11935 - Mozilla is a memory hog.

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core Graveyard :: Tracking, defect, P3)

Description

[watersa]

I think this is constructive criticism, so please read on:

According to my observations, Mozilla (I have build 1999081108) occupies about
20 MB of memory when executed (via apprunner).  Is there some way to cut down on
this large amount of memory usage?  As I understand it, (under Windows) unused
DLLs/components will be swapped out to disk until they're needed, but this is
still a LOT of memory and can thrash a computer.  What about people with 16 MB
of physical RAM and a 540 MB hard drive?

I will do a bit more research and possibly test Mozilla memory usage under
Linux.

Comment 1

[Daniel Roberts]

I am noticing similar results here with Linux...  First of all, a couple of
hints/suggestions before we run wild with this:

1) Is your build stripped, or does it have all the debug symbols?

2) Is it an optimized build?

I do agree Mozilla is probably not as optimal in memory use as it ideally ought
to be though; I have a Pentium 200 MMX with 128 megs of RAM, and 128 megs of
virtual memory, and Mozilla + GDB is *still* not satisfied; it quickly exhausts
all 256 megs...  Other browsers, like Opera, or like Gzilla (www.gzilla.com)
give *much* more bang for the buck, IMHO.

Just like the original reporter, I am not meaning this as a putdown of Mozilla;
I just think Mozilla could be better, and I do think this is a question that is
worth investigating at some point.  Right now though, I think we should
concentrate on getting *something* released, as there is much talk that Mozilla
has not yet produced any public results.

Comment 2

[chris hofmann]

there are plans to look at optimization in this area
later in the project.

Comment 3

[leger]

Setting QA contact.

Comment 4

[sarnold]

I too wonder about mozilla's memory effeciency; after my mozilla has been
running for three days, doing only moderate web browsing, it is using 85
megabytes of memory on my Linux system.

I normally don't have more than about six windows open; normally only about two
windows. So, I find it a little hard to believe that 85 megs was ever in use at
one time. (I realize that memory free()d is not reclaimed by my operating
system, but It Seems To Me That future mallac() calls are not reusing free()d
memory as one would hope. Is there a problem with the malloc library?)

Thanks :)

Comment 5

[Kevin Berkheiser]

I am adding the Beta2 Keyword so this can be avaluated as a Beta 2 Item.

Many people notieced a 3 or 4 fold increase in memory allocation in the Netscape
6 Beta (and of course we notice it in the Mozilla daily and Milestone builds)
over Netscapes current released product.

Something needs to be done.  It would not surprise me if this memory allocation
problem was also related to some of the performance problems.

Comment 6

[Dawn Endico]

reassigning jevering's old bugs to jar for adoption or to
find them a new home

Comment 7

[Jim Roskind]

I know that waterson is looking at memory... so I'm passing it to him to land
where it will be helpful.

Comment 8

[Chris Waterson]

This bug is just too general to be useful. I'm going to mark INVALID, even
though it's not really invalid. There is ongoing work happening to reduce
footprint size. I'm sure this work will continue indefinitely.

Comment 9

[Blake Ross]

vrfy invalid, bug's far too general

Comment 10

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/911ec66584b5
[fenix] For https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11935 - Move BrowserThumbnails to BrowserFragment.