My laptop sounds like it is preparing for a low-orbit launch. The fan is screaming. The metal chassis is hot enough to burn my palms.
And the reas...
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147 Tabs open????
I usually have 10 AT MAX lol. I get quite concern when my fan start working, even at a bare minimum because I have bad experience on using Laptops where it dies on me the second I use it D:
Great post once again! Well done :D
Ten tabs is basically a zen garden. I wish I had your trauma-induced discipline. My laptop is currently hot enough to cook an egg, and I’m just sitting here adding more fuel to the fire. If I ever got down to ten tabs, I’d probably think I’d accidentally deleted my entire career. 😂
I had a friend where his PC is hot enough where the sticker on his PC starts to move lol. I usually have 10 tabs open if I am doing an Open-Book, Open-Note exam, but nothing really outside of that!
I don't use tabs at all. I always hit ctrl+shift+n to open multiple private windows with 1-3 tabs each. For some reason, it's easier for me to switch between 10 windows than between 10 tabs. I'm weird...
I would assume you used Google Chrome for this. You must have a God Tier PC if you are able to handle that much Windows opened
I use Brave. And no, my office hardware (umm... from 2010) isn't that powerful. Surprisingly, I tried opening 20 windows, and it barely slowed performance. Maybe because they were empty. I don't think there's much of a performance difference between windows and tabs, and Brave manages tab memory at God-Level.
I am in same river. Spend a time to make a group like watch later
The "watch later" group is basically just a waiting room for a doctor’s appointment that never happens. It’s a polite way of telling those tabs they’re fired without actually hurting their feelings. It’s definitely a win for your RAM, but we both know that group is just where productivity goes to hide. 😂
Icon and groups vibe.
😂😂
I’ve developed a demo version of a file‑syncing software that connects two PCs through a secure, one‑time 6‑digit pairing code. Once paired, each PC designates a folder for synchronization. Any file dropped into the shared folder on one machine is automatically mirrored to the paired folder on the other.
The system uses peer‑to‑peer transfer when both devices are online for fast, direct syncing. If either device goes offline, files are temporarily stored in a database. Once the offline device reconnects, it automatically fetches the pending files from the database, ensuring no data is lost. Synchronization is fully bidirectional, keeping both folders up to date.
I would really love to hear your review on this.
I’ve developed a demo version of a file‑syncing software that connects two PCs through a secure, one‑time 6‑digit pairing code. Once paired, each PC designates a folder for synchronization. Any file dropped into the shared folder on one machine is automatically mirrored to the paired folder on the other.
The system uses peer‑to‑peer transfer when both devices are online for fast, direct syncing. If either device goes offline, files are temporarily stored in a database. Once the offline device reconnects, it automatically fetches the pending files from the database, ensuring no data is lost. Synchronization is fully bidirectional, keeping both folders up to date.
I would really love to hear your review on this.
Hahaha funniest dev.to article ever ... well, here's what I do, maybe it's useful (probably not, haha):
I just drag the URLs of those open tabs to my desktop, and then I move them to a "TO DO - READ THIS LATER !" folder - which I never do :P - however, I can (and will) then close those tabs!
(and even then I still have 35 to 40 tabs open - it's a disease !)
That folder is just a digital witness protection program. You know they’re never coming back, but it helps you sleep at night. Honestly, 35 tabs is basically a blank screen in my book. Your CPU is probably wondering why you’re being so nice to it all of a sudden. 😂
Some time ago I did have between 100 and 200 tabs open, and all kinds of things started "acting weird" - that's when I decided to move 150 tab URLs to my "TO DO - REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT - READ THIS LATER !!" folder and close those tabs ...
P.S. my computer has just 8 GB RAM, so yeah I'm "forced" to be a bit 'sane' about this ;-)
OneTab is good for this.
The 64GB RAM lie is the honest line. We're not buying memory for the workload. We're buying it for the inability to commit. A closed tab is a decision that the thing is done, abandoned, or no longer worth keeping open. Developers who can't close tabs are often the same ones who can't kill a feature, end a meeting, or ship without one more pass. It's not a browser problem. It's a closure problem. The tool isn't the issue. The muscle for finality is.
