No, the reason why browsers use so much RAM is because every tab is it’s own process and sandbox. That and lazy handling of content.
Comment on Give an inch take an inch
dan@upvote.au 1 day ago
Unused RAM is wasted RAM. Apps like Chrome use available RAM if it’s available, but they should be releasing it for other apps to use when there’s high memory pressure.
It’s the same with disk caching. If you have a lot of free RAM, the OS will use all of it for caching files.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
dan@upvote.au 20 hours ago
Sandboxing does use some RAM, but it was a big win for security. One site can’t crash the entire browser or use a security hole to get access to data on other tabs. Still, the majority of the RAM is taken by the site itself. The processes do share some RAM - they’re not entirely isolated.
Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
my problem with certain programs, chrome included, is they tell the os “no, you can’t have this ram back. i’m using it”
i understand the logic of your argument, but it’s never played out in life
dan@upvote.au 1 day ago
In some cases, the RAM actually is in use by the site. That’s especially the case on sites with heavy client-side logic. In that case, it’s not Chrome’s (or Firefox’s) fault, it’s the website’s fault.
Chrome has a “Memory Saver” feature where it’ll unload tabs that are offscreen/hidden which helps quite a bit. Not sure if Firefox has something similar.
TheFriendlyDickhead@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Not sure if it’s included in base firefox, but I use a extension that does exactly that