nazzeem said

I have changed this setting "media.gstreamer" to disabled and my Firefox on Ubuntu did not crash yet after 4 days with about 55-70 tabs open. Hope this solves my issue. Thanks

Jack said

nazzeem said

My system is an i5 with 22GB RAM running Ubuntu 15.10

I am a lightweight helper but I wonder if you could avoid that by opening 10 tabs and then open another window of Firefox, 10 more tabs and then aother window of Firefox, etc. ..... I said I was lightweight. Something to try until someone with real Firefox smarts comes alone! ":-Dx lol

As mentioned

I have changed this setting "media.gstreamer" to disabled and my Firefox on Ubuntu did not crash yet after 4 days with about 55-70 tabs open. Hope this solves my issue. Thanks

Meaning that my issues might have been solved. The whole purpose of having this many tabs open is to avoid having more than 1 Firefox window open. I have 21 tabs pinned and the rest are random web pages that I do not need on a permanent basis.

This is a short interesting read. Comments about the subject with other persons.

Tabs vs Windows February 9, 2010 11:19 AM Subscribe What really is the difference between a new tab or a new window while using an internet browser? Does opening a tab take up less RAM than a new window or is it merely more convenient? posted by zzazazz to Computers & Internet (15 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite

It's more convenient to have all your browser sessions in tabs in one window than to have a whole flotilla of windows clogging up your monitor.

The actual impact to performance / RAM / etc. is almost identical. posted by ged at 11:30 AM on February 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Firefox (on Windows, at least) uses some tricks to reduce memory usage when it is minimized. If you have several Firefox windows open, they ALL have to be minimized before this kicks in. Obviously it's easier to minimize one window, containing however many tabs, rather than several windows, but as long as they're all minimized the effect should be the same. posted by anaelith at 12:06 PM on February 9, 2010

It's worth noting that different programs run tabs differently. As far as I'm aware, Google Chrome runs a different setup for their tabs where they are each seperate from each other (so if one crashes they may not all crash). posted by haveanicesummer at 12:20 PM on February 9, 2010

Previous posters are correct--"internet browser" is not a sufficiently precise term in this case. You are seeing the same concept visually between browsers, but it is being deployed very differently under the hood (in the software itself). Tabbed browsing is meant to be a usability upgrade rather than a performance reduction, however. posted by Phyltre at 12:35 PM on February 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

In Firefox, you can circle around open tabs with Ctrl-PageUp and Ctrl-PageDown. For me, that alone makes tabs preferable to separate windows. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in IE. posted by KRS at 12:38 PM on February 9, 2010

with multi-touch gestures on Macs, switching between tabs is amazing. I use BetterTouchTool to create a three finger swipe to go from tab to tab.

with conveniences like that, you will never use multiple windows ever again. posted by smersh at 12:39 PM on February 9, 2010

KRS: You can use ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab to move back and forth between tabs in ie. It also works in Firefox, since it's the windows standard for navigating windows within an app. posted by blue_beetle at 1:19 PM on February 9, 2010

blue_beetle: "KRS: You can use ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab to move back and forth between tabs in ie. It also works in Firefox, since it's the windows standard for navigating windows within an app."

Furthermore, you can switch between windows using Alt-Tab/Alt+Shift+Tab which is the equivalent way of navigating between windows within an OS.

The OP's question has already been satisfactorily answered, but the reason for the introduction of tabs is nothing to do with memory usage. It's just a GUI enhancement. posted by turkeyphant at 2:31 PM on February 9, 2010

the reason for the introduction of tabs is nothing to do with memory usage. It's just a GUI enhancement.

I might be in the same boat as the OP then, and my take on the question hasn't been answered. Working in Windows, when I open a new browser window I get an extra button on the bottom of my screen. Now with tabs, I get an extra button on the top. How is that necessarily an "enhancement"? Some sites, like gmail, automatically open a new IE window instead of a tab if you click on a link, and it doesn't really make a bit of a difference over a tab; at least that I can tell. posted by LionIndex at 7:35 PM on February 9, 2010

Strictly from the perspective of user preferences (i.e. aside from the technical stuff, which others have explained above), I like it because it reduces task bar clutter.

Just as a sample, right now I have one Firefox window, with 10 tabs open. I have 6 other programs open (iTunes, Excel, Photoshop, etc.). If all those Firefox tabs were windows, that would mean 17 things on my task bar instead of 7.

Under those circumstances (a.k.a. The Bad Old Days) locating the window/program that I want is virtually impossible. The names get truncated into meaninglessness. And alt-tabbing through all the programs is a tedious slog when you're tabbing through 17 instead of 7!

As a computer-y writer-y internet-y professional, this isn't just in the evenings after I get home from work. This is my work situation, all day, every day.

