3 ms·

Yes I am, Stan. Me too. Deeply frustrated with Firefox.

17 points by rovivor 18y ago

rlm 18y ago
Moreover, I know that I will be facing with more crashes with a beta. Firefox 3.0b5 hasn't crashed once on my laptop (Ubuntu) or desktop (Vista), and I've been using it since it got released. On top of that, I can't imagine what you have done to your Firefox 2-install, if it crashes that often and you reach that high CPU- and memory usage. Something besides the main Firefox install must be fubar'ed...
- rovivor 18y ago
  Be sure that it is not only me having these kind of problems, especially memory usage problem. You can check Stan's post and its comments out, there is a link on my post.
- handelaar 18y ago
  "Firefox 3.0b5 hasn't crashed once on my laptop (Ubuntu)" You've disabled Flash then, I assume. I can't keep the browser on for much more than an hour here without Flashblock. Beta 5 is certainly faster and less memory-profligate than 2.0 was, though.
  - bootload 18y ago
    "Firefox 3.0b5 hasn't crashed once on my laptop (Ubuntu)" Has for me and maybe it is because I have flash enabled for fox2... thanks for the tipoff.
- thaumaturgy 18y ago
  I don't have crashing problems, but I do have the same disappointing memory and CPU usage problems that many others have reported. I'm not running much on my Firefox -- just ABP and Firebug, which is usually disabled until I need it. Based on what I've read, Firefox's memory trouble is not just about memory leaking, but also about a less-than-stellar memory allocator which causes it to fragment its heap badly, which in turn forces it to continue to grow its heap ever outward. In FF3 the Mozilla team spliced in FreeBSD's jemalloc and that seems to work better.
- andreyf 18y ago
  On top of that, I can't imagine what you have done to your Firefox 2-install, I can: I am now using more extensions than I was using and life is even easier, no problem with this.
  - rovivor 18y ago
    I have 23 extensions in total.
- alyx 18y ago
  Although Firefox 3.0b5 is better overall, currently it crashes each time I try to log into Godaddy.
m0nty 18y ago
I have Firefox on a Mac, with 23 extensions installed. Very occasionally, it bombs (usually when leaving Gmail) but otherwise it's been fine. Maybe the people who have problems should try, you know, just closing it now and then. Not exactly a high-tech solution, but it works OK for me. Having said that, I often run my computer and Firefox for days at a time. I would be interested in the alternatives, but afaict they don't exist. Another browser with extensions like Adblock, Web Developer Toolbar, Firebug, etc? I doubt it.
- apu 18y ago
  Does anyone else have these gmail-crashing problems (e.g., when leaving gmail's site)? I looked at their FAQs and it suggests some problem with firebug, but even with it disabled I often get crashes.
  - m0nty 18y ago
    It only crashes when I try to leave gmail, and then only about 10% of the time, so it's not a big deal. I think I disabled Firebug when on Gmail. It only started when the latest version of Gmail was introduced, so I suspect it's a bug at their end, but tracking it down could prove awkward.
marrone 18y ago
I am currently just waiting for Safari's Web Inspector tool to reach par with Firebug before I switch to it over Firefox permanently
- thorax 18y ago
  Firebug is a killer app. I would need something like that on another browser before I moved anywhere.
  - andreyf 18y ago
    Addblock and greasemonkey would be on my cannot-live-without list, also.
    - jamongkad 18y ago
      Mine would be firebug and vimperator.
naish 18y ago
I'm running Firefox 3.0b5 on a PowerBook G4. I seem to have random crashes multiple times a day. Currently, it is fairly common to find that Firefox has crashed upon wake up from sleep. Performance is snappier than FF2, but it is far less stable. I expect that much of this will be sorted out prior to the final release. That said, if it weren't for a couple of extensions that I use regularly, I'd be inclined to make the switch to Safari.
- bluelu 18y ago
  You know, that's probably the DOS protection ;) Over a year ago, if you were using firefox on an ajax enabled site making periodic request to the webservers, firefox would request all the requests it missed while being asleep (hibernate mode) at once when the computer came back to life. :-)
ojbyrne 18y ago
I'm running 3.0b5 on a macbook pro with only a few extensions, and it crashes constantly. I upgraded because 2 seemed to crash even more.
epall 18y ago
I really thought I could never switch away from Firefox because of all of the extensions I "couldn't live without," but I started playing with Webkit nightlies a few weeks back and never looked back. It's faster, launches quickly, eats less memory (look! It's only at half a gig!), and has high-res scrolling. The last one, albeit small, is killer for me. Reading articles on the web is a whole difference experience when you have good font rendering and truly smooth scrolling. I use keyboard shortcuts to turn off the location and bookmarks bars most of the time to make the browser get out of my way and let me use my webapps. Goodbye, Firefox!
baha_man 18y ago
"I am thinking of moving to Opera permanently" - stop thinking about it, just do it.
- iamelgringo 18y ago
  I'd use Opera permanently if it only had a decent inline spell checker. All the options that I've tried don't really cut it.
Sam_Odio 18y ago
camino.
Herring 18y ago
Memory is cheap, guys. 1 gb ram costs ~$30 at newegg.
- thaumaturgy 18y ago
  Ah, yes, that most excellent justification for crappy software: Developer: "It's OK if our program runs slow, processors are getting faster all the time." User: "Your program runs slow..." Developer: "Then get a new computer! More RAM! Faster processor! They're cheap!" (The user does so. 6 months later, a new version of the software is about to be released...) Developer: "It's OK if our program runs even slower, processors are getting faster all the time." ...
menloparkbum 18y ago
I wasted 2 years of my life working heavily with the Mozilla/XULRunner/FF codebase. The code base is huge and is organized in a manner that makes tracing memory issues very difficult. Unfortunately there are also cultural reasons why things are unlikely to improve in the future. There are simply too many cooks in the kitchen at mozilla, it is very bureaucratic and the engineering team as a whole gets sidetracked by details that don't solve the serious issues in the "platform." The webkit team is small and agile and was chosen as the web rendering platform for Android, Adobe AIR and the iPhone. For better or worse, WebKit is going to eat Mozilla's lunch. In a past essay PG suggests that a few people working on a new browser would be a cool project. I completely agree. A tri-platform browser based on WebKit with a wrapper for media (video, audio) and a clean plugin API would be amazing.

