Memory Use For Popular Firefox Addons
June 23rd, 2007 by admin
Firefox is getting a lot of negative reviews regarding the memory use. The truth is that not the browser itself causes the problems. The add-ons we all learn to love and use on a daily bases are badly written and use memory without to much constrains. With the new generation of computers you might thing memory is not an issue anymore, but that alone is not a good reason to ignore the memory issues.
Some of the popular extensions are starting to offer real improvements when it comes to this but some off them still use a bit too much. An old computer or a laptop can really get a boost of performance if some of the extensions are disabled.
If you really need something to use from time to time don’t be lazy and use the enable / disable buttons.
This list of Top 10 Firefox Extensions shows the memory usage of Firefox in a clean environment with no other add-ons activated.
Short Report
Clean Firefox ~ 21.7K
1.VideoDownloader Enabled ~ 22.09K
2.Addblock Plus Enabled ~ 22.15K
3.No Script Enabled ~ 22.22K
4.Flash Got ~ 22.01K
5.Download Status Bar ~ 23.08 K
6.IE Tab ~ 22.8K
7.DownthemAll ~ 26K
8.ForecastFox ~ 23.02K
9.Pdf Download ~ 23.4K
10.GreaseMonkey ~ 23K
–
11.Download Manager ~ 25.04K
12.Foxy Tunes ~ 23.16K
13.TabMixPlus ~ 23.9K
14.Google toolbar ~ 27.33k
Long Report
No Addons Clean Firefox Memory USE
Firefox with VideoDownloader Enabled
Firefox with Addblock Plus
Firefox with NoScript
Firefox With FlashGot
Flash with download statusbar
Firefox with IE Tab
Firefox with DownThemAll
Firefox with Forecast
Firefox with Pdf Download
Firefox with Greasemonkey
Firefox with Download Manager
Firefox with Foxy Tunes
Firefox with TabMixPlus
Firefox with GoogleToolbar
There is really now way to monitor how extensions work and how they take care of memory management after they start but a glimpse of the memory usage when the browser start can give you a heads up.
So remember, always monitor ( enable /disable ) new extensions you install in order to track the memory and overall performances of your browser.
You really need to modify the memory values in your “short report” table. The table should be reporting the amount of memory used as megabytes, not kilobytes. For example, the first screen capture shows a clean instance of Firefox using 21,756 K. Your table lists the same instance as 21.7 K, rather than 21.7 M. Technically, it would even be a little off from this, as 1 M = 1024 K, within the operating system, so technically this should read roughly 21.2 M (21,756/1,024=21.2461). The rest of the entries in the table should be adjusted likewise.