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by maxbrunsfeld 2426 days ago
It is not because of Electron.

An empty Atom window containing 5 source code files consumes about 120MB of RAM. For comparison with native apps, an empty iTerm2 window uses 100MB, and so does an empty Notes.app window. The base memory footprint imposed by Chromium is not that significant.
2 comments
windsurfer 2426 days ago
On my machine, an empty Atom instance is using about 400 MB: https://imgur.com/S1POSPz.jpg
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maxbrunsfeld 2426 days ago
Do you have some packages installed? If so, can you re-run with `atom --safe`?

Granted, it is totally normal to have packages when using Atom, but their memory cost shouldn't be considered a penalty that you pay due to Electron. Rather, it's a penalty that you pay if you want an extensible application in which extensions are allowed to use JavaScript.

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windsurfer 2426 days ago
I have no custom packages installed - I use atom just to take notes and do small text editing.

When I run `atom --safe` it starts at around the same amount of memory usage: https://imgur.com/j4Co4n6.png

Side note: Running that command is now preventing my from quitting Atom using the Atom > Quit menu entry. I had to force quit it to get it to close.

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brylie 2414 days ago
How much memory does a "hello world" app use?
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