17 points by rovivor 18y ago

rlm 18y ago

Moreover, I know that I will be facing with more crashes with a beta. Firefox 3.0b5 hasn't crashed once on my laptop (Ubuntu) or desktop (Vista), and I've been using it since it got released. On top of that, I can't imagine what you have done to your Firefox 2-install, if it crashes that often and you reach that high CPU- and memory usage. Something besides the main Firefox install must be fubar'ed...

rovivor 18y ago
Be sure that it is not only me having these kind of problems, especially memory usage problem. You can check Stan's post and its comments out, there is a link on my post.
handelaar 18y ago
"Firefox 3.0b5 hasn't crashed once on my laptop (Ubuntu)" You've disabled Flash then, I assume. I can't keep the browser on for much more than an hour here without Flashblock. Beta 5 is certainly faster and less memory-profligate than 2.0 was, though.
- bootload 18y ago
  "Firefox 3.0b5 hasn't crashed once on my laptop (Ubuntu)" Has for me and maybe it is because I have flash enabled for fox2... thanks for the tipoff.
thaumaturgy 18y ago
I don't have crashing problems, but I do have the same disappointing memory and CPU usage problems that many others have reported. I'm not running much on my Firefox -- just ABP and Firebug, which is usually disabled until I need it. Based on what I've read, Firefox's memory trouble is not just about memory leaking, but also about a less-than-stellar memory allocator which causes it to fragment its heap badly, which in turn forces it to continue to grow its heap ever outward. In FF3 the Mozilla team spliced in FreeBSD's jemalloc and that seems to work better.
andreyf 18y ago
On top of that, I can't imagine what you have done to your Firefox 2-install, I can: I am now using more extensions than I was using and life is even easier, no problem with this.
- rovivor 18y ago
  I have 23 extensions in total.
alyx 18y ago
Although Firefox 3.0b5 is better overall, currently it crashes each time I try to log into Godaddy.

