[X4U] Having Windows open drain resources?

[Zane H. Healy]

At 11:48 AM -0700 4/4/09, zapcat wrote:
>I hope this question doesn't sound silly..does it put a drain on CPU 
>or RAM resources, or even VM to have several windows constantly open?

Yes, but...  There are trade offs, and I think that's what you're 
running into here.  Also, it is unclear here as to if you're talking 
about one application with multiple windows open, or multiple 
applications.  I suspect the later, which will definitely put more of 
a drain on your system resources.

>I'm trying to improve my work efficiency by changing some of my work 
>habits, and I find it helps to have 3 or 4 or more windows always 
>open, since I end up opening them anyway...I have a habit of always 
>closing out all windows..which is dumb bcs I always open them back 
>up!

You don't even want to know how many windows I have open at any given 
time.  Even worse, how many browser tabs I have open (on as many as 3 
web browsers).

>I think this behavior might be a hold over from something I heard or 
>read advising closing windows as soon as you're done with them.

You don't mention which system you're running.  I'm running a Rev.0 
G5 2x2, and I've taken it up to 7GB because I value my own time. 
Most of the time the benefit of having most of what I want open 
already running is of a greater benefit than the performance hits I 
take.

Where I do find benefit in shutting everything I'm not using down, or 
better yet, just plain rebooting, is when I'm doing a lot of graphics 
work in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.

Zane


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| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
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