Curiosity re: Memory Usage and Security
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Hi, I only came across Vivaldi a couple of days ago. It was mentioned in the comments section of a Guardian article on internet browsers, where commenters were lamenting the changed direction of Opera. After a couple of days use I am liking it so far. Many thanks to the developers! I have 2 questions . This is curiosity, not a complaint 1. Memory usage: When I open Vivaldi first, with just one tab on the Google homepage, I see three processes in my Task manager, with a combined memory footprint of approx 180 megabytes. If I now open another tab with only speed dial working, memory usage shoots up to over 260 Mb. Open another tab and a new process starts, and on, etc. This is also noticeable in Opera 28 - I assume it's a Chromium thing, but it appears to my untrained eye to be very inefficient. If I remember correctly, Opera 12 spawned one process. Firefox spawns one process and seems to use approx 50% less memory than Vivaldi with the same three tabs open. Why is it set-up like this? Why do these processes take-up so much memory? 2. Security I read the blurbs and see little discussion on security. Will Vivaldi set itself apart on this issue? For example, it would be marvellous if Vivaldi could in future implement e-mail encryption as standard, or even an emerging protocol like bitmessage (decentralised mail). I think it would be a big draw for many potential users. Again, thanks to the developers for providing this new and very promising choice. I will contiue to use, test and report any problems/bugs. Kind regards, stim
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1. Memory usage: When I open Vivaldi first, with just one tab on the Google homepage, I see three processes in my Task manager, with a combined memory footprint of approx 180 megabytes.
If I now open another tab with only speed dial working, memory usage shoots up to over 260 Mb. Open another tab and a new process starts, and on, etc. This is also noticeable in Opera 28 - I assume it's a Chromium thing, but it appears to my untrained eye to be very inefficient. If I remember correctly, Opera 12 spawned one process. Firefox spawns one process and seems to use approx 50% less memory than Vivaldi with the same three tabs open. Why is it set-up like this? Why do these processes take-up so much memory?What you are seeing in terms of multiple processes in Vivaldi is a "chromium thing", as you noted⦠particularly the phenomenon that each new tab opens a new process, as does each installed extension. The result is that a crash in one process theoretically won't bring down the entire browser, only whatever is running in that process - but the cost is more running processes (which require somewhat more CPU cycles). Opera 12 and Firefox (currently) are single-process designs, which run only one process for everything.
What occurs with memory usage is mostly a "browser thing", with different browsers having their own memory footprints, depending on design, internal features, and tab-load. But do realize that an increased number of processes does not inherently mean more memory consumed - process count and memory usage are two different attributes of a computer, so much depends on how both the memory and processes are managed by the browser architecture. One could conceivably have more processes that require less memory than doing everything in a single process, if the code could be appropriately designed. That said, the overall memory requirements of chromium-based browsers do seem to run higher than Olde Opera or Firefox under similar tab loads.
Debate still continues over which approach (multi-process or single-process) is inherently more system efficient, produces faster browsing, better rendering, and so on. A lot seems to depend on how the browser is typically used, so YMMV as to which approach works best in a given usage pattern. In any case, Vivaldi uses the Blink/chromium rendering engine, so in that regard, it is what it is in terms of basic multi-process characteristics. With time, it's quite likely that greater design attention will be paid to memory efficiency, but at this stage of the game, the focus is on getting the browser fleshed out and working smoothly.
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Hi, and thank you for taking the time to reply. I also apologise for my less than technical descriptions
I completely understand that Vivaldi is growing and improving, so please don't take my questions as complaint or criticism. I'm happy to be along for the ride. Your note made perfect sense, and was the springboard fro my own reading on the matter.
Cheers..
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Also, unless I'm mistaken, the multiprocess approach of Chromium, where each tab has it's own process, also adds the additional security of every web running in its own sandbox.
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I only just found Vivaldi's Task Manager (tools>Task Manager. Nice and informative!
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I only just found Vivaldi's Task Manager (tools>Task Manager. Nice and informative!
And for a bit more detailed view: vivaldi://memory-redirect
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Wow - great stuff. I have a lot to learn!
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Ain't it fun?! :lol:
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Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I didn't find an answer to this:
What the chrome://memory-redirect equivalent in Vivaldi? -
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I didn't find an answer to this:
What the chrome://memory-redirect equivalent in Vivaldi?Apparently they seem to have removed the feature?
There was a link to vivaldi://memory-redirect on the vivaldi task manager which seems to be missing now. -
Yes indeed! Since this is a rather new topic, permit me to say that Chrome takes no more memory than Vivaldi and Vivaldi uses no less ram than Chrome.
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