I have a mental loop that checks my open tabs every 8-10 seconds and if any of them aren't sparking joy I cl

5. If there are too many open they take up the entire CPU. Never more than 10 unless researching something.

1: You lost joy with this in the middle of a word.

2. Unfogged and my work website which I keep up all the time when I'm at work.

It's weird. I have no problem running far more windows/apps than is wise or even manageable, but I get antsy if I have more than about 6 tabs open. I look at some of my cow-orkers monitors and it drives me batty to see how many tabs they have open.

I still use IE5, so no tabs.

I still use IE5, so no tabs.

I just leave 100 tabs open. If it gets too slow (which doesn't happen too often), I kill the browser externally and restart it. Then it still remembers the URLs and doesn't load them until I look at them. When I really want to procrastinate I go and close tabs.

I restarted my computer this morning, so less than two dozen tabs are open right now.

Five. If I get much closer than that to double digits, I start to itch.

How many file icons are sitting on your desktop? Right now I've got 194. It might be time to cull the herd.

Sorry, 184, so not quite that bad.

11: When both my monitors are completely full with file icons, I break down and start deleting.

11: Seven files, five folders, one external drive, but this computer is only about two months old.

Is there any easy way to count them? Because I have 8 windows open each with anywhere between 15 and 25 tabs open.

11: I clean up my desktop about once a month or so. Unfortunately, my desktop decluttering method is the equivalent of throwing yet more stuff into an already overstuffed closet. I have a few folders on my desktop, with names like "Miscellaneous Photos," "Miscellaneous Docs," and etc. I just move stuff into those folders, and then never look at it again...

I can't handle more than three or four open tabs in my browser. So I do open and close tabs as needed. But I create far too many bookmarks, because what if I wanted to revisit that site (I rarely do) and then couldn't find it anymore (because what? I found it once but couldn't find it again?).

Also: I have, always, way too many apps open on my phone.

I think if you crash your computer, then restart it will all how many you have to restore.

I never got into the habit of letting tabs sit for that long.

OP: 4. Daily it spikes up to maybe 15 as I read newsletters. CPU imposes discipline.
11: God help me.

Am I the only person who turns off their computer when they finish for the day or will browsers reopen if you restart the machine?

17, on my phone.

15 gave me the willies. I can handle 50 tabs in one window, and I can handle multiple browsers for my multiple identities, but multiple windows makes me feel like I'm losing my mind.

How many open files do you have in your text editor/notekeeping thing? I have 13, but I cleaned up yesterday, it was maybe 25. I often dump stuff there instead of keeping tabs open.

How many command shells to you have open? Right now I have 3.

Shell scripting was handy when I needed it, but I'm glad not to need it anymore.

I must be behind the times. I usually have only 1 open and almost never more than 3.

You're really behind the times. Even that book-mobile thing all over the internet this week has eight tabs.

I suppose I should have linked to it, but I bet at least one of you already has it open in a tab.

Now that I'm on my computer:
23 on Chrome
19 on Firefox
4 on Safari, but that's unusual.

Eh, what book-mobile thing? Have never even heard of it.

I feel so old: I feel like my parents on a dial-up internet connection, with a shared AOL email address that they can never remember the password to....

I'd give a limb to have my techno-challenged father here with me again, btw. Maybe even two limbs for my dear little mum.

4, counting the popup window for commenting. Cassandane is like Ogged, though, 30+ open at a time.

I only comment in the pop-up window if I'm leaving the first comment or going back to something that fell off the sidebar.

Years ago, when I first started reading Slate, which was also around when I first started using RSS, which was also when I was in the process of dropping out of graduate school and becoming underemployed, I had a lot of time on my hands and one of the things I would do is open every tab in the Slate RSS feed on, I think, a weekly basis. Or at least at whatever interval matched the typical turnover of the RSS feed (so I wouldn't open the same story more than once, and also wouldn't miss too many stories by waiting until everything was new).

This typically meant opening 80-90 tabs. Either firefox or the RSS reader add-on I was using (Sage, may it rest in peace) had an option to automatically open all the links so I didn't have to do it one by one. At the time, I made it a routine to step away from the computer while waiting for the tabs to load. It probably took less time for that to happen than it would today, and required far less in the way of computing resources.

