this is not a question... I'm sorry if that is against the rules but I find that google rates this site very high and for me this info would have helped a lot. If it is not acceptable we could delete this message and the 'harm' stays limited.
I switched from MyFaces-2.0.10 with RichFaces-3.3.3 to MyFaces-2.1.6 with RichFaces-4.2-Final and the memory usage of our application dropped enormously. From a staggering 50MB+ per session to almost none. We used to consume at least 1GB for every 20 users and that dropped to less then 200MB for any amount of users (<50 tested). Another effect is that it all seems faster, but we did not benchmark that.
It was a lot of work to migrate and it took two programmers about 4 months (total 30 hours/week) to learn the new ways and get it implemented. But that obviously will depend on the size of the project. We had to cope with a lot of bugs/issues in RF and MyFaces that are now fixed. I think that I could do it in a third of the time with what I know now. BalusC would do it in a week :)
So my advise is that if you have memory issues it might be an idea to start upgrading. It has to be done someday so why not now?
MAG, Milo