m0nty 18y ago

I have Firefox on a Mac, with 23 extensions installed. Very occasionally, it bombs (usually when leaving Gmail) but otherwise it's been fine. Maybe the people who have problems should try, you know, just closing it now and then. Not exactly a high-tech solution, but it works OK for me. Having said that, I often run my computer and Firefox for days at a time. I would be interested in the alternatives, but afaict they don't exist. Another browser with extensions like Adblock, Web Developer Toolbar, Firebug, etc? I doubt it.

apu 18y ago
Does anyone else have these gmail-crashing problems (e.g., when leaving gmail's site)? I looked at their FAQs and it suggests some problem with firebug, but even with it disabled I often get crashes.
- m0nty 18y ago
  It only crashes when I try to leave gmail, and then only about 10% of the time, so it's not a big deal. I think I disabled Firebug when on Gmail. It only started when the latest version of Gmail was introduced, so I suspect it's a bug at their end, but tracking it down could prove awkward.

marrone 18y ago

I am currently just waiting for Safari's Web Inspector tool to reach par with Firebug before I switch to it over Firefox permanently

thorax 18y ago
Firebug is a killer app. I would need something like that on another browser before I moved anywhere.
- andreyf 18y ago
  Addblock and greasemonkey would be on my cannot-live-without list, also.
  - jamongkad 18y ago
    Mine would be firebug and vimperator.

naish 18y ago

I'm running Firefox 3.0b5 on a PowerBook G4. I seem to have random crashes multiple times a day. Currently, it is fairly common to find that Firefox has crashed upon wake up from sleep. Performance is snappier than FF2, but it is far less stable. I expect that much of this will be sorted out prior to the final release. That said, if it weren't for a couple of extensions that I use regularly, I'd be inclined to make the switch to Safari.

bluelu 18y ago
You know, that's probably the DOS protection ;) Over a year ago, if you were using firefox on an ajax enabled site making periodic request to the webservers, firefox would request all the requests it missed while being asleep (hibernate mode) at once when the computer came back to life. :-)

ojbyrne 18y ago

I'm running 3.0b5 on a macbook pro with only a few extensions, and it crashes constantly. I upgraded because 2 seemed to crash even more.

epall 18y ago

I really thought I could never switch away from Firefox because of all of the extensions I "couldn't live without," but I started playing with Webkit nightlies a few weeks back and never looked back. It's faster, launches quickly, eats less memory (look! It's only at half a gig!), and has high-res scrolling. The last one, albeit small, is killer for me. Reading articles on the web is a whole difference experience when you have good font rendering and truly smooth scrolling. I use keyboard shortcuts to turn off the location and bookmarks bars most of the time to make the browser get out of my way and let me use my webapps. Goodbye, Firefox!

baha_man 18y ago

"I am thinking of moving to Opera permanently" - stop thinking about it, just do it.

iamelgringo 18y ago
I'd use Opera permanently if it only had a decent inline spell checker. All the options that I've tried don't really cut it.

Sam_Odio 18y ago

camino.

Herring 18y ago

Memory is cheap, guys. 1 gb ram costs ~$30 at newegg.

thaumaturgy 18y ago
Ah, yes, that most excellent justification for crappy software: Developer: "It's OK if our program runs slow, processors are getting faster all the time." User: "Your program runs slow..." Developer: "Then get a new computer! More RAM! Faster processor! They're cheap!" (The user does so. 6 months later, a new version of the software is about to be released...) Developer: "It's OK if our program runs even slower, processors are getting faster all the time." ...

menloparkbum 18y ago

I wasted 2 years of my life working heavily with the Mozilla/XULRunner/FF codebase. The code base is huge and is organized in a manner that makes tracing memory issues very difficult. Unfortunately there are also cultural reasons why things are unlikely to improve in the future. There are simply too many cooks in the kitchen at mozilla, it is very bureaucratic and the engineering team as a whole gets sidetracked by details that don't solve the serious issues in the "platform." The webkit team is small and agile and was chosen as the web rendering platform for Android, Adobe AIR and the iPhone. For better or worse, WebKit is going to eat Mozilla's lunch. In a past essay PG suggests that a few people working on a new browser would be a cool project. I completely agree. A tri-platform browser based on WebKit with a wrapper for media (video, audio) and a clean plugin API would be amazing.