not just FF... that's total commit charge for the entire machine as reported by Task Mgr. Sorry if I wasn't clear.
---------- Post added at 02:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 PM ----------
Grr's suggestion is a good one --fresh XP install-- OR you could turn it into a Ubuntu machine. All depends on what you want to do.
RE Windows versions, there's the "required minimum", the "enough to comfortably run a couple of apps" and then the "sweet spot."
I ran XP on 512 MB for quite a while, but I had to watch what I had running in the background and what I had open to prevent swapping to virtual memory.
Currently I have a machine with 1.5 GB.
To my mind 1 GB is the sweet spot for XP, just enough for a security suite, a browser with multiple tabs open and running another app with some free memory still left over.
My guesstimate for Win7 -- given the way I like to work -- 32 bit = 4 GB & 64 bit == 6 GB (on Win7 I want to be running VMs comfortably too). But that's just my preferences. Almost everyone can get by, with much less RAM.
There's a reason for the rule of thumb I've seen on several tech blogs: which edition of Win7, 32 or 64 bit? ==> 2 GB or less = 32 bit, 3 GB+ = 64 bit.