You just turned a rant about browser tabs into a therapy session. Calling it a "closure problem" is honestly a bit of a personal attack. It's true though—we're basically paying thousands of dollars for hardware just so we don't have to experience the existential dread of a blank screen. It’s not memory, it’s an expensive safety blanket for people who can’t commit to finishing a task.
I’ve developed a demo version of a file‑syncing software that connects two PCs through a secure, one‑time 6‑digit pairing code. Once paired, each PC designates a folder for synchronization. Any file dropped into the shared folder on one machine is automatically mirrored to the paired folder on the other.
The system uses peer‑to‑peer transfer when both devices are online for fast, direct syncing. If either device goes offline, files are temporarily stored in a database. Once the offline device reconnects, it automatically fetches the pending files from the database, ensuring no data is lost. Synchronization is fully bidirectional, keeping both folders up to date.
I would really love to hear your review on this.
Good post! I remember a funny incident when I wanted to make a button that would open a web page when you clicked it. I don't remember how it happened, but my Windows crashed with an out-of-memory error. I don't know how many tabs were open because the browser crashed too.
Luckily, this was on a "clean" computer where I hadn't yet cluttered my browser with tabs, so I didn't lose anything. I wonder what would have happened if I'd pressed ctrl+shift+t.
Hitting Ctrl+Shift+T after an infinite loop crash is basically like asking the ghost that just haunted your house to come back for a second round. Your CPU would’ve probably just caught fire out of pure protest.
You’re lucky it was a clean machine, trying to resurrect a crash like that with 150 tabs in the chamber is how people end up as tech-support legends for all the wrong reasons. 😅
I’ve developed a demo version of a file‑syncing software that connects two PCs through a secure, one‑time 6‑digit pairing code. Once paired, each PC designates a folder for synchronization. Any file dropped into the shared folder on one machine is automatically mirrored to the paired folder on the other.
The system uses peer‑to‑peer transfer when both devices are online for fast, direct syncing. If either device goes offline, files are temporarily stored in a database. Once the offline device reconnects, it automatically fetches the pending files from the database, ensuring no data is lost. Synchronization is fully bidirectional, keeping both folders up to date.
I would really love to hear your review on this.
I feel personally attacked. 😂
I currently have 47 tabs open. Some of them are from last month. At least 12 are Stack Overflow questions I already solved but kept just in case. There's a YouTube video about a framework I'll never use. And one tab is literally just the default new tab page I don't know why it's there.
The worst part? I know I'll never look at 90% of these again. But closing them feels like... admitting defeat? Like I'm throwing away potential knowledge.
You're right though the terror is real. And also ridiculous.
I'm going to close 10 tabs right now. Maybe. We'll see.
Thanks for the laugh and the uncomfortable self-reflection. 🙌
That blank tab is the funniest part. It's like keeping an empty cardboard box just because it looks like a "really sturdy box." And the solved Stack Overflow threads? That’s pure digital hoarding, like keeping the receipt for a sandwich you already finished. Don’t even pretend you're closing those 10 tabs. You’ll just end up opening five more while you're trying to decide which ones deserve to die. 😂
Haha I don’t even keep those architectural gems open in tabs anymore 😄 I’ve accepted I’m just a random dev at this point 😂
Instead I’ve got YouTube full of workouts I plan to do… with very mixed execution 😅
Haha! the rabbit hole of exercise, i think we have all been down that road 😂 btw how did your performance go?!
I see many of my co-workers with the exact same problem. But personally i don't care about tabs or open windows. All the work im doing is scoped, meaning that at the end of the day, i close all browsers, no matter what they might contain. Nothing is lost, i just have to open the pages again and Im good :D
This is some high-level psychopathic discipline. 😂
Closing everything regardless of what’s inside feels like burning your house down every night just to enjoy the smell of a new construction site in the morning. I’m not sure if I should admire the efficiency or be terrified of the total lack of emotional attachment.