These days I typically don't leave a browser open more than a couple days in a row. Open tabs go into Pocket (which I use as much for accessibility as I do for saving things), Zotero, or I decide I'm ok searching for them again if I want to go back. On rare occasions I might change my browser configure to "remember" tabs for next time, but I close the browser. This is as much about rebooting and having batteries where sleep is still too much drain as it is about staying organized.

multiple windows makes me feel like I'm losing my mind

I typically keep only one window open per browser except when I'm doing something that requires jumping back and forth between a subset of pages that I have open at the time. I find it much easier to toggle back and forth between two windows than to pick out two tabs from among many. Like, uh, when going back and forth between a comment in one window and a rhyming dictionary in the other.

How many command shells to you have open?

Years of unreliable computing (mostly at work) have led me to do almost anything that takes a significant amount of time in tmux, even if I'm physically in front of the computer at work when I start it. I think I have three tmux "sessions" and 2-4 "panes" open in my work shell right now. Which reminds me that I was going to start something and let it run overnight.

How many comments have I left in a row?

5.

I wonder if the high tab counts are something like channel-surfing behavior 25 years ago? (That's the last time I was aware of it; I don't know how long the household quarrels between channel-surfers and committed single-program viewers went on.) More than 8 tabs would be unusual for me, unless I'm doing something highly organized like going through a series of JIRA filters. It's mildly stressful to imagine using more.

I can be an obsessive tidier-up with my devices, though. I compulsively close app windows on the phone, nest desktop folders and delete unneeded files... I think it's an artifact of having chronic memory and storage shortages going back decades -- I just assume I'll run out of space sooner rather than later, or kill the battery, or not be able to run more than three desktop applications at once. I have no idea how my habits would change if I started seeing adequate computing power as normal.

Moby, I want you to atone for comment 3.

1 was really good. I forgot to say so earlier because narcissism.

1 sparked joy

But it went out before the period.

||

Famine spread its tendrils throughout war-ravaged polities.

Yeah, it'll do that.

1 was brilliant. Could Moby actually have missed the joke with 3? That seems impossible, and yet.

Moby's new tab page is set to standpipe's blog.

Sometimes I might get up to 20-25, if I am specifically researching something. Right now, I have 15, which is about normal. Couple of Git repos, a couple of viewers (for content I am working on), some project boards (Git boards, and JIRA), Docker Hub, and Unfogged.

In terms of files, I have two repositories open in my code editor, and two note files open in a text editor. I do, however, have 9 bash shells open.

In Chrome on an iPhone it's important to keep at least 100 tabs open because then the little square showing the number of tabs says :)

I typically keep only one window open per browser except when I'm doing something that requires jumping back and forth between a subset of pages that I have open at the time. I find it much easier to toggle back and forth between two windows than to pick out two tabs from among many. Like, uh, when going back and forth between a comment in one window and a rhyming dictionary in the other.

Ha. And I do actually agree and have done that too - have my google spreadsheet of students' grades open in one window, official grade entry portal in the other window - or whatever.

40: I'll find my box of frustrated rats.

I can easily run up to 30 if I'm researching stuff but I can only think like that in a browser with tabs down the side. I hate safari, which I have to use on this MacBook when its on battery, but which has dreadful tab management and worn't work at all on a couple of the sites I regularly use.

On mains power, or at my desk at home, I use Vivaldi, which is basically Chrome but with proper tab management (down the side, in groups, available through typeahead etc), in which it's easy to get up to 30 or 40 and I have to have periodic sweeps and cleanup because it eats memory when it's not eating battery. I have just discovered a combination of little osx apps that lets me switch the default browser depending on my power supply and that's great.

Two screens, one for procrastination research and one for writing, is the ideal setup.

I standardly have about 5-6 tabs open. If I'm researching something that can easily go up by an order of magnitude, but once I'm done researching I either write something and/or bookmark the sites that were any damn use and then close them.

I'm unduly impressed by Heebie using a different browser for each personality. That is brilliant.

I usually have three or four tabs open in Chrome, but when I'm doing something it goes up to a dozen or so. At work I have about the same, but also have an Ubuntu VM on another screen. It has lots of stuff going on (shells, IDEs, etc.) plus a Firefox with some tabs, sometimes. I am very neat and tidy and sometimes close tabs to keep the clutter down, knowing they are in my history and thus accessible later, or bookmarked. I have way too many bookmarks: that's my vice.

