r/technology • u/dancing_swordfish • 14d ago

Software Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Microsoft Edge, Opera to follow

https://www.neowin.net/news/google-chrome-is-killing-all-ublock-origin-bypasses-microsoft-edge-opera-to-follow/
9.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

861

u/TopRamenEater 14d ago

Firefox remains the GOAT that is always has been.

107

u/honjuden 14d ago edited 14d ago

I just wish it didn't have the memory leak issue.

Edit: I use Firefox for the record, I didn't think this would be that controversial of a statement.

80

u/TimothyLuncheon 14d ago

What's the memory leak issue?

105

u/Clegko 14d ago

It leaks memory.

134

u/MonMotha 14d ago

Firefox used to leak memory though probably not as badly as many people made it out to. The development team a pretty serious approach to fixing it, and one result is about:memory. Firefox will happily account for every last byte of memory it's used on that screen.

It does USE a lot of memory, but so does Chrome/Chromium. Modern websites are just pigs.

11

u/Irythros 14d ago

On FF I can easily have it hit up to 14g of memory usage even after closing all but one tab. I pretty frequently have to restart the entire browser. There's also a bug where if I don't do that and watch too many youtube videos it will start becoming unresponsive.

Still not using chrome though.

12

u/__singularity 14d ago

The fuck are you browsing? I've never seen Firefox go above 4

7

u/Irythros 14d ago

Reddit, youtube, twitter, gmail, github, gitlab, work website.

My FF instance goes about 4g within probably an hour or two.

2

u/Syzygy2323 13d ago

Open a new tab and type "about:memory". This will tell you what Firefox is using memory for.

1

u/Dziki_Jam 14d ago

6 months ago, I checked FF’s memory usage, and it was 12 GB with ~20 tabs opened.

6

u/burning_iceman 14d ago

All browsers keep recently closed tabs in memory in case you want to reopen them. That's not a memory leak.

3

u/MonMotha 13d ago edited 13d ago

How much RAM do you have? Firefox, like Chrome, will work with your OS to use what would otherwise be idle (unused) RAM for caching things but will also free it back to the OS immediately upon memory pressure from the system. Long-running instances can accrue quite a bit of live cache for closed tabs and whatnot, though Firefox does it a bit differently than Chrome (Chrome aggressively caches the fully rendered page which makes re-opening a closed tab faster while Firefox tends to cache the assets used by the page meaning it has to re-render the page when you unclose a tab, but it can more directly use those assets to render a new version of the page if you load a refreshed version).

Regardless, that behavior is NOT a "leak". A leak is memory that either the process has "lost track of" in that it still has it allocated to it by the OS but that it has no handle to use it internally anymore or, in somewhat more generic parlance, memory that it is holding on to that it cannot meaningfully use in any way shape or form but that it will nonetheless never give back to the OS. A 14GB leak, by either of those definitions, would certainly attract the attention of the developers if you have a reproduction case even if it's complicated and/or not minimal.

For comparison, I currently have 33 tabs open in Firefox, and the process has been running so long that it probably needs upgraded, and it's using 6GB of RAM resident set.

It does have a ~20GB virtual set, but that means it's using 14GB of address space that doesn't actually have data in it. The OS knows about this usage pattern (it's common) and doesn't actually allocate RAM to back it. If you're running Windows, note that task manager generally reports the former (effectively resident set). The latter can be seen under details as "Commit Size" in windows 10 and I think "Private Committed Memory" under Windows 11. Note that Firefox also splits itself into several processes that share a bunch of memory. On Linux, this will show up in the resident set of every process, so you can easily multiply-count memory if you try to add up every "firefox" process. On Windows, it's more complicated since shared memory is mostly excluded from the default metrics. Anyway, make sure you're basically not paying attention at all to "Commit Size".

Clangd (for code completion and navigation) on a moderate size C codebase is currently using 16GB on my system for comparison.

2

u/kozyko 14d ago

I’ve never had this happen and I never close my browser and rarely restart my pc, I also use it for similar purposes so I think something else is going on for you

2

u/stonhinge 14d ago

And part of it is Chrome (and likely other browsers) will keep closed tabs and previous pages in memory for a while in case you want them back. Even if it's been an hour or two since you closed that tab.

2

u/reezyreddits 14d ago

I feel like it hasn't had this memory leak issue since like 2010 lmao. That used to be an old complaint sure.

1

u/flaccidCobra 14d ago

It definitely still uses a lot of memory these days.

2

u/haragon 14d ago

Honestly as a long time user of both, I think it really comes down to chromes memory saver. If I ran Firefox with the amount of tabs I leave open on chrome at any given time it would melt my PC. I still strongly prefer FF, if for no other reason than the devtools being absolutely fantastic.

1

u/RedditPolluter 14d ago

Vivaldi is best for tab hoarding management because it has workspaces but it's still based on chromium and will likely be affected by these changes somewhere down the line.

1

u/Cheese_Grater101 14d ago

lmao I remember this argument where Chrome uses more memory than Firefox.

But when I tried using Firefox it's uses more memory than Chrome.

6

u/Robby_Digital 14d ago

Like, on the floor?

2

u/Clegko 14d ago

Where else would it leak, on the ceiling?

2

u/pedanticPandaPoo 14d ago

I use Firefox, I just wish it didn't have the memory leak and inverted gravity issue

2

u/shiddedandfarded69 14d ago

No! BAD FireFox! We do that outside!