The total lack of emotional attachment is real 😅
I feel seen, attacked, and judged all at the same time. I currently have a "How to exit Vim" tab open from 2022 because, honestly, I’m still not convinced I’ve truly escaped 😂
That Aspirational Lie hit especially hard. My browser is basically a graveyard of "Advanced RxJS Subject vs BehaviorSubject" deep-dives and "Angular Signals" migration guides that I’ll read right after I finish this quick CSS fix (which has currently taken three days and spawned 12 new tabs). I’ll close one tab today, but just know that I’ll probably replace it with three more by lunch. Solidarity.
Keeping that Vim tab since 2022 is basically a religious ritual at this point. If you actually close it, the universe might just drag you back into the terminal as punishment. 😂
And we all know the "quick CSS fix" is the biggest lie in tech, it’s just a trap door that leads to 15 new tabs about z-index and deep regret. Closing one only to have three more grow in its place by lunch is just the circle of life. We're all just drowning in style.
I’ve developed a demo version of a file‑syncing software that connects two PCs through a secure, one‑time 6‑digit pairing code. Once paired, each PC designates a folder for synchronization. Any file dropped into the shared folder on one machine is automatically mirrored to the paired folder on the other.
The system uses peer‑to‑peer transfer when both devices are online for fast, direct syncing. If either device goes offline, files are temporarily stored in a database. Once the offline device reconnects, it automatically fetches the pending files from the database, ensuring no data is lost. Synchronization is fully bidirectional, keeping both folders up to date.
I would really love to hear your review on this.
Our specific flavour of the Diogenes Syndrome xD
haha 😂
well there's no need to make so many tabs lie there and hog all of your memory.
there's this chrome extension where you could just bookmark a tab but with a timed reminder so you could actually visit the tab later as per your preferred time.
so "bookmark and never read it again" issue never happens.
check it out: read in a bit
thank me later ;)
That just sounds like putting my guilt on a timer. I can already see myself snoozing those reminders until the year 2030. It’s a brave solution, but I suspect I’d just trade 147 open tabs for 147 judgmental notifications. At least the tabs suffer in silence for now. 😂
Haha thanks for a great read
haha thanks for reading!
For me, memory is a red line. Anytime memory usage starts skyrocketing, excessive tabs are the ones to get sacrificed. If, in case, I feel guilty of closing them, I close the whole browser window and open incognito window instead.
The incognito move is basically the digital version of moving to a new country and changing your name because your current apartment is too messy. It’s not a solution; it’s just witness protection for your browsing habits. Your RAM probably throws a party every time you hit that "X," but we both know you’re just hiding from your past self in the shadows of a fresh window.
Totally agree! But sometimes you just need to function again, even if your room isn't clean. Incognito mode is like a temporary reset: it calms the fan, stops the RAM from crying, and allows me to think clearly. The old tabs aren't really gone; they're just existing in a parallel universe where "I'll get back to this later" still feels believable. This isn't closure; it's a controlled denial.
"Controlled denial" is basically a professional-grade survival tactic. It’s like checking into a hotel because your own house is too messy to breathe in. You know you have to go back eventually, but for those twenty minutes of silence from the CPU, the lie feels pretty good.
whenever I close my 150+ tabs it takes half a day to be back at 160+😅😅
That is some world-record speed for restocking. It’s basically a digital Hydra, you spend all morning killing the beast only for it to grow two more heads by lunch. Hitting 160 in four hours isn't even browsing at that point, it’s just a talent for pure chaos. 😂
So relatable. Thanks for the great read on a Monday.
Monday is the peak day for tab hoarding. You start the week with a clean slate and by lunch you’ve already opened forty tabs you’ll be too afraid to close by Friday. It’s a weekly ritual of optimism followed by total chaos. Glad it resonated while you were busy not closing things. 😄
I’ve developed a demo version of a file‑syncing software that connects two PCs through a secure, one‑time 6‑digit pairing code. Once paired, each PC designates a folder for synchronization. Any file dropped into the shared folder on one machine is automatically mirrored to the paired folder on the other.
