even if you close your web browser. 2. If you ever close your OneTab tab, this doesn't lose your tabs. You can always get it back by clicking the blue extension icon. 3. Your tabs are never sent to our servers unless you press the button to 'share as a web page'.

In what scenarios can I lose my list? What happens if I click it, close it's list tab, open some new tabs and click it again? Does the old list get overwritten? Is there any way to get it back?

You will never lose your list. If you store multiple sets of tabs, they will appear as "tab groups" in OneTab.

If you accidentally close your OneTab tab, it will reappear when you click the blue extension icon or when you restart your web browser.

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#206

This is the equivalent of closing all tabs, with the added bonus of having a list of what you just closed. I refuse to compromise on functionality because Chrome can't get its memory deal together.

Compromise on functionality? Too many tabs is a usability problem in Chrome. This just provides additional functionality.

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#207

Isn't 95% reduction claim a bit too bold? It is widely known that standard measurement of Google Chrome's memory consumption with task manager is wrong because it doesn't take data sharing between processes into consideration. How was the 95% figure produced?

chrome://memory-redirect/

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#208
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way you could effectively work with 100 tabs open, and that is surely a smell for inefficiency. For any given task, 5 tabs is probably reaching the upper limit on what's actually _required_, with around 10 being the upper limit. Granted, you could have multiple tasks ongoing in parallel, but are you really working in parallel at that point? If not, save the tabs and return to them later. I really doubt you…

If the majority of people are using a tool in a particular way, it becomes the tool's responsibility to meet that need effectively. Just because you didn't anticipate the ways that real people would use your technology doesn't mean you get assuage responsibility for its shortcomings because you didn't foresee them.

I'd argue that a majority of users aren't running with 100+ tabs open, though.

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#209
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. My PC, which needs replacing, only has 2GB of memory, because that's what the motherboard supports.

That doesn't make sense. Motherboard usually support a certain number of memory sticks. You probably have 2x1GB sticks, you can upgrade by replacing them rather than adding additional sticks. You probably do still have a 32bit system so you're still capped at 4GB of useful memory. I'd still upgrade my system if I were you.

1. The memory controller will impose its own limit, which may be less than you'd think.

2. The form factor may also impose a limit. You won't find a DDR stick larger than 1GB, for example.

Of course, if either of those were the cause of a 2GB limit, then you could make the case that the whole system should be upgraded, but that's a lot more expensive than a couple of sticks of RAM.

Re: Show HN: Save Memory in Google Chrome

#210
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no way you could effectively work with 100 tabs open, and that is surely a smell for inefficiency. For any given task, 5 tabs is probably reaching the upper limit on what's actually _required_, with around 10 being the upper limit. Granted, you could have multiple tasks ongoing in parallel, but are you really working in parallel at that point? If not, save the tabs and return to them later. I really doubt you…

What can I say? It worked for me. I was doing a lot of research and things I'd read would lead to more searches of tangential topics that I'd want to revisit in the coming hours. This method of working fit my mental model and I was flitting between tabs as necessary, not just opening them up with the hope that I'd read them sometime . Also, if I need to click on a whole bunch of links that I know I'm immediately goin…

Originally you explained the problem as if you always had 100+ tabs open, but now it sounds like an occasional occurrence. I was mainly speaking to if you always had 100+ open -- as if that was your normal workflow.

I do understand at times you want to open many more than that for a limited time, but those situations (at least in my experience) are typically very short-lived and don't represent my ordinary common usage pattern.

[and yes, smell is supposed to invoke that reaction! a code "smell", or process "smell", etc. is something that stinks, and it should disgust you, and you should work to clean up the 'smell' ASAP! :)]

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