How many browser tabs do you keep open?

[apelly]

I'm predominantly a Firefox user, and a compulsive tab opener. My typical browser window will easily accumulate over two hundred tabs after a few weeks. My current session is about a week old after a crash that dumped my open tabs; just counted a bit over a hundred. I do periodically close bunches that I'm not using (or interested in) any more.

Anyway, as you might expect, this consumes an astonishing amount of RAM and is detrimental to a fast browsing experience.

I'm wondering if I'm some sort of freak, or if I miss-learned some sort of browsing behaviour early in the piece. It's just so much nicer to ctrl-click the interesting links in an article and read them when they've finished loading.

Any thoughts?

[c4757p]

My typical browser window will easily accumulate over two hundred tabs after a few weeks.

Jesus!

I tend to accumulate a dozen or so, which I thought was a lot...

[johansen]

less than 10 most of the time.

I don't bookmark anything anymore.. and honestly it feels like the internet is getting smaller with time.

[Joule Thief]

I might accumulate 200+ BOOKMARKS per week - but not open tabs. I'm not even sure how that would look on the screen.

[pickle9000]

Not so many I can't read the tab, 12 max.

[MatCat]

I try to keep mine below 30, though it often grows to 50+ easily.

[sleemanj]

I have 30 open currently across 4 windows since this morning.

Unfortunately Chrome has a tendency to start churning and go 100% cpu when it starts getting low on physical ram, so every now and then I try and remember to close some down, otherwise I have to switch to a terminal and killall -9 chrome in order to get things under control.

[rdl]

Rarely more than eight or so. If I can't read them and don't remember what they are, what's the point?

[Joshuamcd22]

I often have between 100 and 300 tabs open, across 20 or so windows.... I know it a lot, but I just never really exit web pages, why do it when you have 32gigs of ram and a quad-core 4.2ghz processor....  It doesn't even slow my computer down. 

I've even tried opening around 300 tabs, then running 3 different virtual machines, each with a bunch of tabs open.  Then running every program I have on my desktop on my main computer, and the virtual machines.  Then I played Crysis, with no problem. 

[magetoo]

I'm wondering if I'm some sort of freak, or if I miss-learned some sort of browsing behaviour early in the piece. It's just so much nicer to ctrl-click the interesting links in an article and read them when they've finished loading.

I do the same.  Eleven windows open right now, and maybe 100-150 tabs?  It's gotten to the point where it seemed appropriate to start using a version control system to keep the browser session files in.

Someone needs to write a better browser, one that can handle groups of tabs efficiently..

Any thoughts?

I remember there was a thread like this one on Metafilter, way back.  After a while, everyone commenting had two things in common: An ADHD diagnosis and 100+ tabs open.  :-)

Oh, and I use Opera.  It's always seemed to be faster / use less memory with many tabs open.

[apelly]

Ah. I see confusion. Maybe Tab Mix Plus https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-mix-plus/ is part of my problem. I have 5 rows of tabs and the rows scroll vertically with the mouse wheel.

Bookmarks get old and stale (I do have a lot though) and I find them harder to find (and remember) than just re-googling.

My tabs consist mainly of 1) a bunch related to the last few things I researched 2) a handful of regularly used sites and related tabs 3) a bunch related to current projects and/or interests

For example, how the hell do you buy something on ebay without ending up with 30 tabs of similar items that you're comparing? Maybe if your internet is fast (or your browser isn't bogged down with tabs  ) you can actually click links and expect them to open in 2 seconds.

[apelly]

I've even tried opening around 300 tabs, then running 3 different virtual machines, each with a bunch of tabs open.  Then running every program I have on my desktop on my main computer, and the virtual machines.  Then I played Crysis, with no problem.

NERD! 

[SeanB]

About 50 at the moment, stuff I want to get to. Nice is the crash management of FF will enable you to reopen those tabs when you do finally crash it or kill the browser, and they did a while ago change behaviour do they do not all try to reload at once. Bookmarks I must prune some day, lot of cruft in there.

