10 ms·

I wish I could use it but it has serious performance problems on macOS. I tried and it was just terrible. (thought not all Mac users have problems, quite a numb

I wish I could use it but it has serious performance problems on macOS. I tried and it was just terrible. (thought not all Mac users have problems, quite a number do, and Mozilla has an open issue asking for debugging logs from Macs to find the reasons).

brian-armstrong 8y ago
Strange. I almost exclusively use OSX (El Cap) and haven't had performance issues asides from needing to restart the browser once a month or so. Hopefully they get those problems resolved soon, the browser is super quick when it's working right.
- itsmenotyou 8y ago
  Same here, almost exclusive FF user on OSX (Sierra) and never had any issues
- uglycoyote 8y ago
  I find that I cannot watch a YouTube video on my MacBook in Firefox for more than 10 seconds without the fans coming on at full throttle. This is one of the few reasons that I start up chrome, as strangely I can watch the same video in chrome without performance issues. I haven't had this issue on Firefox on PC
  - colanderman 8y ago
    Disable "Automatic graphics switching" in "Energy Saver" in OS X settings. This fixed this problem for me (which started about 4 months ago). (I'm on Yosemite.)
    - fernly 8y ago
      I'm on Yosemite and I don't see anything like that in the energy saver preference pane.
      - joethebro 8y ago
        That setting will only appear if you have a 15" with a dedicated GPU. 13" only have "Energy Saving" integrated graphics and don't need the setting
  - hrktb 8y ago
    Google properties are a lost battle. Google Sheets and Google Docs have been horrible on anything than Chrome for a while as well, and I guess they have no incentive to make that situation change. Firefox is dealing with it better than before I think, but I won’t hold my breath for parity to ever come.
  - scns 8y ago
    Try the h264ify extension, it forces h264 video instead of webm, you can block 60fps videos too if you want to halve the size of the download. If your cpu does not have a webm decoder in hardware, it has to decode them in software which is inefficient.
- zmw 8y ago
  GP claims that FF performance is terrible, which I cannot endorse (I guess GP might be having an actual issue), but I'll make a different claim: performance is not as good as Chrome (or maybe even Safari), despite all the accolades of FF Quantum, and my myriad attempts to switch to FF. The (at least perceived) inferiority of performance in addition to general UI ugliness makes it a no switch for me. P.S. macOS 10.13.6.
  - mirthflat83 8y ago
    funny, I personally find the new Chrome look to be much uglier
    - euvitudo 8y ago
      When I first saw the Chrome update, I thought: "Hey, it looks just like Firefox!"
      - zmw 8y ago
        Sorry, if that was your thought, I’m afraid all design is probably lost on you. Which might be a blessing, since you can use whatever and can’t tell the difference anyway.
    - vetinari 8y ago
      It can be switched back (for now)... Go to chrome://flags, search for "UI Layout for the browser's top chrome" and pick "Normal". Restart and enjoy the old design.
- torstenvl 8y ago
  There is a significant (maybe 0.4-0.5 seconds?) lag between the cursor hovering over something and it's hover action (highlight, whatever) taking place. Running my mouse down the list in about:config feels like I'm drunk. This is on a brand new maxed out i7 MacBook Pro.
  - torstenvl 8y ago
    As a follow-up, I did a complete reinstall of Firefox with a new profile, removed as much cruft as I could (pocket, etc.), upped the content process limit... and I feel like Firefox is much more usable. There's still some lag, but it's more on the order of 0.05 - 0.1 seconds. Now if I could just get it to be reasonable about search engines...
- bmurphy1976 8y ago
  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1429522 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1429522 It's pretty bad. Firefox cuts my battery life in half doing nothing.
  - hellofunk 8y ago
    Also, on my 2-year old MacBook Pro, the thing heats up pretty bad and the fans go on quite loud. It's terrible. I've actually never run any application on my laptop that performs as bad as Firefox, and that's saying something.
- rosser 8y ago
  Are you using a "scaled" resolution? If so, there's a bug in redrawing that pegs a core, and kills battery life. It can be mitigated by setting gfx.compositor.glcontext.opaque = true in about:config, but the fix is invasive, and has taken years to get prioritized and worked on. I've seen reports that it should finally be done in FF64 or 65.