I use Safari for any logged-in Google stuff, Firefox for my regular browsing, and Chrome for debugging.

I forgot to mention the Ubuntu VM is usually running a container app (called Core) that can be running up to about 20 hosts/containers underneath it, in each of which you can start up a shell, etc. It's shells all the way down. (The laptop gets dog slow in this situation.)

I'm unduly impressed by Heebie using a different browser for each personality. That is brilliant.

I'm not as brilliant as Heebie but I do use Firefox for personal stuff and Chrome for work stuff.

I'm surprised you people keep so many tabs open. As I said, Cassandane does it, and often has computer problems with Web sites being too slow or freezing at bad times. I've just always assumed those two facts are related. I can't think of any more likely reason. Am I completely wrong about a connection between tabs and issues with the Web browser or CPU in general? Am I right, but you people have 30 tabs of plain text Web sites like this one open and she has 30 tabs of autoplaying video ads?

I can't imagine life without the kind of adblocker which kills autoplaying videos

One window with 19 tabs (including this one), one window with 7 tabs (which is a separate window for no good reason), one window with 6 tabs (separated because they're all on the same math topic that I was trying to learn mostly for fun over break), one window with 29 tabs (mostly files for postdoc candidates on the medium list, plus a few related windows like my work email), plus all four windows have 3 pinned tabs (gmail, calendar, newsblur).

I really need to come up with some non-tab based system for keeping track of "papers I might read some day" preferably sorted by topic. I'm sure there is software for this kind of thing, but I haven't gotten around to looking into it.

59: I use uBlock Origin. Maybe that's the difference?

That, and a VPN that blocks some stuff, is what I use.

59. Chrome tabs are expensive. I currently have 5 tabs open but there are 13 Chrome processes. Most of them are "only" about 20-30 M but it adds up, as does the process switching if they are actually doing something (like uploading your files to the Kremlin). Firefox tabs are reputedly lighter weight.

63: I do too on my home computer. Not sure what she uses but I don't think that's it. I'll recommend it.

Also, at work I always have two windows open, three when commenting. One for work and one for fun stuff. I've never bothered with incognito mode or anything. I figure I'm not tech-savvy enough to get around any filters. Lots of people look at work-safe-but-not-work-related stuff here; I'm rarely or never doing anything worse than Unfogged. I do it just so that if I try to show someone a work-related tab, I don't have to shuffle through not-work-related stuff right in front of them.

65 matches my impressions.

65 is why I stopped using chrome for most of my browsing (still use it for iCloud and work email, but that's about it.)

61: all four windows have 3 pinned tabs (gmail, calendar, newsblur).

Why do this, pin tabs? Why not just put a bookmark for each of those things on your Bookmarks Toolbar (at least that's what Firefox calls it) -- so gmail, for example, is right up there to click on, without it being a perpetually opened tab?

I try to keep open tabs below 15 or so; usually more like 5-10, because of the slow-down thing. And what is this business lately with news sites suddenly blaring sound at me, often reading aloud the article that I've chosen to read? Can't figure out how to stop that foolery.

You still that foolery with ublock origin, which has an option to block specific elements. It can be a bit fiddly to pick exactly the right div but once it's done you have put a stake in the heart of the beast

70 is true, and becomes a most satisfying pastime.

Is ublock better than Adblock?

Yes. Adblock appeared essentially to stop working for me some time ago. A year? (On Firefox.)

Thanks. Think I'll switch.

I'll look into it as well. Adblock does work fine for me, but an increasing number of news sites are refusing to let you read further unless you disable Adblock, and anyway, this reading-the-article-aloud thing isn't an ad, exactly. I've just been putting up with it, just manually x-ing out the audio when it starts, but a more elegant solution would be sweet.

about 75. unfortunately, they really all do spark joy and i would love to read them but they seem to accumulate faster than i can read through, much like books.

I also am trying to find a new way to save snippets or whole web pages now that the firefox extension i was using for that is not current enough to run. Any suggestions?

My present snippet collector is pinboard, only partly because maciej ceglowski, who wrote it, is a hero of the resistance to practically everything.
But pinboard won't save whole pages if they are password protected. Evernote does, mostly, but it's cumbersome.
Pinboard will save snippets.
Both have tags.
I have nearly 10,000 bookmarks saved in pinboard now, including everything I ever saved in Evernote.
Zotero is only really good for PDF s