The system uses peer‑to‑peer transfer when both devices are online for fast, direct syncing. If either device goes offline, files are temporarily stored in a database. Once the offline device reconnects, it automatically fetches the pending files from the database, ensuring no data is lost. Synchronization is fully bidirectional, keeping both folders up to date.
I would really love to hear your review on this.
The workflow is very intuitive, especially the automatic fetching after being offline. My main questions for a review would be: 1. Is the middleman database end-to-end encrypted? 2. How do you prevent 'brute-forcing' that 6-digit code during the pairing window? It's a great 'middle ground' product, but the security of that temporary storage is where the real stakes are.
I’d also be interested in seeing how it handles large file conflicts if both PCs edit the same file while offline and what the file limits are for the database offline storage. Storing a few text files, e.g. MS Word or code files, isn't that storage intensive. Storing a 5GB 4K video while one machine is offline getting repaired or not being used introduces some potential hosting challenges.
Overall, I think it's an interesting problem, P2P syncing, to work on.
tbh stopped fighting it years ago. 200+ tabs here. trick is: never look at the tab bar, just live in cmd+L. if a tab matters you'll find it, if not it was already noise
That is a level of psychological warfare against your own hardware that I can only admire.
Living in cmd+L is like navigating your house by memory because you can't actually see the floor through all the clutter anymore. It’s not hoarding if you just pretend the tab bar doesn't exist. You’ve basically reached digital enlightenment through pure, unadulterated denial. 😅
haha. psychological warfare or learned helplessness - either label works. cmd+L runs the show now and that is that
I feel attacked and seen at the same. But this post is so true. Also it reads nicely, and I enjoyed reading this.
Being called out is the first step toward recovery, though let's be honest, we’re both keeping those tabs open anyway. It's nice to know I’m not the only one letting my laptop scream for mercy while pretending I'll eventually read that documentation. Glad you enjoyed the chaos.
Haha, Chrome introduced tab groups a while ago, but that didn't solve the problem. We now just have many tab groups cluttering the browser bar. 😀
Tab groups are just digital filing cabinets for a house that’s already on fire. It doesn't actually solve the hoarding; it just makes it look intentional. Now instead of one long, unreadable mess, you have five tiny, color-coded messes. It’s basically aesthetic chaos. 😂
The last time I visited my mother I closed over 400 tabs on her browser, because of the tendency of site builders to force opening everything they possibly can in a new tab. She never used the back button because it never worked properly, for exactly the same reason.
You know what? It didn't slow her ancient machine down noticeably.
But if the developers trusted her with control over her machine, she'd probably never use tabs at all.
People have tabs open for a lot of reasons. Most of them are to do with the deliberate anti-features developers use. The remainder are to do with well-meaning developers relying on AI answers which are trained on the slop produced by millions of the first camp of anti-feature proponents.
target="_blank"is a sledgehammer people use on every "external" link. In board meetings, infinite scroll is a somehow pitched as a "feature" and not a "complete UX shitshow".There is no solution but to ask developers to learn the basics of development, and allow users to be confident about the basics of web browsers.
Closing 400 tabs for your mom is basically a digital exorcism. You’re spot on about the back button, though, we’ve collectively murdered it. Between target="_blank" and infinite scroll, we’ve turned the web into a high-speed treadmill where you’re not allowed to stop or go back. We build the traps and then act surprised when people get stuck in them.
This. I had cases where clients explicitly wanted every external link to open in a new tab, to either discourage people from navigating away from their website because their metrics would tank, or to "not lose context".
For me, the main issue with this approach is that the decision whether they want to navigate away or not is done for the user, not by the user.. Users can open stuff in new tabs if they want to. Just let people use their computer the way they want to.
I do know the 147-tabs-issue, but for different reasons: I simply forget to close them regularly and open up new windows when stuff becomes cluttered.