Kpourdeilami 8y ago
I gave up on Firefox on OS X for performance reasons and switched to Safari a while ago and it’s a decent browser. It has support for extensions that I use (ublock origin and 1Password), uses less battery than any other browser, and is fast
- davb 8y ago
  I switched back to Chrome recently because the ublock origin port on Safari has been pretty broken recently. Setting third party domain blocking options in advanced mode doesn't seem to work any more (can't save the settings) and the extension doesn't seem to be maintained any more, judging by the github repo.
- torstenvl 8y ago
  The one major thing that keeps me from Safari is keyword searching. It's a major part of my browsing workflow and makes me so much more productive. Last I knew, you could assign hotkeys to bookmarks, but I don't think you could assign keywords and you couldn't use %s as a placeholder.
  - nkurz 8y ago
    At first, I was confused, because I've been using this feature in Safari for years. But then I remembered that years ago I installed an extension called "Omnikey" that provides this: http://marioestrada.github.io/safari-omnikey/ http://marioestrada.github.io/safari-omnikey/, https://safari-extensions.apple.com/details/?id=ec.mario.omnikey-B2VSUSJ7UP https://safari-extensions.apple.com/details/?id=ec.mario.omn.... If this is the only thing holding you back from using Safari, install the extension and switch. It's been working so well for years that I forgot it wasn't built in.
- el_benhameen 8y ago
  I love how Safari sips battery on OS X, but its performance is glacial in my experience. With Chrome I can, for example, type “was” and hit return at normal typing speed and expect the browser to have autopopulated “washingtonpost.com” from my history and take me there. With Safari on the same newer high end macbook pro, autopopulate takes up to a few seconds, so hitting return takes me to the page half of the time and searches for “was” the other half of the time. Pages seem to take longer until the first meaningful content loads, too.
hellbanner 8y ago
Yep. And Google Voice runs horribly on iOS.. 20 second lag time to check messages, no joke. Earlier versions would freeze at the beginning of each character you type. Makes me wonder if companies aren't just slowing down their competitors..
- stefano 8y ago
  On iOS they can't use their own engine, everything is just a wrapper around webkit.
  - eridius 8y ago
    WebKit isn't slow though. Also the parent comment is about Google Voice, which is not a browser and therefore is not constrained by Apple's restrictions on 3rd-party browser engines.
- brian-armstrong 8y ago
  It's possible, but it's much more likely that off-platform teams just don't get much love from their orgs. iTunes on Windows comes to mind, for example.
  - hellbanner 8y ago
    I would believe this, were it not that the google voice app continues to break in new ways version to version. The latest loads a little faster and isn't freezing as much (still a 10 second load, better than a 40 seconds of nothing). But now when I reply to messages? 19/20 messages I've tried to send through GV show "Message failed to send".
- TheKarateKid 8y ago
  The timestamps on call and message lists don’t update properly either. Switching playback source (earpiece to speaker) often doesn’t work. Screen shuts off even when voicemail is still playing. All this unfixed for years now.
tapoxi 8y ago
These issues seem like they’re (finally) fixed in the betas of Firefox 63.
cimmanom 8y ago
It’s been pretty good for me since Quantum. There is still a known issue with scaled monitor resolutions (which I do use), but it looks like fixes are in the pipeline.
i_am_nomad 8y ago
Sorry to sound naive, but is there a good reason (or a few) not to use Safari?
- jen729w 8y ago
  It's my daily browser of choice, FWIW, but is no good for development. The React dev tool plugin, for instance, is only available on Chrome & Firefox. I'm trying to switch to Firefox but it certainly doesn't feel as snappy as Chrome when doing dev work. I do like some of the tools though. Still undecided.
  - matwood 8y ago
    I use Safari for browsing and Chrome for development. Recent changes from Hangouts to Meet has also forced me to use Chrome for video chats. I've never been a huge extension user (ad blockers and some development tools), so moving to Safari was easy. The big thing I missed was favicons, and those have been in the technology preview for awhile now. I may explore FF for development, but I'm not sure there is a need since I've already relegated Chrome to a specific task.