[ve7xen]

I try to keep mine below 30, though it often grows to 50+ easily.

I'm in this region. Basically I use them as a cache for stuff I intend to use in the near future, interesting pages related to a project I'm working on or whatever. Of course, said projects or interests often don't materialize and the tabs sit open for ages.

I can't live without Tree Style Tab anymore. For this reason alone, I find all browsers other than Firefox unsuitable. You can read the titles, it makes better use of widescreen monitors than a bunch of whitespace, and you can arrange your tabs into a hierarchy and keep them around while reducing clutter.

[Joshuamcd22]

I've even tried opening around 300 tabs, then running 3 different virtual machines, each with a bunch of tabs open.  Then running every program I have on my desktop on my main computer, and the virtual machines.  Then I played Crysis, with no problem.

NERD! 

LOL, ya.  I also built the computer.

[apelly]

Nice is the crash management of FF will enable you to reopen those tabs when you do finally crash it or kill the browser

Yes. Normally. Sucks balls when it fails.

they did a while ago change behaviour do they do not all try to reload at once.

Yes. Also, I'm not sure if it's an add-on I have or std Firefox, but there is a thing to postpone loading tabs until you click on them. I use this on a couple of my RAM constrained machines.

[Dago]

I usually end up with so many tabs that you can only see the logo on the tab and nothing else. Currently (at work) I have 50 tabs open. I'd keep more if Chrome would support multiple tab rows

[mos6502]

Chrome is really bad with multiple tabs and seems to eat up resources a lot more than Firefox. Problem is that both Chrome and Firefox only come as 32 bit executables and so can only use 2GB of RAM. But I can comfortably keep 200 tabs open in Firefox.

Of course Firefox also leaks memory like a sieve, so eventually it'll crash.

[peter.mitchell]

Dunno what you guys are doing with chrome, or what I am doing, but i usually have around 80~ tabs open and have no issues, the tabs are usually pretty media rich too, not just html web pages but lots of pdfs ect too.

[ve7xen]

Firefox only come as 32 bit executables and so can only use 2GB of RAM. But I can comfortably keep 200 tabs open in Firefox.

Time to switch to Linux

[kolonelkadat]

After a while, everyone commenting had two things in common: An ADHD diagnosis and 100+ tabs open.  :-)

that doesnt sound like add/adhd at all. I have some severe adhd, and only ever have 15-20 tabs open max. typically, I only have 3-4 open. When im done with a tab, im done with a tab. ... close tab button -> new tab button ... Old tab is probably gone from my memory faster than the computer's.

keeping tabs open once they are no longer part of the active working group is some hoarder level mental disorder imo.

[mos6502]

Firefox only come as 32 bit executables and so can only use 2GB of RAM. But I can comfortably keep 200 tabs open in Firefox.

Time to switch to Linux

I do have a bunch of machines running Linux ... but my main development machine is running windows due to a lot of software being windows only.

[G7PSK]

I am a compulsive tab closer, I never have more than 4 tabs at a time. I use chrome in a Linux computer and if there is something I want to go back to I use the history log or book mark the site if I want a permanent record. I also close the browser when doing something else and turn the computer off whenever its not in use so I don't think I could ever accumulate 300 open tabs.

[TMM]

not sure if on a forum with a bunch of freaks or a bunch of trolls...

What the hell do you do with 200 tabs open? Do you open every link in a new tab and never close it?

At any one time i might have 3 browser windows open and 1-10 tabs in each...

[magetoo]

What the hell do you do with 200 tabs open? Do you open every link in a new tab and never close it?

It's like what apelly said:

My tabs consist mainly of 1) a bunch related to the last few things I researched 2) a handful of regularly used sites and related tabs 3) a bunch related to current projects and/or interests

And then you keep the tabs open between sessions because it's useful and you know you're going to come back to it anyway, and managing bookmarks is just a hassle.  The next time you start up the browser, you start looking into something new, and then another thing after that, and it all just adds up.