If it's mainly the fear of losing something important, I do sense a bit of a tooling issue, actually. There's browsers like Vivaldi, that have a well-implemented browser history with search, statistics and everything. If the tab you closed becomes important again and you know the domain (very likely in case of stackoverflow.com) or any word of the title or URL and a rough time frame (i.e. must've been 2 weeks ago), finding it again becomes trivial.
Perhaps the thought of "I can always find it again if I need it" is enough to overcome the initial mental barrier of closing the tab?
147 open tabs? Not too bad—but I’ve got 226 right now. Well, in Chrome, anyway; if I add the ones from Firefox, Opera, Opera GX, Vivaldi, Edge… I don’t even want to think about it. I do clean things up regularly, though, but I’m just like you—closing a tab is sacrilege ;) Except that I’m documenting more and more, at least for solutions to recurring bugs—which then lets me close the tab without feeling panicked. And I’ve created my own reading list with Wallabag for all the tutorials and articles that might interest me at some point. Thank goodness, too—I can’t even imagine how many tabs I’d keep open otherwise!
I think I'm quite guilty with this one. Most of the time I find myself pinning the important tabs and it ends up populating the top part of my browser (see picture). Maybe I'll start by closing what I don't use daily starting today.
I feel personally attacked by this post. My current solution is a Python script that runs weekly — it dumps all open Chrome tab URLs to a markdown file organized by topic using a simple keyword classifier, then force-closes everything. The psychological trick is that you're not 'losing' the tabs, you're 'archiving' them. Out of 200+ tabs archived last month, I went back to exactly 3. The other 197 were just emotional insurance I never needed.
While I don't have a tab problem, I have a send links to myself in whatsapp problem.
At least my laptop fan is not screaming at me for my tab RAM use.
This is something I couldn't understand. My colleagues often have 30+ tabs open, some even have more than 100. I can barely have more than 10 tabs open in my browser. Let's count: I need 1 for the work chat, 1 for Gitlab, 1 for Figma occasionally, and a tab for my local instance of the web app I'm working on. That is 3-4 tabs that I always open. If I need to read a doc, chat with AI, or research a bug, I will open 1-4 more tabs, read each, then close them immediately when I'm done. I don't see any value in keeping those tabs, and I really get annoyed to see people keep tens to hundreds of tabs even though they will mostly never reopen them. This made me feel like people are having FOMO that their answer might be in some of those tabs, and if they accidentally close it, they might never find it again.
This is one of the reasons I'm writing my FOSS cross-platform Web Browser, Congruent (github.com/raddevus/congruent) <=== written in C# / AvaloniaUI
Check out the bookmarks -- it's huge an hierarchical folder system that you can use to manage your bookmarks. Then, when you're done with them, just delete them.
Easy peasy.
Cogruent has Tabbed-Browsing & you can move the splitter to hide the bookmarks entirely if you want.
it runs natively on macOS, Linux, Windows
I have hundreds upon hundreds of tabs open at a time in 4 different browsers because each browser has a specific function in my brain and this comment really struck the right nerve...
The same thing applies to LinkedIn and YouTube as well, saving all the articles to read later and videos to watch another time, in hope of one day being a super person who has it all figured out.
It hit me recently that I suffer from the fear of missing out because I am 72 hours behind and did not read all the new articles and methods. This industry has picked up speed so much the last few years that even when I was ahead of the curve in years prior, I cannot even keep up anymore.
I will work on doing this, not just for me but for my family. Thank you for helping us not to feel like we are alone in this chaos.😅
Voice capture changed this for me. Instead of keeping 40 tabs open "just in case", I just say what I need to remember out loud and it's saved. The tab hoarding stopped almost overnight once the safety net was there.
This hit way too close to home 😂 I’m convinced half my RAM is just emotional support for tabs I’ll never reopen. Also the panic when you accidentally close a window with 40 tabs… suddenly I become a professional keyboard shortcut speedrunner.
I’m convinced open tabs aren’t about productivity — they’re about unresolved decisions.
Every tab is basically:
“I’ll deal with this later”
and closing it feels like making a decision your brain isn’t ready to make yet.
The scary part is when you realize most of them aren’t even useful anymore…
but they still feel important.
