No, it's the browsers. Check how much memory they commit and how much is actually resident. Firefox often commits 2x more memory than it is actually using.
I disagree, there is low-hanging fruit Firefox is leaving on the table. The main thing that comes to mind is tab unloading. They don't unload tabs automatically like chrome can.
I was pleasantly surprised at the tab unloading settings under "memory saver" in ungoogled-chromium.
I believe that Firefox does it but not as frequently as Chrome does, but don't quote me on it. However, I am using a "tab suspender" addon on firefox to control how fast the unloading happens on tabs that are not active.
Browsers still have a lot of memory usage on their own.
I am running Arch Linux here. When I boot my machine into a full desktop environment it uses 1.1 GB of memory total, for everything.
If I open Firefox, it in itself uses about 1.3 GB to have Firefox open with just HackerNews in 1 tab. I have no extensions except uBlock Origin.
And it’s the applications using web browsers as their UI kit that are the worst offenders in my experience.
No, it's the browsers. Check how much memory they commit and how much is actually resident. Firefox often commits 2x more memory than it is actually using.
I disagree, there is low-hanging fruit Firefox is leaving on the table. The main thing that comes to mind is tab unloading. They don't unload tabs automatically like chrome can.
I was pleasantly surprised at the tab unloading settings under "memory saver" in ungoogled-chromium.
Firefox unloads tabs under memory pressure since more than 4 years: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2021/10/tab-unloading-in-firefox-9...
Firefox has been unloading tabs for several months or so (at least on nightly).
I believe that Firefox does it but not as frequently as Chrome does, but don't quote me on it. However, I am using a "tab suspender" addon on firefox to control how fast the unloading happens on tabs that are not active.