6 ms·

What's wrong with Firefox?

generalizations 4y ago
Last I checked (6 mos ago), it had memory leaks and it was slow. I could leave my chrome/brave tabs open for a week while I worked on a project, but firefox had to be killed and restarted daily or it would eat all my RAM and swap. That being said, I made do with it for years because I love the tree tabs plugin and the containers. But 6 months ago I finally gave up on it.
- cinntaile 4y ago
  The parent made it sound like the privacy side of Firefox was slipping, so I was hoping he could talk about any specifics.
  - behnamoh 4y ago
    I had to add a lot to my user.js (or about:config) just to avoid Mozilla's shady telemetry and diagnostics. If you google it, there's even Hardended Firefox...
    - cinntaile 4y ago
      Can't you just uncheck the telemetry box in the settings? I don't get what is shady about it though, you can see what is being sent (about:telemetry) and they tell you it's on by default.
      - behnamoh 4y ago
        That's not the only place where telemetry takes place. Even with that option turned off, FF has other telemetries working in the background.
- timbit42 4y ago
  I run Firefox for two months at a time with no memory leak issues. I have 6 Firefox windows open at all times with over 200 tabs open and over 300 tabs open at once at points during the day. Right now it's using 3.5GB of RAM. The only reason I don't run it longer than two months that is I need to reboot for OS updates. This is on Debian.
  - ipaddr 4y ago
    On my Ubuntu firefox can do the same. On windows 7 it falls apart.
    - gtvwill 4y ago
      Lol why are you still using win7? Uses an outdated os that is no longer supported. But doesn't attribute programs playing up to that? Mate. Win7 is your problem get off that.
      - celsoazevedo 4y ago
        Windows 7 is still supported by Mozilla: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/100.0.2/system-requirements/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/100.0.2/system-require... Firefox works better on some platforms and hardware, Chromium works better on others. It is what it is and blaming users won't fix their problems.
      - ipaddr 4y ago
        Windows 7 is a better experience compared to windows 10. Windows 7 doesn't ask me to upgrade or throw ads in my start menu or sends installed program data to Microsoft or have any of the other enhancements I do have win10 on a different machine and a smaller performance happens but still happens. I have Ubuntu and an even smaller performance happens but it always happens. But on Windows 7 the memory leaks are very noticable.
        emptysongglass 4y ago
        Windows 7 is no longer security-patched. Regardless of how you feel about the good old days of 7, you are a risk to yourself running it. It bears stating that if you are also using a machine running 7 in a company setting, you are also a risk to that company.
- Frotag 4y ago
  Personally I've seen the opposite: video sites on Chromium that would eat up 300MB+ and an additional 1~3MB of leaked mem per action. Whereas the same site on FF would happily sit at 20~30MB.
- rejectfinite 4y ago
  Not true in my experience on Windows. I find Firefox handles many tabs better than Chrome.
- gtvwill 4y ago
  That's your computer bud not Firefox.
- happymellon 4y ago
  Firefox doesn't have memory leaks. Use it on Mac and Linux on a daily basis, and don't close tabs for weeks at a time when I forget about them. Are you sure it isn't your tree tabs plug ins?
fsflover 4y ago
See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31538482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31538482.
sh4un 4y ago
jacooper 4y ago
I switched to brave, because Mozilla is no longer actually defending privacy, Firefox has full telemetry, allows google analytics,has unique Id for each installer, and much more. Brave on the other hand, has an ad-blocker by default, blocks trackers, blocks Google amp, limited telemetry, and has a fully independent search engine. Its a browser I can reccomend to anyone, and they will be more private by just using it, yes its not perfect but disabling the crypto is stuff is trivial, its just 2 options to disable and you are done. I lost hope that Mozilla is going to actually fix stuff, its now just spending money on political advocacy and has fired engineers while raising the CEO's salary. https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-a-unique-identifier https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/firefox-maker-mozilla-lays-off-250-workers-says-covid-19-lowered-revenue/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/firef...
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Brave is headed by the guy who invented Javascript, one might say you're taking your online privacy/security out of the frying pan just so you can toss it in the fire.
  - jacooper 4y ago
    what does creating JS in 1996 have to do with brave and its proven privacy protections in 2022? proven, https://privacytests.org https://privacytests.org