  - npolet 8y ago
    This is it. Safari really doesn't compare to chrome/firefox in terms of good developer tools. They are there, but no where near as useful/powerful. I have noticed a few quirks in Safari that I have to work around. Like not rendering things exactly the same way as chrome/firefox. Bit of a pain, but there is never anything that's really "broken".
- newscracker 8y ago
  One reason is that the variety and number of extensions available is far lesser on Safari compared to Firefox. If someone is dependent on several extensions, then it may be a no-go.
Larrikin 8y ago
What performance issues have you experienced? Chrome and Firefox run the same on my machine. The only time I switch to Chrome is when some Javascript developer has for some reason disabled click functionality in browsers besides Chrome. Most recently Bank of America has prevented click functionality on their cash back merchants.
- superflyguy 8y ago
  When that happens I just shift-right-click on them (in Firefox). There are add-ons if you don't want to have to do this.
jwr 8y ago
If you are on MacOS, why don't you use Safari? I'm puzzled as to why people seem to dismiss the "built-in" browser. It's the fastest, smoothest, best integrated, and least power-hungry browser on the platform. I regularly use all three major browsers (for testing, I write web applications) and I consistently switch back to Safari for all my non-special browsing.
- epicide 8y ago
  I keep trying to use Safari as my main browser. I want to use it so bad. I keep switching away from it due to lack of favicons and lack of extensions. I don't personally mind paying for a dev license to release an extension, but it definitely takes a toll on the extensions that get released.
  - valleyer 8y ago
    Safari shows favicons in tab titles in macOS v10.14 Mojave.
    - jurip 8y ago
      It's a Safari 12 feature, so works on macOS 10.13 too.
    - geerlingguy 8y ago
      And Safari 12 on High Sierra.
- ino 8y ago
  One thing I don't like is having a 30% chance to have to wait 2-4 seconds whenever I swipe to go to the previous page or click the back button.
  - peheje 8y ago
    This. This a thousand times. I get these random slow downs as well with safari. But only every once in a while. What is happening?
Zarath 8y ago
Yes I have the same issue. Completely absurd resource usage on some pages, causes my fans to spin constantly.
PakG1 8y ago
Really? When I complained about Firefox performance on macOS, I was downvoted by a lot of people. It almost made me consider if the problem was PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair). I am glad I'm not the only one. I wanted to love Firefox, but I can't because of this. edit: reading all the comments in this thread, geez, I finally feel like I'm not a stupid user. :) The issues are real!
- the_clarence 8y ago
  Yup. Firefox is slow as hell on my mac. I've tried everything and nothing works.
rodorgas 8y ago
I have perfomance issues on heavy JS websites. Facebook is almost unusable. But I have a bunch of extensions. If I try using a new profile (no extensions, default preferences, etc) it's nice and smooth.
Antrikshy 8y ago
The current Firefox beta changeling has a couple items that suggest better performance on macOS: "Faster tab switching in the majority of cases for our macOS users" "Improved the reactivity of Firefox on macOS" https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes
m12k 8y ago
I wanted to ditch Chrome, so I tried Firefox on macOS and it took 3-5 seconds to load most sites while they load in 0.5-1.0 seconds in Chrome. I tried uninstalling (including deleting all profile data) and re-installing to see if that helped. This is as far as I got in trying to install uBlock Origin: https://gyazo.com/5850d1b0955c42b857de4ab302c8149b https://gyazo.com/5850d1b0955c42b857de4ab302c8149b Tried viewing source, but that page just came out blank too. I really want to like Firefox, but the release version feels like an alpha test to me...
- AsyncAwait 8y ago
  Yeah, this is specific to macOS. I also use Firefox on my Linux machine, where it's supper snappy. Kind of strange, considering a lot of Mozilla employees seem to be on MacBooks.
pnenp 8y ago
I just switched on my Ubuntu, following the new release of Chrome which OP rightly criticizes. It works very well.

