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Are you using anything other than a Linux distro’s stable, extended-support release? Most of the complaints on HN about Firefox instability seem to be either Wi

Are you using anything other than a Linux distro’s stable, extended-support release? Most of the complaints on HN about Firefox instability seem to be either Windows users, or Linux users upgrading to the latest and greatest, often outside of their distro’s packaging. Meanwhile, I have been running Debian stable’s Firefox for many years and simply have never encountered the bugginess that gets described on these HN threads.

dinosaurdynasty 3y ago
Debian uses Firefox ESR. It's rare for Linux distros to use ESR (Ubuntu and derivatives notably don't, I don't think flatpak does either).
PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
And I on the other hand use Mozilla's latest & greatest all the time on Debian, and "simply have never encountered the bugginess that gets described on these HN threads" either. So there's that ...
wizzwizz4 3y ago
I use Debian's Firefox ESR, and for at least five major (ESR) versions there's been a bug where sometimes if multiple tabs try to do a web push notification at once, the entire browser process hangs maxing out a core and nothing I do will recover from that. (I use X11 with PulseAudio.) One of these days, I'll get around to reliably reproducing it. (I haven't tried `pulseaudio -k`, which might fix it if it's an issue playing the sound: videos hang kinda like that, though more recoverably, if the sound isn't working right.)
- heavyset_go 3y ago
  Have you tried stress testing triggering notifications over D-Bus or something? Might be a DE problem.
  - wizzwizz4 3y ago
    I have not: I don't know how to do that. (I guess you can do it with a Python script?) The X11 utils reckons that the notification windows belong to the same client as Firefox, though, so I doubt this is the issue.
    - heavyset_go 3y ago
      Don't think you'd need to break out Python, you can trigger notifications from the command line or D-Bus itself. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_notifications#Usage_in_programming https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_notifications#Usage...
      - wizzwizz4 3y ago
        I've confirmed that it's the x-www-browser process maxing out the core, so I doubt it's the DE, and it probably isn't D-Bus either.
- kiwijamo 3y ago
  Same here, I also use Firefox ESR from Debian packages and I've observed Firefox to lock up hard a few times. Often to the point it affects the entire desktop so not quite sure if it's a bug in Firefox itself or possibly elsewhere e.g., Wayland.
  - heavyset_go 3y ago
    Sounds like it could be a DE or graphics driver problem. Have you checked the kernel and system logs when that happens?
    - kiwijamo 3y ago
      Good idea, I'll try that next time I observe this.

dinosaurdynasty 3y ago

Debian uses Firefox ESR. It's rare for Linux distros to use ESR (Ubuntu and derivatives notably don't, I don't think flatpak does either).

PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago

And I on the other hand use Mozilla's latest & greatest all the time on Debian, and "simply have never encountered the bugginess that gets described on these HN threads" either. So there's that ...

wizzwizz4 3y ago

I use Debian's Firefox ESR, and for at least five major (ESR) versions there's been a bug where sometimes if multiple tabs try to do a web push notification at once, the entire browser process hangs maxing out a core and nothing I do will recover from that. (I use X11 with PulseAudio.) One of these days, I'll get around to reliably reproducing it. (I haven't tried `pulseaudio -k`, which might fix it if it's an issue playing the sound: videos hang kinda like that, though more recoverably, if the sound isn't working right.)

heavyset_go 3y ago
Have you tried stress testing triggering notifications over D-Bus or something? Might be a DE problem.
- wizzwizz4 3y ago
  I have not: I don't know how to do that. (I guess you can do it with a Python script?) The X11 utils reckons that the notification windows belong to the same client as Firefox, though, so I doubt this is the issue.
  - heavyset_go 3y ago
    Don't think you'd need to break out Python, you can trigger notifications from the command line or D-Bus itself. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_notifications#Usage_in_programming https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Desktop_notifications#Usage...
    - wizzwizz4 3y ago
      I've confirmed that it's the x-www-browser process maxing out the core, so I doubt it's the DE, and it probably isn't D-Bus either.
kiwijamo 3y ago
Same here, I also use Firefox ESR from Debian packages and I've observed Firefox to lock up hard a few times. Often to the point it affects the entire desktop so not quite sure if it's a bug in Firefox itself or possibly elsewhere e.g., Wayland.
- heavyset_go 3y ago
  Sounds like it could be a DE or graphics driver problem. Have you checked the kernel and system logs when that happens?
  - kiwijamo 3y ago
    Good idea, I'll try that next time I observe this.