Curious — do you ever mass-close everything and feel instant relief,
or instant regret?
This is painfully accurate and I feel personally attacked 😂
That “insurance policy” tab?? I have ones from bugs I fixed MONTHS ago, like my brain really believes the solution will just disappear if I close it. And the aspirational tabs… yeah, those are basically me cosplaying as a better developer.
I have been there , yet lately I am at an average of 20 smth each time. Most of the times I store all those "I will never read" tabs in bookmarks folders in the browser!😆
Then I need a whole Campaign of clean up to let them go away🤣
Fair. They're sort of organised but not going to be used.
I've had ~1,500 in the past which was pretty usable except on restarts! Closer to 150 now and purged more frequently but this windows of stuff to evaluate for usefulness later could definitely all go.
I feel attacked by this article 😂 So many tabs opened and waiting for me to research the concept I got curious about. Still telling myself that one day I will master the topic enough to close these damn tabs 😅
I have 9 windows, with the smallest at 41 tabs (active workflow), and the largest 129 tabs, total around 600 tabs open. Yes I can close maybe 250-300 of these, but still, having 200~300ish is bare minimum when you have internet heavy worloads.
This reminds me of my colleague. Always has bunch and bunch of tabs opened and keeps complaining about the laptop has issues it is not working blab balb.... So it's not just him 😂 147 tabs is just insane man!!
Amazing, I couldn’t even imagine someone could have that many tabs open!
It turns out that Google Chrome doesn’t really have a limit for the number of tabs you can open, apparently even a thousand is possible. Makes me wonder if anyone actually keeps that many tabs open 😅
What’s even more surprising is that apparently there are Chrome extensions that limit the number of tabs you can open, there's really a tool for everything 🙂
The category that's killing me is the documentation graveyard: API docs, RFC pages, and library reference tabs from projects that shipped six months ago. I don't use them. I don't open them. But I can't close them, because what if a regression hits and I need to know exactly which rate-limit header that one obscure SaaS returns. Vestigial organs on my browser. They will outlive me.
The article and most of the comments here are like a free therapy session where one feels introspective and reflects on one's....."flaws". Maybe I'll come back to this article this weekend, better pin it!
Aspirational tabs! Hear, hear!
That moment is so real—losing a tab feels like losing a piece of your workflow, especially when you know you’ll never find it again.
This is so real. I have multiple tabs opened and I specially decided a day when I'll finish the tasks and close the tabs. Still half of them are left and this is very frustrating, that is why I installed One Tab Extension to just store the history of my tabs without using my RAM. You can try that
I purge tabs until they get back to 10 after the count goes over 20.
Every tab has 10s to convince me of its value else purge. Uncertainty means purge. Only 100% certainty is keep. Some times I even reach 1 digit tab counts, try it you will really fast learn whats important to you now.
The "aspirational tabs" section is a personal attack. I have three tabs open right now about eBPF internals that I bookmarked six weeks ago and have read exactly zero paragraphs of. At this point they're less "reading material" and more "a monument to the person I thought I'd become during that one optimistic Sunday morning."
Does dev.to even do anything about AI slop articles 😕
true but it is 128GB RAM nowadays.
My system never shutdown, always sleeping, tabs are unlimited
separating desktops for separate work helps, sometimes.
I am a minimalist. I keep only local dev related tabs and a few others. No more than 10. I'd feel lost opening 20 tabs.
Anything beyond few pinned(email, chat, etc) + 5 is unaccceptable. Save your tabs as bookmarks, it makes them more organized than tabs.
I would get lost so quickly in more than 20 tabs.
i resonate with this
Too real. I think I managed 200+ on the crappiest laptop ever made, the fact that it was in Opera GX (I have since switched computers and switched to vivaldi) didn't make it any better.
I swear every tab feels “important for later” until my laptop sounds like it’s about to take off
Thank you!
thats why i use brave browser, i think every developer should give it a try
Good post!
lol i have 30 at most when i need to work on school stuff in between a project. i find it hard to close them too....my sytem is always hibernating can't close it😅