"More convenient" is I suppose technically correct. But it's an order of magnitude less than the gratitude I feel towards the invention of tabbed browsing. posted by ErikaB at 7:59 PM on February 9, 2010

LionIndex, the trick is to always right-click on links and choose "Open in new tab" instead. posted by ErikaB at 8:00 PM on February 9, 2010

Err, and thirdly - tabbed browsing over separate browser instances is just a matter of personal preference. Tabs aren't inherently empirically "better" than separate windows. Some of us like it one way, some like it another. Nothing wrong with either choice. posted by ErikaB at 8:09 PM on February 9, 2010

Yeah, after posting that, I though if I was into some serious browsing with more windows open than made sense on the taskbar, tabbing stuff might be nice. Generally speaking, that doesn't happen for me. And I know the right click thing, but some sites sort of disable that, and as I said, it doesn't matter for me at all whether tabs are at the bottom or the top of the screen. Plus, that effectively makes it two clicks to open a link instead of one, which diminishes the argument for tabs being more user-friendly just by the virtue of their very existence. I generally have no preference for opening a new tab vs. a new window, but there are times where I'm researching building products from a couple different companies, and it's nice for me to set up separate windows for the companies, then use tabs as a kind of subfolder for opening up different forms of product literature. Like if I'm comparing two metal roofing companies, I can open each main catalog site in a window, then each individual roof profile in a different tab without having to abandon the catalog page; otherwise I get a bunch of windows and it's not clear from the taskbar which product belongs to which company.

I did think of one other benefit of tabbed browsing though - if you're reading, say, MetaFilter at work as a background thing and you don't want someone to casually look over your shoulder to see it, having another tab active in the window when you're actually working would display the name of that page instead of MetaFilter on the taskbar. posted by LionIndex at 10:33 PM on February 9, 2010

Awesome. Someone gave me an excuse to tabvangelize. There are a significant number of extensions/added features (for Firefox, probably not for IE) which make tabs better than windows. I'm not going to list which extension does what, because I've been using them too long to know, and frankly there are a lot of choices. If you really want to know about a specific feature, you can ask and I'll dig up what's doing it.

Tabs can be organized using drag and drop. Tabs can be minimized to take up less space on the tab bar. Tabs can be locked/protected, to prevent accidental closure. Tab closing can be undone (easily!, just double click). Tabs can be renamed (easily!, right click, select rename). If I switch tabs the new content completely replaces the old, with no window sticking out underneath.

Btw, there are also extensions (again, Firefox) to force either windows or tabs, that is, links that want a new [window] will instead get a new [tab]. posted by anaelith at 5:24 AM on February 10, 2010

ErikaB: "Err, and thirdly - tabbed browsing over separate browser instances is just a matter of personal preference. Tabs aren't inherently empirically "better" than separate windows. Some of us like it one way, some like it another. Nothing wrong with either choice."

I have to agree with anaelith - tabs are better.

Further examples related to their advanced customisability are that you can resize them and change the positions, icons and number of rows. They always fill the size of the window and they can be opened in the background. You can group them, change where they open and rearrange them. I currently have about 40 tabs open in my browser - this would be unmanageable with 40 different windows. Another example is when I read Metafilter - I scroll down the posts and open interesting links in a background tab for checking out later. With windows I'd have to click each link then Alt-Tab back to what I was reading before. And with tabs, you have a list of recently closed tabs available to reopen.

Furthermore, if you don't like right clicking to open in a new tab just set middle click to open in a new tab or hold down the Ctrl key. posted by turkeyphant at 11:02 AM on February 11, 2010

Just a comment. It will not help you get a solution, but should reassure you that Firefox should run with 59 tabs open.

I have managed to get Firefox on Ubuntu running on less than 1GB of RAM although it will be slow. On a system with 2GB of RAM I would expect Firefox not to crash with 59 tabs open.

I have not yet had a System with 22GB of ram, but certainly can manage to get over 100 open tabs open with no problems on Ubuntu with 4GB RAM installed.

John99 said

Just a comment. It will not help you get a solution, but should reassure you that Firefox should run with 59 tabs open. I have managed to get Firefox on Ubuntu running on less than 1GB of RAM although it will be slow. On a system with 2GB of RAM I would expect Firefox not to crash with 59 tabs open. I have not yet had a System with 22GB of ram, but certainly can manage to get over 100 open tabs open with no problems on Ubuntu with 4GB RAM installed.

I still randomly get this error

Hi again Nazeem, You have 22GB RAM to play with and obviously are happy installing programmes on the computer if you try Fx on Wine.

This is not a direct solution to your problem. Just information you may be interested in.

If you have time to spare you may wish to try Mozlila Fx DE (Developer Edition) that will be installed separate from your Mozilla & Canonical Firefoxes and with its own profile. It is a pre release version. It will update daily. Ubuntu have a DE/Aurora channel for Canonical Firefox but that by default replaces the distro Firefox. DE is pretty stable even though it is pre-release. It would not be prudent to use it as your only browser, but I usually use it as my default browser and only very rarely get crashes.

• https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/channel/#developer

Multi Process Firefox

One reason I mention DE is that not only is it available as a 64bit version - as has been usual with Linux Mozilla Firefox for a few years - it also has an experimental multi process mode that is now on by default. That allows single tabs to crash and be restarted, whilst the rest of the browsers tabs and Windows remain open and working as normal.

