well if they starting doing a new major version every 6 weeks I think its unreasonable to expect extension dev's to keep up with that very fast, they are after all mostly provided for free in people's own time.
here is a screenshot of some memory usage for FF4, 9 tabs loaded idle for a day and half. Also 2nd showing addons installed.
9 tabs in that window, and if I'm seeing things right, 29 Firefox windows open at the same time as well. If that is what I am seeing, small wonder Firefox is using ~1.5 GB of memory.
I think you are expecting far too much from FF (or any other browser). If some people merely leave their browser open for a day and a half with one tab it eaither consumes memory like cookies and milk, or crashes.
The number of tabs and the length of time is more the problem and just to be thorough I tried the same number of tabs on FF 3.6, IE 8, and 9, and some version of Chrome, and after 2 days of wasted idle time the other broswers (especially 3.6.16) exebit the same problem.
no its the only firefox window.
the firefox icons on the taskbar are on this system, different firefox
you will see that task manager is inside the remote desktop.
on this system with all those windows and over 200 tabs and many days uptime ff3.6 is only using 624meg ram which is quite efficient although it is using the bartab addon.
IE9 was left open for the same duration and is still open now not restarted, you can see the processes below the firefox one. one 250 meg + 2x 25 meg + 65 meg. for 17 tabs in 2 IE windows. I tuned IE to improve gdi handle resource usage but the tuning has little affect on ram usage, the tuning I did was to set tabprocgrowth to 1 so each session only has 1 process for all tabs (IE7 behaviour) still seperated process for gui tho so protected mode works. I also start each IE window with -nomerge so thats why 4 processes for 2 windows.
I agree all browsers leak memory but not to the extenct I am seeing with FF4. 9 tabs is nothing very low usage. None of them are multimedia either no flash stuff loaded.
Adons are the primary source of both memory leaks and usage. I use a set of abt 15 and wouldnt trade them for anything.
In 3.6 with my usual tabs and duration FF 3.6.16 will grow to abt 600 Megs, when I launch 4.01, or for that matter 6.01a (since im testing it) they each use the same ad-dons are open the same duration and use below 400 Megs.
So I guess each individual system is different and frankly I dont care if FF uses 4 gigs. You couldnt force me to use IE, and without the skins and addons it would just be another browser.
my worst memory leak when it used over 2 gig in 12 hours uptime was without any addons on, its actually been more moderate since then. I am not trying to make you use IE or anything else :) just reporting the behaviour here I am seeing. That FF4 was installed clean, iniitally no addons, massive memory leak, since then installed the addons and had more memory leaks. The ff4 is mainly untuned with a few privacy options tuned for cookies and thats about it. So I havent tuned things that reduce ram usage, I may do some tuning on it and report back any improvements as by default I know firefox is tuned for high ram usage. However it really shouldnt be increasing ram usage whilst sitting idle. Also all those addons are on my ff3.6 install, the ff3.6 has more on top of that as well.
I agree on each system been different, which is what makes tracking down the source of bugs diffilcult.
There is a tool for beta testers and developers to help track down leaks. Might want to check. I cant tell you where and what due to a non disclosure agreement.
why would they limit sharing of such a useful tool? seems counter productive.
