Firefox Memory Usage
Sorry for the Debbie Downer post, but I have to say something about this. The picture shows the list of processes after a fresh startup of my computer this morning. Firefox has been bugging me lately, and I went to check on the memory usage. I realize megabytes of usage is not a big deal since we all have multiple gigabytes of memory. But, compare the memory usage of Firefox (~150 Mbytes) to VirtualBox running an entire operating system with less (~97 Mbytes).
Just for the record, the observational conditions are: Firefox clean startup showing a Google start page (yeah, that's not a cheap page to load). VirtualBox running Debian Linux with an XFCE desktop and no current graphical programs (besides various XFCE things).
It makes me weep for my industry when I see this kind of disregard for physical resources. Arthur C. Clarke is probably right: our planet won't succumb to greenhouse gases or pollution. We're going to kill this planet with waste heat from our electronic gadgets.