196

16745 readers

2252 users here now

Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.

Rule: You must post before you leave.

^other^ ^rules^

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

767

firefox rule (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

124 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Unused RAM is wasted RAM. It consumes the exact same amount of power whether there's useful data in it or not. Any self-respecting operating system will fill up RAM that applications aren't using with frequently accessed files, so they're ready to go in an instant.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I think that's precisely why limiting RAM on apps like Chrome or Firefox is so necessary, these apps never release their RAM when they are supposed to, they hoard anything that isn't free and don't give back when it's needed, which is why in the reply to the top comment I shared a desktop entry to limit RAM on Firefox or whatever app you so choose.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Oh, I totally agree. Being afraid to call out to the allocator because "hey, I might need that memory later" is kinda not great. To a certain extent I can see how if an application tends to thrash memory, making a kajillion syscalls might hurt performance, enough that on many machines the gains from doing a single big allocation on the system and then slicing it up into small allocations in-process might outweigh the downsides, but still...