brian-armstrong 8y ago

Strange. I almost exclusively use OSX (El Cap) and haven't had performance issues asides from needing to restart the browser once a month or so. Hopefully they get those problems resolved soon, the browser is super quick when it's working right.

itsmenotyou 8y ago
Same here, almost exclusive FF user on OSX (Sierra) and never had any issues
uglycoyote 8y ago
I find that I cannot watch a YouTube video on my MacBook in Firefox for more than 10 seconds without the fans coming on at full throttle. This is one of the few reasons that I start up chrome, as strangely I can watch the same video in chrome without performance issues. I haven't had this issue on Firefox on PC
- colanderman 8y ago
  Disable "Automatic graphics switching" in "Energy Saver" in OS X settings. This fixed this problem for me (which started about 4 months ago). (I'm on Yosemite.)
  - fernly 8y ago
    I'm on Yosemite and I don't see anything like that in the energy saver preference pane.
    - joethebro 8y ago
      That setting will only appear if you have a 15" with a dedicated GPU. 13" only have "Energy Saving" integrated graphics and don't need the setting
- hrktb 8y ago
  Google properties are a lost battle. Google Sheets and Google Docs have been horrible on anything than Chrome for a while as well, and I guess they have no incentive to make that situation change. Firefox is dealing with it better than before I think, but I won’t hold my breath for parity to ever come.
- scns 8y ago
  Try the h264ify extension, it forces h264 video instead of webm, you can block 60fps videos too if you want to halve the size of the download. If your cpu does not have a webm decoder in hardware, it has to decode them in software which is inefficient.
zmw 8y ago
GP claims that FF performance is terrible, which I cannot endorse (I guess GP might be having an actual issue), but I'll make a different claim: performance is not as good as Chrome (or maybe even Safari), despite all the accolades of FF Quantum, and my myriad attempts to switch to FF. The (at least perceived) inferiority of performance in addition to general UI ugliness makes it a no switch for me. P.S. macOS 10.13.6.
- mirthflat83 8y ago
  funny, I personally find the new Chrome look to be much uglier
  - euvitudo 8y ago
    When I first saw the Chrome update, I thought: "Hey, it looks just like Firefox!"
    - zmw 8y ago
      Sorry, if that was your thought, I’m afraid all design is probably lost on you. Which might be a blessing, since you can use whatever and can’t tell the difference anyway.
  - vetinari 8y ago
    It can be switched back (for now)... Go to chrome://flags, search for "UI Layout for the browser's top chrome" and pick "Normal". Restart and enjoy the old design.
torstenvl 8y ago
There is a significant (maybe 0.4-0.5 seconds?) lag between the cursor hovering over something and it's hover action (highlight, whatever) taking place. Running my mouse down the list in about:config feels like I'm drunk. This is on a brand new maxed out i7 MacBook Pro.
- torstenvl 8y ago
  As a follow-up, I did a complete reinstall of Firefox with a new profile, removed as much cruft as I could (pocket, etc.), upped the content process limit... and I feel like Firefox is much more usable. There's still some lag, but it's more on the order of 0.05 - 0.1 seconds. Now if I could just get it to be reasonable about search engines...
bmurphy1976 8y ago
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1429522 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1429522 It's pretty bad. Firefox cuts my battery life in half doing nothing.
- hellofunk 8y ago
  Also, on my 2-year old MacBook Pro, the thing heats up pretty bad and the fans go on quite loud. It's terrible. I've actually never run any application on my laptop that performs as bad as Firefox, and that's saying something.
rosser 8y ago
Are you using a "scaled" resolution? If so, there's a bug in redrawing that pegs a core, and kills battery life. It can be mitigated by setting gfx.compositor.glcontext.opaque = true in about:config, but the fix is invasive, and has taken years to get prioritized and worked on. I've seen reports that it should finally be done in FF64 or 65.

