Epiphany pixmap storage usage. (Please use xrestop, it is your friend).

[Jim Gettys <Jim Gettys hp com>]

I was using xrestop (see
http://freedesktop.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xrestop/?root=xapps
(xapps/xrestop in freedesktop's CVS).

As far as I can tell, Epiphany is profligate with its use
of Pixmap storage in the X server (and in epiphany itself), 
and I find no way in the UI
to limit this usage.  X only does what it is asked, and
epiphany seems to like to use lots of memory.

Once the X server is forced to allocate large amounts of pixmaps,
and you run out of RAM on your system, the X server will have
to start paging, and the overall effect on your user interface
desktop experience will suffer badly.  And the web browser
is *the* application that uses more storage than all other applications
right now, and is most likely to force the desktop
into paging, which will make people think: "boy, Gnome is a pig,
oink, oink, oink..."

Remember, just because you don't see the RAM usage appearing
in your PS usage doesn't mean you aren't using the RAM.

I highly recommend some serious work to control epiphany's
memory usage, both in the epiphany address space and in
the pixmap storage it requires X to save on its behalf...

                        Regards,
                               - Jim Gettys