Tried to switch from Firefox to Chrome, but can't

[Asharus]

I'm one of those users who have 30-60 tabs open, and sync tabs/bookmarks/etc across multiple PCs and Macs. This is the reason why I've been stuck with FF, since doing so is seamless. I do hate how youtube stutters sometimes on FF and wanted to switch to a "lighter/faster" browser so I gave Chrome a shot, especially with the propaganda I read this morning about how they surpassed IE as the most used browser.

Well, here's the problem. I started moving/opening the tabs from my FF to Chrome, but halfway through, (about 30 tabs), Chrome was already up to 1.9GB of memory used, and FF was down to 300k. I remember back in the day when FF was young, we had an extension that did not load inactive tabs until you click it (now it is built-in). Chrome likes to load every single tab even if you're not using it.

I searched for an extension that can do this but was unsuccessful. So, my question to you Chrome users. How do you go about using this browser, even with its huge defect of having a separate chrome.exe for EACH AND EVERY SINGLE TAB? Or better yet, is there an extension that can help me?

 

[theevilsharpie]

There is no way to do this in Chrome. Chromium allows you to use the '--single-process' command-line argument to run inside a single process, but it's rather buggy.

Chrome's multi-process architecture has numerous advantages, but low memory usage is not one of them. If Chrome's memory usage is a problem for you, Firefox would better suit your needs.

 

[Raghu]

Opera handles ~100 tabs easily on my system with 2GB RAM.

 

[EagleKeeper]

What is the justification of having 10-20 tabs open at a time.
Are you doing so little mutli-tasking that you only spend an average of 3-4 minutes an hour on each tab.

 

[pyonir]

What is the justification of having 10-20 tabs open at a time.
Are you doing so little mutli-tasking that you only spend an average of 3-4 minutes an hour on each tab.

I never got that either. Nearly all the time I have one tab open, maybe two. I use bookmarks...that's what they are there for.

 

[sswingle]

I usually run 4 or 5. I couldn't imagine it being any more productive to have 30 tabs open. Thats more sites than I normally use in an entire day...

 

[lxskllr]

What is the justification of having 10-20 tabs open at a time.
Are you doing so little mutli-tasking that you only spend an average of 3-4 minutes an hour on each tab.

My baseline is about 13 tabs, and goes up from there. If I'm looking something up, I'll keep a few related tabs open so I can crosscheck between them. I also use them as temporary bookmarks so I don't clutter up my bookmark menu. I may want them for a few days, but don't want to save them forever. I'd rather keep a few extra tabs open than have to delete a bunch of bookmarks when I'm finished.

 

[Nothinman]

How do you go about using this browser, even with its huge defect of having a separate chrome.exe for EACH AND EVERY SINGLE TAB? Or better yet, is there an extension that can help me?

It's not a defect, it's a feature and it doesn't carry the overhead that you think it does because of how child processes are forked and modern OSes share and manage memory.

What is the justification of having 10-20 tabs open at a time.
Are you doing so little mutli-tasking that you only spend an average of 3-4 minutes an hour on each tab.

I generally start with 5 or so that I keep open all of the time. Thing like Google Reader and forums that I frequent and will come back to whenever I have free time. I leave those open for weeks or months at a time. And as I read articles, google for things I'm working on, etc that number can go up quite quickly.

 

[gmaster456]

My baseline is about 13 tabs, and goes up from there. If I'm looking something up, I'll keep a few related tabs open so I can crosscheck between them. I also use them as temporary bookmarks so I don't clutter up my bookmark menu. I may want them for a few days, but don't want to save them forever. I'd rather keep a few extra tabs open than have to delete a bunch of bookmarks when I'm finished.

This is what I do as well. And I usually keep the same browser session open for a few days at a time.

 

[Asharus]

My baseline is about 13 tabs, and goes up from there. If I'm looking something up, I'll keep a few related tabs open so I can crosscheck between them. I also use them as temporary bookmarks so I don't clutter up my bookmark menu. I may want them for a few days, but don't want to save them forever. I'd rather keep a few extra tabs open than have to delete a bunch of bookmarks when I'm finished.