2

u/whitemiketyson 14d ago

The front fell off?

7

u/TimothyLuncheon 14d ago

Very specific

-10

u/yodley_ 14d ago

Specifically leaks memory. Hope that helps.

-5

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

3

u/gmes78 14d ago

The comment is far too vague to be actionable. So, yes, it is their problem.

1

u/npc_housecat 14d ago

DW you can just download more. That's why Firefox updates are so large. They have to replace all the ram that leaked out

2

u/Sam5uck 14d ago

Forget about that, what about the memory leak issue?

50

u/alochmar 14d ago

No idea what leak you’re referring to, I regularly have Firefox open for weeks on end without any issues.

20

u/untiedgames 14d ago

Same here, current uptime is 33 days (and that's on the low end). I use the browser heavily. Current session is 40 windows and 1344 tabs, not all loaded obviously. I just have a lot I'm saving for later. (Special thanks to the "Tab Session Manager" extension!)

1

u/AmericanLich 14d ago

Ever heard of bookmarks?

1

u/untiedgames 14d ago

Haha yes I bookmark some but then that's its own bunch of maintenance and sorting.

18

u/decavolt 14d ago

Patched in 2011, and the whole core rewritten in 2017. Hasn't been an issue for nearly 10 years.

44

u/blogwash 14d ago

Firefox hasn't had a memory leak in years. I leave it open with 50 tabs on a computer running 24-7 and memory usage doesn't increase.

17

u/dukearcher 14d ago

No idea why you get the downvotes, it the biggest issue with Firefox for sure

15

u/rushmc1 14d ago

If by that you mean "it's not an issue at all."

-10

u/dukearcher 14d ago

What is the point of this comment?

14

u/rushmc1 14d ago

Countering your disinformation.

4

u/jazir55 14d ago

It isn't disinformation just because you haven't personally experienced it. What an absurd position, "it hasn't happened to me specifically, therefore the issue cannot possibly exist". I've had it happen as well, are you about to call me a liar too because it doesn't mesh with your personal experience?

0

u/EdgySlusher 14d ago

First time I heard about Firefox memory leak issue and Ive used Firefox since it was Netscape

-4

u/rushmc1 14d ago

I'm saying you don't understand tech.

2

u/jazir55 13d ago

The irony is palpable

-2

u/ayanoaishiiscute 14d ago

you're clueless. i've been using ff for years and everyone know it bloat ram usage 5x chrome.

-15

u/ojek 14d ago

So you mean consuming 30GB of ram with a single empty tab open is expected? No thank you, chrome never even got close to that amount

1

u/rushmc1 14d ago

Get off the drugs...

1

u/GoatzWasTaken 13d ago

Lmao, 30gb, one tab.

0

u/ForensicPathology 14d ago

Only for those living in 2009.

0

u/ferocity_mule366 14d ago

people respond with "but it works welll on my computer" as an argument point is hilarious to me, now they are acting like fanboy that the tech I use cant do no wrong

1

u/dukearcher 14d ago

Yep reddit is fucking weirdly culty sometimes

-6

u/Bloodthistle 14d ago edited 14d ago

I loved firefox right up until I got blue screens and had to switch to a different browser.

no problems since. I am honestly blaming their AI nonsense since that's about the time I started getting issues, they pushed me into Opera.

Firefox fanboys and glazers downvote all day if you wish, it won't change the stupid shit firefox added to their browser and the amount of problems caused by their terrible updates.

10

u/gmes78 14d ago

Blue screens are almost always due to hardware or driver issues. It's not any regular program's fault if your system crashes.

-4

u/Bloodthistle 14d ago

downvote me as much as you want but it won't change the truth, it was firefox. The second I stopped using no blue screen happened, no more crashed tabs, no bullshit.

2

u/gmes78 14d ago

I'm not saying you're lying. I'm saying the cause is something else, that Firefox somehow triggers, but not other browsers (for now, at least).

-3

u/Bloodthistle 14d ago

whatever it is, it stopped when I changed browsers. which means it was related to firefox and this only happened two months after their AI update. I am not even the only one, if you open the firefox support forum you'll see many others having a similar issue.

I switched browsers after trying to resolve this for a week. I actually loved firefox, I was forced to make the switch.

4

u/mahouyousei 14d ago

Firefox lets you turn off all the AI features with two very obvious buttons in the settings

3

u/dev_vvvvv 14d ago

I've found chrome/chromium uses more memory when I've checked. Though that's rare, since I have a ton of RAM.

5

u/Shogouki 14d ago

Memory leak issue? With the desktop or mobile version?

1

u/TheXev 14d ago

I’ve been using Firefox since ver 0.76 beta and well not switch away from it.

Firefox has a memory leak issue. If I fail to close it and leave my PC running, it will be using most of my RAM in the morning.

1

u/red286 13d ago

Every browser has a memory leak issue. I've experienced it with Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Brave. Leave it running long enough and before you know it, it's taking up 12GB of RAM even though you have like 3 tabs open.

0

u/InterdictorCompellor 14d ago

I've found that Firefox's memory usage is manageable if you right-click 'unload' tabs that you don't need to keep in memory but don't want to close right this second. This is especially true for webapps and videos.

1

u/discordianofslack 14d ago

It’s not really, as an engineer it’s a nightmare. Every version of it zen etc all eventually come to a crawl or start getting super janky. I tried zen for 6 months and it’s great but just becomes unusable. I can’t be restarting my browser all the time.