I've searched the forums for an answer but I couldn't find quite the answer I was looking for [1] , so I thought I it could as well be of interest to more people around here. I carry out a big part of my job on the browser (or for the browser, if you want to put it that way). I tend to use Chrome, because it's got natively many of the newest features that I need (DevTools stuff, mainly but not only). BTW, I'm usually running the last available Chrome version/build on a desktop Vaio with 4GB RAM and dual core CPU and Ubuntu 12.04 as distro and Gnome as window manager. So, I was curious about a) why does Chrome spawn so many threads even opening only three of four tabs and b) is there any way to allocate more memory to Chrome to prevent its performance from degrading? Thanks in advance, Nacho PS [1] I found threads about Chrome freezing or running out of memory but not about the reasons for this being so or for avoiding it to happen. PPS Of course, I could always buy a newer and more capable machine and that is exactly what I'm trying to evaluate: is this a question of outdated hardware or the problem will keep appearing on any (decently but not hugely sized) machine?