Kpourdeilami 8y ago

I gave up on Firefox on OS X for performance reasons and switched to Safari a while ago and it’s a decent browser. It has support for extensions that I use (ublock origin and 1Password), uses less battery than any other browser, and is fast

davb 8y ago
I switched back to Chrome recently because the ublock origin port on Safari has been pretty broken recently. Setting third party domain blocking options in advanced mode doesn't seem to work any more (can't save the settings) and the extension doesn't seem to be maintained any more, judging by the github repo.
torstenvl 8y ago
The one major thing that keeps me from Safari is keyword searching. It's a major part of my browsing workflow and makes me so much more productive. Last I knew, you could assign hotkeys to bookmarks, but I don't think you could assign keywords and you couldn't use %s as a placeholder.
- nkurz 8y ago
  At first, I was confused, because I've been using this feature in Safari for years. But then I remembered that years ago I installed an extension called "Omnikey" that provides this: http://marioestrada.github.io/safari-omnikey/ http://marioestrada.github.io/safari-omnikey/, https://safari-extensions.apple.com/details/?id=ec.mario.omnikey-B2VSUSJ7UP https://safari-extensions.apple.com/details/?id=ec.mario.omn.... If this is the only thing holding you back from using Safari, install the extension and switch. It's been working so well for years that I forgot it wasn't built in.
el_benhameen 8y ago
I love how Safari sips battery on OS X, but its performance is glacial in my experience. With Chrome I can, for example, type “was” and hit return at normal typing speed and expect the browser to have autopopulated “washingtonpost.com” from my history and take me there. With Safari on the same newer high end macbook pro, autopopulate takes up to a few seconds, so hitting return takes me to the page half of the time and searches for “was” the other half of the time. Pages seem to take longer until the first meaningful content loads, too.

hellbanner 8y ago

Yep. And Google Voice runs horribly on iOS.. 20 second lag time to check messages, no joke. Earlier versions would freeze at the beginning of each character you type. Makes me wonder if companies aren't just slowing down their competitors..

stefano 8y ago
On iOS they can't use their own engine, everything is just a wrapper around webkit.
- eridius 8y ago
  WebKit isn't slow though. Also the parent comment is about Google Voice, which is not a browser and therefore is not constrained by Apple's restrictions on 3rd-party browser engines.
brian-armstrong 8y ago
It's possible, but it's much more likely that off-platform teams just don't get much love from their orgs. iTunes on Windows comes to mind, for example.
- hellbanner 8y ago
  I would believe this, were it not that the google voice app continues to break in new ways version to version. The latest loads a little faster and isn't freezing as much (still a 10 second load, better than a 40 seconds of nothing). But now when I reply to messages? 19/20 messages I've tried to send through GV show "Message failed to send".
TheKarateKid 8y ago
The timestamps on call and message lists don’t update properly either. Switching playback source (earpiece to speaker) often doesn’t work. Screen shuts off even when voicemail is still playing. All this unfixed for years now.

tapoxi 8y ago

These issues seem like they’re (finally) fixed in the betas of Firefox 63.

cimmanom 8y ago

It’s been pretty good for me since Quantum. There is still a known issue with scaled monitor resolutions (which I do use), but it looks like fixes are in the pipeline.

i_am_nomad 8y ago

Sorry to sound naive, but is there a good reason (or a few) not to use Safari?

jen729w 8y ago
It's my daily browser of choice, FWIW, but is no good for development. The React dev tool plugin, for instance, is only available on Chrome & Firefox. I'm trying to switch to Firefox but it certainly doesn't feel as snappy as Chrome when doing dev work. I do like some of the tools though. Still undecided.
- matwood 8y ago
  I use Safari for browsing and Chrome for development. Recent changes from Hangouts to Meet has also forced me to use Chrome for video chats. I've never been a huge extension user (ad blockers and some development tools), so moving to Safari was easy. The big thing I missed was favicons, and those have been in the technology preview for awhile now. I may explore FF for development, but I'm not sure there is a need since I've already relegated Chrome to a specific task.
- npolet 8y ago
  This is it. Safari really doesn't compare to chrome/firefox in terms of good developer tools. They are there, but no where near as useful/powerful. I have noticed a few quirks in Safari that I have to work around. Like not rendering things exactly the same way as chrome/firefox. Bit of a pain, but there is never anything that's really "broken".
newscracker 8y ago
One reason is that the variety and number of extensions available is far lesser on Safari compared to Firefox. If someone is dependent on several extensions, then it may be a no-go.

