No, the reason why browsers use so much RAM is because every tab is it’s own process and sandbox. That and lazy handling of content.
Edit: apparently i overestimated the overhead of process & sanbox per tab? So it’s more lazy handling, i.e. keeping pictures in RAM instead of pushing them to cache?
Sandboxing does use some RAM, but it was a big win for security. One site can’t crash the entire browser or use a security hole to get access to data on other tabs. Still, the majority of the RAM is taken by the site itself. The processes do share some RAM - they’re not entirely isolated.
No, the reason why browsers use so much RAM is because every tab is it’s own process and sandbox. That and lazy handling of content.
Edit: apparently i overestimated the overhead of process & sanbox per tab? So it’s more lazy handling, i.e. keeping pictures in RAM instead of pushing them to cache?
Sandboxing does use some RAM, but it was a big win for security. One site can’t crash the entire browser or use a security hole to get access to data on other tabs. Still, the majority of the RAM is taken by the site itself. The processes do share some RAM - they’re not entirely isolated.