6 ms·

Argh. I want to love Firefox 3.5. Really, I do. Modern web standards. Faster. Smaller memory footprint. Native Aqua widgets (effing _finally_). The probl

by f00 17y ago

Argh. I want to love Firefox 3.5. Really, I do. Modern web standards. Faster. Smaller memory footprint. Native Aqua widgets (effing _finally_). The problem is, compared to Chrome and Safari, it's a dog. I've been running the nightly (Shiretoko) for weeks now, and, like everyone else, I'm hopelessly addicted to various extensions during heavy browsing sessions (development, etc).. but when I want to pop up a browser, check something quickly, and move on with my life, Safari is the browser of choice. The initial launch speed and JS performance are orders of magnitude faster. Gecko is a great layout engine, but my gut feeling is that XUL and friends are holding it back. Agree? Disagree?

old-gregg 17y ago
It's even worse on Linux. FF performance on Ubuntu/Gnome was pretty bad. Starting up, scrolling and even window resizing made me feel like I was using a Pentium II. I want back to OSX+Safari. I only fire up FF when I need Firebug. On the other hand, FF on Windows is blazing fast. So I doubt it's just XUL. Edit: wow, they did Safari-like pixel-precise touchpad scrolling (OSX). Very nice.
- w1ntermute 17y ago
  Same here, I've been running the Firefox 3.5 RC's on my Gentoo x86 system for a few days now, and it just keeps crashing, at least once every 5 minutes. Opera, even the 10.00 Unite Alpha (which is what I'm using), is just so much faster and stable.
  - patcito 17y ago
    I've been using Firefox 3.5 and it's fast and hasn't crashed at all unlike Opera which crashed every once in a while here on Ubuntu Karmic.
- f00 17y ago
  I haven't worked in a Windows-based environment in a while, but I do recall in the Fx 2.x days that it was significantly faster on Windows. Perhaps this is just a case of Mozilla catering to the largest audience. If that's the case, then I applaud the effort, as getting the masses moved from IE[6/7/8] to Firefox 3.5 is certainly a more valuable effort than besting Safari performance on Mac OS X. There's just a big part of me that hopes they can achieve both. :-)
- aceofspades19 17y ago
  I've been running firefox 3.5 release candidates for the past couple weeks, and its been pretty fast and it hasn't crashed at all
- tc 17y ago
  I run FF on Debian (iceweasel), and it is acceptably snappy, but there is a bit of a trick to this: 1. Every extension you add seems to decrease performance by 30-50% (rough numbers) [1]. So live with a bare essential set of extensions. For me that is Firebug and FlashBlock. 2. Keeping very many bookmarks or history items seems to destroy performance, particularly with the "awesome bar." I disable history completely and have it clear everything else on browser close. Before I settled on this FF usage technique, FF would degrade in performance over the course of months as it built up data in the profile. Eventually it would become unusable [2] until I deleted the profile and started fresh. Now I just prevent it from building up any data. [1] As much as I used to like this extension, my experience has been that ForecastFox in particular hammers browser performance. [2] It would take seconds, sometimes 10 or more, to open a new tab to about:blank. With this technique though, I currently have ~ 25 tabs open, and new tab creation is instantaneous.
  - quoderat 17y ago
    Or you could just run Firefox completely in RAM in Linux, as I do: http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/05/speed-up-firefox-by-mounting-profile-in.html http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/05/speed-up-firefox-by-moun... It's fairly easy. There's a guide just for Ubuntu, too: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=991205 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=991205
    - smanek 17y ago
      I wish the OS was smart enough to do this automatically. I have 16GB of RAM on my workstation, and rarely use more than 8GB.
  - WalterGR 17y ago
    > Keeping very many bookmarks or history items seems to destroy performance... Amen to that. I have ~12,000 bookmarks, and FF3 on Windows takes ~10 seconds to both start up and shut down.
    - alexyim 17y ago
      Why would you have that many bookmarks? Trying to make search engines obsolete?
- alexvasi 17y ago
  http://www.tuxradar.com/content/browser-benchmarks-2-even-wine-beats-linux-firefox http://www.tuxradar.com/content/browser-benchmarks-2-even-wi...
wvenable 17y ago
You close your web browser? Edit: Was this downmodded by people who actually close their browser during the day? Those that don't should up-mod it.
- Scriptor 17y ago
  You were likely downmodded because a one-line question question doesn't really add to the discussion. Also, telling people to upmod your comment just because they do something you do isn't helping you.
  - wvenable 17y ago
    It's a valid question. The browser is the gateway to most of the applications I use in a day. Closing it down would be like shutting down my computer whenever I step away from it. I don't disagree that applications (and operating systems) should start up quickly, but it hardly seems like a critical complaint. And, as much as I appreciate improved Javascript performance, the differences are not that significant in the real-world.
    - tumult 17y ago
      You don't necessarily up/down people on HN because you agree or disagree with them. It's about contributing to discussion.
      - wvenable 17y ago
        Sadly, asking questions is apparently considered "not contributing". Very friendly.
        pygy 17y ago
        It depends on the question. The parent poster obviously closes his browser, otherwise load time wouldn't matter for him. Furthermore, your question calls for a yes/no answer, which is hardly contributing to the conversation. As for the why he closes the browser, I don't know. Maybe RAM scarcity... But it isn't wonderfully interesting to have that kind of anecdotal conversations here.
sp332 17y ago
I use the "Boss Key" extension (press a key and hides the window). This hides the current window, but not future windows. If I click the Firefox icon again, it comes up as fast as opening a new window.
finger_pussy 17y ago
XUL is what makes it possible to have plugins on Firefox. Thus, it makes Firefox better than Chrome, Safari and other browsers. It's not a dog compared to them; you are the dog. Stop calling Firefox a "dog" because it isn't, you son of dog.
- TrevorJ 17y ago
  Can we get this account closed? One hour old and at negative 68 karma. Username is inappropriate at best as well.