Larrikin 8y ago

What performance issues have you experienced? Chrome and Firefox run the same on my machine. The only time I switch to Chrome is when some Javascript developer has for some reason disabled click functionality in browsers besides Chrome. Most recently Bank of America has prevented click functionality on their cash back merchants.

superflyguy 8y ago
When that happens I just shift-right-click on them (in Firefox). There are add-ons if you don't want to have to do this.

jwr 8y ago

If you are on MacOS, why don't you use Safari? I'm puzzled as to why people seem to dismiss the "built-in" browser. It's the fastest, smoothest, best integrated, and least power-hungry browser on the platform. I regularly use all three major browsers (for testing, I write web applications) and I consistently switch back to Safari for all my non-special browsing.

epicide 8y ago
I keep trying to use Safari as my main browser. I want to use it so bad. I keep switching away from it due to lack of favicons and lack of extensions. I don't personally mind paying for a dev license to release an extension, but it definitely takes a toll on the extensions that get released.
- valleyer 8y ago
  Safari shows favicons in tab titles in macOS v10.14 Mojave.
  - jurip 8y ago
    It's a Safari 12 feature, so works on macOS 10.13 too.
  - geerlingguy 8y ago
    And Safari 12 on High Sierra.
ino 8y ago
One thing I don't like is having a 30% chance to have to wait 2-4 seconds whenever I swipe to go to the previous page or click the back button.
- peheje 8y ago
  This. This a thousand times. I get these random slow downs as well with safari. But only every once in a while. What is happening?

Zarath 8y ago

Yes I have the same issue. Completely absurd resource usage on some pages, causes my fans to spin constantly.

PakG1 8y ago

Really? When I complained about Firefox performance on macOS, I was downvoted by a lot of people. It almost made me consider if the problem was PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair). I am glad I'm not the only one. I wanted to love Firefox, but I can't because of this. edit: reading all the comments in this thread, geez, I finally feel like I'm not a stupid user. :) The issues are real!

the_clarence 8y ago
Yup. Firefox is slow as hell on my mac. I've tried everything and nothing works.

rodorgas 8y ago

I have perfomance issues on heavy JS websites. Facebook is almost unusable. But I have a bunch of extensions. If I try using a new profile (no extensions, default preferences, etc) it's nice and smooth.

Antrikshy 8y ago

The current Firefox beta changeling has a couple items that suggest better performance on macOS: "Faster tab switching in the majority of cases for our macOS users" "Improved the reactivity of Firefox on macOS" https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/63.0beta/releasenotes

m12k 8y ago

I wanted to ditch Chrome, so I tried Firefox on macOS and it took 3-5 seconds to load most sites while they load in 0.5-1.0 seconds in Chrome. I tried uninstalling (including deleting all profile data) and re-installing to see if that helped. This is as far as I got in trying to install uBlock Origin: https://gyazo.com/5850d1b0955c42b857de4ab302c8149b https://gyazo.com/5850d1b0955c42b857de4ab302c8149b Tried viewing source, but that page just came out blank too. I really want to like Firefox, but the release version feels like an alpha test to me...

AsyncAwait 8y ago
Yeah, this is specific to macOS. I also use Firefox on my Linux machine, where it's supper snappy. Kind of strange, considering a lot of Mozilla employees seem to be on MacBooks.

pnenp 8y ago

I just switched on my Ubuntu, following the new release of Chrome which OP rightly criticizes. It works very well.