Last I checked (6 mos ago), it had memory leaks and it was slow. I could leave my chrome/brave tabs open for a week while I worked on a project, but firefox had to be killed and restarted daily or it would eat all my RAM and swap. That being said, I made do with it for years because I love the tree tabs plugin and the containers. But 6 months ago I finally gave up on it.

cinntaile 4y ago
The parent made it sound like the privacy side of Firefox was slipping, so I was hoping he could talk about any specifics.
- behnamoh 4y ago
  I had to add a lot to my user.js (or about:config) just to avoid Mozilla's shady telemetry and diagnostics. If you google it, there's even Hardended Firefox...
  - cinntaile 4y ago
    Can't you just uncheck the telemetry box in the settings? I don't get what is shady about it though, you can see what is being sent (about:telemetry) and they tell you it's on by default.
    - behnamoh 4y ago
      That's not the only place where telemetry takes place. Even with that option turned off, FF has other telemetries working in the background.
timbit42 4y ago
I run Firefox for two months at a time with no memory leak issues. I have 6 Firefox windows open at all times with over 200 tabs open and over 300 tabs open at once at points during the day. Right now it's using 3.5GB of RAM. The only reason I don't run it longer than two months that is I need to reboot for OS updates. This is on Debian.
- ipaddr 4y ago
  On my Ubuntu firefox can do the same. On windows 7 it falls apart.
  - gtvwill 4y ago
    Lol why are you still using win7? Uses an outdated os that is no longer supported. But doesn't attribute programs playing up to that? Mate. Win7 is your problem get off that.
    - celsoazevedo 4y ago
      Windows 7 is still supported by Mozilla: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/100.0.2/system-requirements/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/100.0.2/system-require... Firefox works better on some platforms and hardware, Chromium works better on others. It is what it is and blaming users won't fix their problems.
    - ipaddr 4y ago
      Windows 7 is a better experience compared to windows 10. Windows 7 doesn't ask me to upgrade or throw ads in my start menu or sends installed program data to Microsoft or have any of the other enhancements I do have win10 on a different machine and a smaller performance happens but still happens. I have Ubuntu and an even smaller performance happens but it always happens. But on Windows 7 the memory leaks are very noticable.
      - emptysongglass 4y ago
        Windows 7 is no longer security-patched. Regardless of how you feel about the good old days of 7, you are a risk to yourself running it. It bears stating that if you are also using a machine running 7 in a company setting, you are also a risk to that company.
Frotag 4y ago
Personally I've seen the opposite: video sites on Chromium that would eat up 300MB+ and an additional 1~3MB of leaked mem per action. Whereas the same site on FF would happily sit at 20~30MB.
rejectfinite 4y ago
Not true in my experience on Windows. I find Firefox handles many tabs better than Chrome.
gtvwill 4y ago
That's your computer bud not Firefox.
happymellon 4y ago
Firefox doesn't have memory leaks. Use it on Mac and Linux on a daily basis, and don't close tabs for weeks at a time when I forget about them. Are you sure it isn't your tree tabs plug ins?

fsflover 4y ago

See also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31538482 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31538482.

sh4un 4y ago

jacooper 4y ago

I switched to brave, because Mozilla is no longer actually defending privacy, Firefox has full telemetry, allows google analytics,has unique Id for each installer, and much more. Brave on the other hand, has an ad-blocker by default, blocks trackers, blocks Google amp, limited telemetry, and has a fully independent search engine. Its a browser I can reccomend to anyone, and they will be more private by just using it, yes its not perfect but disabling the crypto is stuff is trivial, its just 2 options to disable and you are done. I lost hope that Mozilla is going to actually fix stuff, its now just spending money on political advocacy and has fired engineers while raising the CEO's salary. https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-a-unique-identifier https://www.ghacks.net/2022/03/17/each-firefox-download-has-... https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/firefox-maker-mozilla-lays-off-250-workers-says-covid-19-lowered-revenue/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/firef...

smoldesu 4y ago
Brave is headed by the guy who invented Javascript, one might say you're taking your online privacy/security out of the frying pan just so you can toss it in the fire.
- jacooper 4y ago
  what does creating JS in 1996 have to do with brave and its proven privacy protections in 2022? proven, https://privacytests.org https://privacytests.org