The multi process mode has issues at the moment, for instance many addons may be incompatible at present, but with 22GB just run another instance of DE alongside it using another profile but in single process mode.

Multiple Installs & Multiple Profiles

Multiple profiles are handy, just try to keep a unique profile for each install of Firefox, but as many profiles per install as you want. (Multiple profiles per Firefox fine. Multiple Firefox to one profile = problems)

It's great for troubleshooting run one profile with 59 tabs, another with 5 tabs and a third with 59 tabs but different settings. Leave them running alongside each other and do similar things with each.

See

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Testing_pre-release_versions#Installing_multiple_versions

Profile Manager Exit Firefox then from the CLI use something like

firefox -P

to start the Profile Manger. You probably do not even need to use the full path. {On Ubuntu the default Firefox (Canonical) is called Firefox. It's Iceweasel on Debian)

• Full details in Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

Tip When using multiple profiles It is good practice to

• Use only an empty folder for the profile,
  • Just accept the location suggested & choose a short name like
    de-2016-001.
• Do not delete or rename any profile.
  Risk of data loss, until you understand profiles well enough to manage them manually without using the profile manager.

I still randomly get this error

Unfortunately occasional random crashes are not easy to troubleshoot. We stand the best chance with crashes seen in a basic configuration such as a clean profile and safemode. Or were there are some reproducible steps that cause the crash. Maybe opening the same single tab 60 times

Memory issues may be notoriously difficult to sort out, but as I mentioned upthread just opening 59 tabs should in itself be no problem at all.

Edit typo and deleted an irrelevant line. ~J99

John99 said

Hi again Nazeem, You have 22GB RAM to play with and obviously are happy installing programmes on the computer if you try Fx on Wine. This is not a direct solution to your problem. Just information you may be interested in. If you have time to spare you may wish to try Mozlila Fx DE (Developer Edition) that will be installed separate from your Mozilla & Canonical Firefoxes and with its own profile. It is a pre release version. It will update daily. Ubuntu have a DE/Aurora channel for Canonical Firefox but that by default replaces the distro Firefox. DE is pretty stable even though it is pre-release. It would not be prudent to use it as your only browser, but I usually use it as my default browser and only very rarely get crashes.

• https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/channel/#developer

Multi Process Firefox

One reason I mention DE is that not only is it available as a 64bit version - as has been usual with Linux Mozilla Firefox for a few years - it also has an experimental multi process mode that is now on by default. That allows single tabs to crash and be restarted, whilst the rest of the browsers tabs and Windows remain open and working as normal.

The multi process mode has issues at the moment, for instance many addons may be incompatible at present, but with 22GB just run another instance of DE alongside it using another profile but in single process mode.

Multiple Installs & Multiple Profiles

Multiple profiles are handy, just try to keep a unique profile for each install of Firefox, but as many profiles per install as you want. (Multiple profiles per Firefox fine. Multiple Firefox to one profile = problems)

It's great for troubleshooting run one profile with 59 tabs, another with 5 tabs and a third with 59 tabs but different settings. Leave them running alongside each other and do similar things with each.

See

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_multiple_profiles_-_Firefox
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Testing_pre-release_versions#Installing_multiple_versions

Profile Manager Exit Firefox then from the CLI use something like

firefox -P

to start the Profile Manger. You probably do not even need to use the full path. {On Ubuntu the default Firefox (Canonical) is called Firefox. It's Iceweasel on Debian)

• Full details in Profile Manager - Create, remove or switch Firefox profiles

Tip When using multiple profiles It is good practice to

• Use only an empty folder for the profile,
  • Just accept the location suggested & choose a short name like
    de-2016-001.
• Do not delete or rename any profile.
  Risk of data loss, until you understand profiles well enough to manage them manually without using the profile manager.

---

I still randomly get this error

Unfortunately occasional random crashes are not easy to troubleshoot. We stand the best chance with crashes seen in a basic configuration such as a clean profile and safemode. Or were there are some reproducible steps that cause the crash. Maybe opening the same single tab 60 times

Memory issues may be notoriously difficult to sort out, but as I mentioned upthread just opening 59 tabs should in itself be no problem at all.

---

Edit typo and deleted an irrelevant line. ~J99

Thanks for the info. Will check it out.

In the mean time I decided to do a memtest. It found 1 bad 8GB RAM module. I removed it and will see what happens.

Hopefully the bad RAM were my problem as I were getting very tired of the crashing. Very weird as everything else were stable.

I will report back in a few days or soon as I have another crash. No crashes in the last hour since I removed the chip.

RAM issues often seem rather fickle to me.

I have just had problems with bad RAM chips on one machine. Intermittent crashes, intermittent drop in amount of available RAM displayed.

Memtest running overnight did not pick up any errors at all. Removing a either single memory chip (of two), or swapping over positions did not solve the issue. Finally I replaced with a brand new chip and the issue was resolved as long as I did not pair that with either of the existing chips.

No crashes yet after about 7 days. It is safe to say that the bad RAM chip was the cause of my nightmare.

So no crashes since I removed that memory chip. Guess my problem is solved.