^ This is why I use tabs.

It's not a defect, it's a feature and it doesn't carry the overhead that you think it does because of how child processes are forked and modern OSes share and manage memory.



I generally start with 5 or so that I keep open all of the time. Thing like Google Reader and forums that I frequent and will come back to whenever I have free time. I leave those open for weeks or months at a time. And as I read articles, google for things I'm working on, etc that number can go up quite quickly.

^ This is what happens to me as well

Question to you sir, do you use Chrome? If so, do you have any suggestions on how to keep it from using so much memory? If like you're saying it's not a defect and using 2gb of memory is acceptable, is there an extension that will only load tabs when you click them, instead of trying to load every single tab at startup?

 

[sm625]

When doing my weekly stock chart analysis for 401k, I can easily have 100 tabs open. I open all 30 DOW components on both the weekly and daily charts. I open 20 major world indices, and the top 30 mutual funds. So thats over 100 right there. Usually I am just looking at each chart for a split second so it is nice to have them all open and loaded so I can scan and close each one. Opera does this flawlessly.

 

[Nothinman]

Question to you sir, do you use Chrome? If so, do you have any suggestions on how to keep it from using so much memory? If like you're saying it's not a defect and using 2gb of memory is acceptable, is there an extension that will only load tabs when you click them, instead of trying to load every single tab at startup?

Yes, on several Linux boxes and my phone. How do you know it's using 2G? It's very hard to count shared memory with the use of virtual memory.

 

[Remobz]

I never keep more than 7 tabs open at any one time. I must be the odd man out here?

 

[Asharus]

when u right click on the tab bar in chrome, then task manager, then stats for nerds on the bottom left, it shows the amount of memory each browser is running. for example, i have firefox running at 974k right now (65 tabs), IE 9 with 1 tab at 35k and chrome with 1 tab at 158k

chrome may still be viable for me, which is why i ask if there's a way to "not load tabs unless selected" which is an option built into firefox.

 

[jkroeder]

There's this but I can't say if it works well or at all. Haven't tried it myself.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amigcgbheognjmfkaieeeadojiibgbdp

As far as I can tell, it works like a bookmarking system though since history isn't saved with "Suspended tabs". The sites are basically reloaded when you bring them back.

 

[0roo0roo]

its not a defect, it makes it more stable, the task manager in chrome lets you figure out which tab is misbehaving.

you have to use a different tab strategy, there is tab snooze which sleeps tabs for X days to lower the active tabs, and too many tabs for others.
tab menu is one thing you have to add for a drop down menu of tabs though to be more like firefox.

shift+esc is faster way to reach task manager in chrome.

firefox does have better tab grouping feature built in though, i dunno, i use both.

 

[ringtail]

Firefox (formerly partially was Neoplanet, which I used for several years) is MUCH better than Chrome anyway.

Don't get misdirected by trends and loudmouths.

Firefox just works better,

Use its good plugins - fewer the better
(As it happens (I'm not recommeding), I use extensions: AdBlock Plus, DivX Plus Web Player HTML5, Flashgot, IE Tab 2, Image Zoom, MD5 Reborned Hasher, Anti-Banner, Kaspersky URL Advisor, Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard, Torbutton and Vacuumed Places Improved) but suit your own needs & preferences, FEWER THE BETTER!

I use the plugins that JUST HAPPENED BY DEFAULT, I DON'T REACH OUT TO ADD ANY= Mcrosoft Office, DivXPlus Web Player, DivX VOD Helper, IE Tab Plugin, Java Development toolkit, Java platform, PSF-XChange viewer, Shockwave Flash, Silverlight, VLC)

Back all up using the free MozBackup.

Heard the trendiness so tried Chrome, but after a few months went home to Firefox.

Since Fierfox is PLAINLYjust better overall, and probably FASTER too, it's hard to see what's pushing people into Chrome except $$$ behind Google. Trending into evildome like MS? YES!.

