Ask HN: Your browser tab count
Interested, how many tabs you have .
For me:
- 213 on desktop
- 83 on mobile
For me:
- 213 on desktop
- 83 on mobile
Firefox seems to have problems around 8000 (or maybe it's just me?), so don't go there :).
If you do, and Firefox crashes at startup, you might need to delete (or better: rename) some files under .mozilla/firefox/<profile>/:
.mozilla/firefox/<profile>/sessionstore-backups/recovery.jsonlz4
.mozilla/firefox/<profile>/sessionstore-backups/recovery.baklz4
.mozilla/firefox/<profile>/sessionstore.jsonlz4
You'll obviously lose the tabs opened since the last start.
You can have a backup with Tab Session Manager (for Chrome too):
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tab-session-m...
I'm sorry that there are so many people with hundreds of tabs open, because theyir use-pattern is why my browser constantly seems to want to purge tabs from active memory, even though I have plenty of free memory and do not want them purged. For instance, a few web-apps that have no active code or sockets, running, but does have a state.. when those tabs are purged, so is the state..
[1] https://alternativeto.net/feature/tab-manager/?sort=likes
I use both tabs and bookmarks and they serve different purposes:
- tabs are ephemeral and not meant to be saved. Saving them as bookmarks adds friction because it leads to "managing" them later in bookmarks UI to find+reload+delete them. Using multiple tabs avoids digital housekeeping work. Bookmarks are more useful if the url is "promoted" to reference status (e.g. like the weather page being bookmarked.) as a frequent shortcut.
- tabs already have the HTML downloaded and visually pre-rendered. Can quickly cycle through them like flipping through tv channels. Bookmarks are only text of page titles.
I often have about 50+ tabs open and I deliberately do not want to bookmark most of them.
On the other hand, if people are using tabs exactly as they would use bookmarks, maybe that's an anti-pattern because now the web browser is consuming gigabytes of RAM for a hundred tabs that should be bookmarked and closed to save resources.
I agree. There is definitely less UX friction with tabs, and I can live with 20-30 (50 maaax) and only some of the time. But 100 ephemeral and much more? most of the time? IMO this is just unwillingness to improve the system. You can definitely get less friction dealing with most of them as organized bookmarks than wild tabs.
> tabs already have the HTML downloaded and visually pre-rendered
Most new browsers purge tabs from memory, so the instantaneity is not there anymore.
What'll end up happening though, is that one day I'll leave that user profile for some reason and make another, which will go up to 200 and then I'll convince myself that I'll go back to my old profile after I close all the current tabs. Doesn't really happen. This is what happened to the ~2k tab profile that preceded my current profile. I still have that profile (started in 2017), don't know if it'll run with the current FF version though.
This is also why I don't use Chrome, because it's a glorified dev testing environment unto itself and not really a proper, usable browser.
I don't have any anxiety / ADHD / any other "disorder". In fact I'm far more organized than most people. Information doesn't just "outdate" itself in a mere five years.
Also, for firefox you don't need to make bookmarks of everything -- it muddies the search suggestions. `places.sqlite` and the sessionstore are the only two files that need to be backed up, and can be accessed trivially. None of this is possible in Chrome (AFAIK).
My following question is to gain insight and understanding rather than anything malicious and or any sort of judging.
Questions:
- When you've gone back to a tab that has been unloaded, how often has the site been changed when it reloads the data and or just not worked anymore? If you get that a lot, have you considered saving as a single file html or something?
- In your daily life, do you collect and find it difficult to throw away items that you think you'll need at some future point?
- How would you describe your organization style of non-digital items/goods?
- Since you have so many tabs open, how do you search for the things you care about in opened but unloaded tabs?
Ah, don't worry about it, his comment put me off a little and I didn't want subsequent comments to snowball.
My browser is messy because it is not my primary organizational structure. It's a dumping ground of sorts that I try to organize by date (tab # in window) and window. The info in most open sequences of tabs is usually saved somewhere, so I don't need to go back to that tab but it's very convenient for quick "reminders" of how I reached a certain position / conclusion / found some info.
