MyBB Memory Leak?

[TerryRitchie]

Often times I'll leave Firefox run for weeks at a time. Every now and then I'll get up in the morning to notice Task Manager showing FireFox using over 4GB of RAM and climbing.

Unless you have a dire need to leave your computer on for much longer than a few hours at a time -- as in running your own business -- you should not do this with any web browser. People do all sorts of crazy things and also believe a single Linux distribution constructed in a certain way  would make them safe from being spied on. The privacy ends the moment the user opens some web page inside a web browser. The browser does other things to indicate the mission of the creator. Is Mozilla making any money out of creating Firefox? Does it come from the users? So it has to generate it from somewhere. It's pathetic but true.

I use Firefox AppImage, do not rely well on "standard installed" versions on Linux because usually they are crap, on Debian "stable" it has to be ESR which I don't prefer. I have it at medium strength with ad-blocking and that stuff, and clear cookies and history at program exit. And I'm regularly getting out of the program and back in again. Because I have a slow, unpredictable Internet connection and I don't like many megabytes of junk loaded into my hard disk that might hinder me later.

I wish I didn't have to rely on any extensions but I do have UBlock Origin enabled. But that seems to want 100MB at least of information. 

My computers are on 24/7/365, I never turn them off. It's actually better to leave your electronics run this way. I do, however, turn monitors off when I don't need them (but they're not truly "off", read on). I'm not sure where you heard that computers should not be on for more than a few hours at a time? Every time you start electronics by cycling power it takes a huge toll on components, especially capacitors, that's why they fail so frequently in computers.

When you turn off your VCR, DVD player, stereo system, etc.. you're not actually turning them off. You are simply turning the displays off (and/or an indicator LED) that shows them to be "off". The power supplies in electronic devices are constantly supplying some level of power to components. The only way to truly turn off an electronic device is to unplug it from the wall (or remove it from the mains with something like a switched power strip). Even old tube style TVs did this. If you're old enough you may remember looking into the back of a TV that was off and seeing the little orange glows in there. The power supply was still supplying power to the circuitry. I have bench computers that have been running for over 15 years. The only time they get powered down completely is to vacuum them out or a part needs replaced/installed. If you don't believe me purchase a Kill-a-watt and connect it between the wall and any of your electronic devices. You'll see even when "off" your electronics are still drawing power.

I have FireFox set to wipe all information upon exit, that is why I let it run for days and even weeks on end. It runs in strict privacy mode all of the time. This means login information, cookies, site preferences, etc.. are not saved locally between the program being closed and reopened.