First, the following is not meant to be a criticism of XnView in any way. I remain a faithful user of XnView in both Windows and Linux. Ok, with that out of the way, here's my question

Why does XnView use so much RAM? I've compared XnView and Irfanview (latest versions) in various stages of load.
1. Upon startup with no image loaded or thumbnail displayed. XnV will typically take around 10,000+ KB. Irfanview will take between a few hundred to 2,000 KB.
2. With 1 image loaded, depending on the size of that image, XnView can use up to 12,000 KB RAM while IrfanView stays below 10,000 KB.
3. With no image loaded but in thumbnail browser mode for a directory of 700 images, Xn uses 22,000 KB while Irfan uses 16,000 KB.
Again, let me emphasise that this is not a dig at XnView. I much prefer the layout and UI to other viewers but do have a slight concern about the memory usage.
Thanks.