> When you've gone back to a tab that has been unloaded, how often has the site been changed when it reloads the data and or just not worked anymore? If you get that a lot, have you considered saving as a single file html or something?
From my OLD tabs (2017 and before) almost everything has changed. I do preserve the cache folders, so occasionally the old version of the website will load (when I enable networking but don't connect to a network). I don't see why it wouldn't work, URL deprecation isn't a very big deal for that time frame. I did use an addon to save some pages as HTML files. I don't remember its name, it was a XUL (pre-webextension) addon.
> In your daily life, do you collect and find it difficult to throw away items that you think you'll need at some future point?
> How would you describe your organization style of non-digital items/goods?
I'm not a hoarder :)
I throw out stuff I don't want / use
As far as information goes, I maintain backups although I usually never go back to them except for very broad file name / tree searches / greps. Storage is cheap and plentiful, what's a few gigs?
> Since you have so many tabs open, how do you search for the things you care about in opened but unloaded tabs?
I use a tabs sidebar extension, and a tab search extension if one isn't natively provided by the sidebar extension. It's also possible to search open tabs from the FF omnibar. Also, the windows / tabs form an ad-hoc organizational structure that's very helpful. Anyway, like I said before, the browser is just my dumping ground. I could lose all but the last 500 tabs and still sleep like a baby.
I only keep tabs open that I’m actively using or will use over the course of my day/week. Anything else gets bookmarked or archived.
Slightly unrelated, but I'm the same way on my desktop too. I hate open windows that I'm not actively using. I always force close things on my MacBook.
Edit: To answer the question, 1.
I never have enough tabs opened at any time; if a tab is open, it is a to-do for me to either do it (read, or fill up or something), or ignore and close it. My mobile browser auto-closes if any tab is left open for more than a week (by mistake). Desktop browser has (except on rare days) all tabs closed and clean by end of day/work.
The most I have is like 15 or so odd ones that I read real quick (kinda speed-read). It is the time when I will also have a timer[0] running for 25-min, then close all even if I'm not finish. This is when I submit articles to Hackernews.
0. P.S. I found out about a year or so back that a timer is the best way to keep track and push your tasks on time. Now I own few mechanical kitchen timers, electronic ones, a large highly visual hourglass (30-min), and the only Complicatons on the primary Watch face is --- the Timer.
The 100's/1000's people have real issues
This lets me jump back to recent tabs and I don't miss those that close on their own.
Note: if you use this and use a web-based meeting site like Google Meet, make sure you pin that so you don't get disconnected if you start browsing the web during a meeting.
Mobile: 4 (I have a lot on mobile because I keep some to read later, even though they should be bookmarks at some point).
Additional notes:
emails currently in inbox: 0
Mental sanity: excellent
Hacker news, this post, rpilocator, (it's Wednesday, Adafruit might get some in), and You Tube.
After I submit, I'll read some comments, close this tab, close the Hacker News tab, and watch a video.
- 176 on desktop
- 208 on laptop
- :D on mobile (guess that means 100+)
Usually they accumulate for a few weeks then I just close all windows except one where I save all I still need / want to read / etc...
(incidentally - why I want to build a browser extension to our app (curiosity.ai), to help navigate all this mess)
Work: 3 Windows each with 50-100+ some in collapsed tab groups. Chrome now pauses and shows a spinning mouse pointer for 2-5 seconds when closing tabs. Restarting it helps a bit.
Safari is the only browser that doesn't give a list of Tabs. Both Chrome and Firefox have it.
Again, Multi ( I mean tens to hundreds or sometimes thousands ) Tab usage is still an unsolved problem.
Less than 30 on mobile. Samsung's browsers lets me customize its interface. I added the "close tab" button there. It has kept my tab count in check.
Strategies for managing tabs:
- Firefox is my main browser, so I use Pocket to save sites for reading later. Tab is then immediately closed.
- Add on to save open sessions, nuke session from time to time and start over
I try to purge some tabs every day, but don't always do so. Mobile involves a lot of random browsing.
- 25 on mobile
- desktop not sure, too many folders with various reads to count
The laptop has 1000ish.