 

[Nothinman]

Firefox (formerly partially was Neoplanet, which I used for several years) is MUCH better than Chrome anyway.

Don't get misdirected by trends and loudmouths.

Firefox just works better,

Use its good plugins - fewer the better
(As it happens (I'm not recommeding), I use extensions: AdBlock Plus, DivX Plus Web Player HTML5, Flashgot, IE Tab 2, Image Zoom, MD5 Reborned Hasher, Anti-Banner, Kaspersky URL Advisor, Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard, Torbutton and Vacuumed Places Improved) but suit your own needs & preferences, FEWER THE BETTER!

I use the plugins that JUST HAPPENED BY DEFAULT, I DON'T REACH OUT TO ADD ANY= Mcrosoft Office, DivXPlus Web Player, DivX VOD Helper, IE Tab Plugin, Java Development toolkit, Java platform, PSF-XChange viewer, Shockwave Flash, Silverlight, VLC)

Back all up using the free MozBackup.

Heard the trendiness so tried Chrome, but after a few months went home to Firefox.

Since Fierfox is PLAINLYjust better overall, and probably FASTER too, it's hard to see what's pushing people into Chrome except $$$ behind Google. Trending into evildome like MS? YES!.

I use Chrome daily and don't really like FF anymore, so my experience says just the opposite.

 

[gevorg]

I do hate how youtube stutters sometimes on FF

have you tried youtube.com/html5 ?

 

[Asharus]

There's this but I can't say if it works well or at all. Haven't tried it myself.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amigcgbheognjmfkaieeeadojiibgbdp

As far as I can tell, it works like a bookmarking system though since history isn't saved with "Suspended tabs". The sites are basically reloaded when you bring them back.

yeah i tried this and it didnt do what i needed it to do (not automatically try to load every tab on startup)

have you tried youtube.com/html5 ?

yep i've been running html5 for a while now, and it is better

 

[Asharus]

I've finally been able to switch with the arrival of http://www.one-tab.com/

Quick question for Chrome vets. When I clicked on a bookmark in my bookmark bar in Firefox while I have a pinned tab in focus (like gmail), it will automatically open in a new tab and not attempt to go to that bookmark with the pinned tab. I know I can middle mouse click my scroll wheel to open it in a new tab, but is there a setting that can be changed?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

As for the stuttering issue, I have never seen it. I'd try to update your video drivers and uninstall/reinstall flash. It could be a problem with your video card also.

I'm one of those users who have 30-60 tabs open, and sync tabs/bookmarks/etc across multiple PCs and Macs. This is the reason why I've been stuck with FF, since doing so is seamless. I do hate how youtube stutters sometimes on FF and wanted to switch to a "lighter/faster" browser so I gave Chrome a shot, especially with the propaganda I read this morning about how they surpassed IE as the most used browser.

Well, here's the problem. I started moving/opening the tabs from my FF to Chrome, but halfway through, (about 30 tabs), Chrome was already up to 1.9GB of memory used, and FF was down to 300k. I remember back in the day when FF was young, we had an extension that did not load inactive tabs until you click it (now it is built-in). Chrome likes to load every single tab even if you're not using it.

I searched for an extension that can do this but was unsuccessful. So, my question to you Chrome users. How do you go about using this browser, even with its huge defect of having a separate chrome.exe for EACH AND EVERY SINGLE TAB? Or better yet, is there an extension that can help me?

 

[Asharus]

I saw this youtube stutter issue last night when I was moving all my tabs from firefox to chrome at home. youtube was stuttering on FF, meanwhile when i moved the tab to chrome, it was fine. it doesnt seem like a hardware related video problem, and im always on the latest geforce drivers/adobe software. I think it may have to do with how firefox handles its cache. a common resolution to it seems to be clearing the cache.

 

[Remobz]

I usually run 4 or 5. I couldn't imagine it being any more productive to have 30 tabs open. Thats more sites than I normally use in an entire day...

Exactly!

30 is completely insane

 

[pcslookout]

I currently have 93 tabs open in Firefox.