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Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

areweslimyet.com

61–70 of 101 posts

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#61
post #19

"Do i look fat?" It's a trap! If we say 'No' then the bloat continues. And if we say 'Yes you're fat' she runs away crying. And the bloat still continues. Honestly, Yes. You're still fat. But some progress has been made. Keep going. Stop when you hear the first complaint about too skinny.

You mean, like "my systems have 16GB of RAM - I want Firefox to use as much memory as possible to speed up my experience."?

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#62
post #16
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in the FAQ https://areweslimyet.com/faq.htm#how-is-this-data-generated

Actually, even that just used the Acronym without explanation. I missed the link in the 'answer though'. So 'after TP5' means after loading a manually curated list based on the top 500 web pages? Huh, in that case I'm impressed with how Firefox has improved.

Yeah, I don't know what the "P" in "TP" stands for. Maybe "pageset". "T" is for "Talos". It's version 5. Or at least, the previous one was TP4 -- I don't know if there was a TP3. :)

> So 'after TP5' means after loading a manually curated list based on the top 500 web pages?

Yes. TP5 is a list of 100 pages (based on Alexa 500, I believe, but I'm not sure), and we load the pages 5 times in 30 tabs.

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#63
post #57
post #36

I'm just hoping slimming down memory usage won't go at the expense of speed... my systems have 16GB of RAM - I want Firefox to use as much memory as possible to speed up my experience. So if slimming down FF will make my disk trash more, that's the wrong direction to take.

In an age when most computers come with 4+ GB of RAM, I think people focus too much on memory. Of course there are older computers, but their OS should be using comparably less RAM. WinXP takes up 100 MB at login, so if you only have 1 GB on an older computer, you should still have no problem running modern Firefox. And if you only have 512 MB, it's probably time to upgrade since the web experience that a modern brow…

But why do our computers have to come with 4GB+ of RAM, when 1GB might suffice? It's an circular argument to claim that it's OK to use lots of RAM simply because the computer comes with lots of RAM.

After a manufacturer begrudgingly provides the RAM that developers refuse to conserve, we shouldn't then use the presence of this additional RAM to use even more.

Your friend's anger at application waste is justified. Witness new devices like the iPad that survive with much less RAM than a desktop -- just 512MB, which happens to be enough to support an excellent browser.

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#64
post #23
post #10

Not yet, but getting there. Also the bazillion extension that exist for Firefox are not really helping. A "task manager" to be able to keep on eye on all extensions memory consumption (and be able to kill the extension from the browser) should really be helpful.

Try about:memory, it's pretty good.

I have around ~30 tabs open for a total 900mb of memory and it says Javascript is 55% of that. That is crazy.

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#66
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still have a way to go to hit "pretty." Sadly, it's a lot harder to measure than "fast" or "slim". I wish I had the language to describe why Safari's font rendering is so much better than Firefox's; it's "visually obvious", but I just don't have the vocabulary or expertise to analyze.

There are many articles about Safari's font rendering, here is one: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html I think it's more accurate to say that it's different , whether or not it is better seems to be a matter of preference and priorities.

I think the parent is talking about the difference in rendering between Firefox and Safari on OS X, not between Windows and OS X.

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#67
post #60
post #36

I'm just hoping slimming down memory usage won't go at the expense of speed... my systems have 16GB of RAM - I want Firefox to use as much memory as possible to speed up my experience. So if slimming down FF will make my disk trash more, that's the wrong direction to take.

> So if slimming down FF will make my disk trash more, > that's the wrong direction to take. We explicitly don't want to cause this. When we reduce the number of nodes in the live object graph, our garbage collector and cycle collector run faster. This results in shorter stop-the-world pauses when we collect. This isn't the only thing we've done as part of MemShrink, of course, but it's an example of how reducing mem…

I'll repost nnethercote's article on the consequences of memory reductions, it's a classic: https://blog.mozilla.com/nnethercote/2012/02/08/the-benefits...

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#68
post #59
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a specialist on that stuff, but I note the "will". If they have launched and noticed actual improvements, I'll be interested.

nnethercote on the other hand is the "specialist" as he is in charge of the MemShrink project itself... I would trust him on this stuff.

OK, but the developers of Mozilla are specialists, too. Why not trust them? Or is nnethercote part of the Mozilla dev team? MemShrink will hopefully just be merged into the core?

Re: Mozilla: Are We Slim Yet?

#69
post #68
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nnethercote on the other hand is the "specialist" as he is in charge of the MemShrink project itself... I would trust him on this stuff.

OK, but the developers of Mozilla are specialists, too. Why not trust them? Or is nnethercote part of the Mozilla dev team? MemShrink will hopefully just be merged into the core?

He's part of the Mozilla dev team. Memshrink isn't a branch that's waiting to get merged, but an ongoing program to reduce overall memory usage.
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