On Fri 11 Feb 2022 at 20:04:35 (+0100), Linux-Fan wrote: > Stefan Monnier writes: > > > > I used to have 8 GB on the system, and it would start to thrash at > > > about 7+ GB usage. I recently ugrade to 16 GB; memory usage is > > > currently over 8 GB, and it seems to be slowly but steadily increasing. > > > > Presumably you bought 16GB to make use of it, right? > > So it's only natural for your OS to try and put that memory to use. > > Any "free memory" is memory that could potentially be used for something > > more useful (IOW "free" = "wasted" in some sense). > > > > It's normal for memory use to increase over time, as your OS finds more > > things to put into it. > > That was my first intuition, too. There is even a classic website > about this very topic: https://www.linuxatemyram.com/ > > HOWEVER, given that the OP mentions looking at the RSS sizes I think > the classic "all memory used" issue is already ruled-out. The issue > seems to be modern webbrowsers which could be considered OSes on their > own already hence they also claim more resources whenever it is useful > for them. > > Firefox takes just above 1600 MiB here with only six tabs open for > four hours. Yet I am pretty sure it would take less were this a > "lower-end" system e.g. fewer CPU cores would cause fewer processes to > be spawned and hence the memory efficiency might be better in such > cases.
Very slow, but I can run FF (≤3 tabs) and mpv in bullseye on a 2004-era laptop: Pentium M i386 1.5GHz 512MB with 1GB swap (encrypted, as is /home). I don't run it for hours on end¹. Compared with buster, it's slower to start FF, but no slowdown with loading pages. (Of course, buster was running FF 6X.X rather than the new 91.6.) ¹ It's a non-portable laptop. Remove the power cable and it's dead. Cheers, David.