by f00 17y ago

old-gregg 17y ago

It's even worse on Linux. FF performance on Ubuntu/Gnome was pretty bad. Starting up, scrolling and even window resizing made me feel like I was using a Pentium II. I want back to OSX+Safari. I only fire up FF when I need Firebug. On the other hand, FF on Windows is blazing fast. So I doubt it's just XUL. Edit: wow, they did Safari-like pixel-precise touchpad scrolling (OSX). Very nice.

w1ntermute 17y ago
Same here, I've been running the Firefox 3.5 RC's on my Gentoo x86 system for a few days now, and it just keeps crashing, at least once every 5 minutes. Opera, even the 10.00 Unite Alpha (which is what I'm using), is just so much faster and stable.
- patcito 17y ago
  I've been using Firefox 3.5 and it's fast and hasn't crashed at all unlike Opera which crashed every once in a while here on Ubuntu Karmic.
f00 17y ago
I haven't worked in a Windows-based environment in a while, but I do recall in the Fx 2.x days that it was significantly faster on Windows. Perhaps this is just a case of Mozilla catering to the largest audience. If that's the case, then I applaud the effort, as getting the masses moved from IE[6/7/8] to Firefox 3.5 is certainly a more valuable effort than besting Safari performance on Mac OS X. There's just a big part of me that hopes they can achieve both. :-)
aceofspades19 17y ago
I've been running firefox 3.5 release candidates for the past couple weeks, and its been pretty fast and it hasn't crashed at all
tc 17y ago
I run FF on Debian (iceweasel), and it is acceptably snappy, but there is a bit of a trick to this: 1. Every extension you add seems to decrease performance by 30-50% (rough numbers) [1]. So live with a bare essential set of extensions. For me that is Firebug and FlashBlock. 2. Keeping very many bookmarks or history items seems to destroy performance, particularly with the "awesome bar." I disable history completely and have it clear everything else on browser close. Before I settled on this FF usage technique, FF would degrade in performance over the course of months as it built up data in the profile. Eventually it would become unusable [2] until I deleted the profile and started fresh. Now I just prevent it from building up any data. [1] As much as I used to like this extension, my experience has been that ForecastFox in particular hammers browser performance. [2] It would take seconds, sometimes 10 or more, to open a new tab to about:blank. With this technique though, I currently have ~ 25 tabs open, and new tab creation is instantaneous.
- quoderat 17y ago
  Or you could just run Firefox completely in RAM in Linux, as I do: http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/05/speed-up-firefox-by-mounting-profile-in.html http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/05/speed-up-firefox-by-moun... It's fairly easy. There's a guide just for Ubuntu, too: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=991205 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=991205
  - smanek 17y ago
    I wish the OS was smart enough to do this automatically. I have 16GB of RAM on my workstation, and rarely use more than 8GB.
- WalterGR 17y ago
  > Keeping very many bookmarks or history items seems to destroy performance... Amen to that. I have ~12,000 bookmarks, and FF3 on Windows takes ~10 seconds to both start up and shut down.
  - alexyim 17y ago
    Why would you have that many bookmarks? Trying to make search engines obsolete?
alexvasi 17y ago
http://www.tuxradar.com/content/browser-benchmarks-2-even-wine-beats-linux-firefox http://www.tuxradar.com/content/browser-benchmarks-2-even-wi...

wvenable 17y ago

You close your web browser? Edit: Was this downmodded by people who actually close their browser during the day? Those that don't should up-mod it.

Scriptor 17y ago
You were likely downmodded because a one-line question question doesn't really add to the discussion. Also, telling people to upmod your comment just because they do something you do isn't helping you.
- wvenable 17y ago
  It's a valid question. The browser is the gateway to most of the applications I use in a day. Closing it down would be like shutting down my computer whenever I step away from it. I don't disagree that applications (and operating systems) should start up quickly, but it hardly seems like a critical complaint. And, as much as I appreciate improved Javascript performance, the differences are not that significant in the real-world.
  - tumult 17y ago
    You don't necessarily up/down people on HN because you agree or disagree with them. It's about contributing to discussion.
    - wvenable 17y ago
      Sadly, asking questions is apparently considered "not contributing". Very friendly.
      - pygy 17y ago
        It depends on the question. The parent poster obviously closes his browser, otherwise load time wouldn't matter for him. Furthermore, your question calls for a yes/no answer, which is hardly contributing to the conversation. As for the why he closes the browser, I don't know. Maybe RAM scarcity... But it isn't wonderfully interesting to have that kind of anecdotal conversations here.

sp332 17y ago

I use the "Boss Key" extension (press a key and hides the window). This hides the current window, but not future windows. If I click the Firefox icon again, it comes up as fast as opening a new window.

finger_pussy 17y ago

XUL is what makes it possible to have plugins on Firefox. Thus, it makes Firefox better than Chrome, Safari and other browsers. It's not a dog compared to them; you are the dog. Stop calling Firefox a "dog" because it isn't, you son of dog.

TrevorJ 17y ago
Can we get this account closed? One hour old and at negative 68 karma. Username is inappropriate at best as well.