Compare for example Azureus and BitComet! Azureus is a Java application, which runs in a virtual machine called JRE so the usage of lots of memory is justified. It practically uses a second “OS” in which runs Azureus! BitComet on the other hand is a native Win32 application, it doesn’t need the second “OS” thus it uses less memory.

The same thing goes for .NET and pure Win32 apps! If I had more experience I could point out other comparisons…

And yes, Firefox as a VM application should have a garbage collector as most of other VMs do!
And extension programmers should be taught how to use such features!

It’s kinda’ sad to see all these people whine about something they don’t understand!

Why do people whine when they get it for free? Should Mozilla charge us for using their browser so that people can justify their whining?

If you wanna help… start debugging!

Use the Memory Leak extension and run your browser in SafeMode, extensionless visiting the same sites that usually cause the high RAM/VM, CPU usage or crash. Majority of the leaks are with the extensions as Yaa101 pointed out correctly.

Re #10 Yaa101: Even if that is really the cause, it does not help. I have to use some extensions to get a decent browsing experience and I have to view web pages that other people create (with java or flash or whatever).

At least there should be a “Garbage collect” button in Firefox that restarts the flash plugin, the java engine, and cleans up all “cached” pages and any other stuff without forcing a restart (and, yes, I know about the possibility to restart with a saved session in ff2 or with an extension for ff1.5).

Maybe someone wants to write a (leaking) extension for that? ;-)

FF extensions should be responsible for cleaning themselves up yes, but if I close a webpage, and it doesn’t close it’s even handlers, then FF should do it. Anything else is akin to your OS running out of RAM when programs quit without freeing memory. This is a bug.

Also from time to time there are memory leaks and regression bugs in Firefox itself, mainly with alphas and betas.

Leak Monitor is an extension that tells you what caused a memory leak and where in the code. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2490/

How do I know this? I am a Firefox extension developer.

At work I regularly have to restart Firefox for this exact issue, and I’ve tried setting the cache values and even then it doesn’t seem to help much.

And not just memory… also CPU. After being turned on for over a week, Firefox was really bogging down my computer. I closed all but one window and one tab, and it was still using over half of my CPU (a 2.8Ghz celery). I closed Firefox, and my CPU usage plummeted to nothing. This is not a feature, or a poorly configured option… this is a bug.

The nails left in your flowerbed after the roofer gave you a new roof are just one of the better features that said roofer offers over competitors.

I’m trying out both settings right now.

When people can’t “see” something, they often credit it as a “myth” or “mischief”.

I’ll give you a perfect example of what I mean. With Firefox, people obviously don’t understand where that extra memory consumption comes from because it looks and feels exactly the same as it’s 1.50 version (for the most part).

However, with iTunes 7, everyone understands why it consumes more memory because it has those “eye-candy” features, therefore they don’t question the extra horse-power it needs nor brand it as a bug, unlike what happens with Firefox.

This is just a tweak to fix an unwanted high use of memory, nothing more, nothing less. It’s far from a debunk of a myth.