4 ms·

My biggest problem with Firefox is its startup time. It takes much longer to start the firefox.exe then IE and Chrome which are both very fast. I am using Win7

My biggest problem with Firefox is its startup time. It takes much longer to start the firefox.exe then IE and Chrome which are both very fast. I am using Win7 on i7-3960X, intel SSD, 16 GB RAM. If I install any plugin then this thing is much worst. (For this reason I am not using any plugin which is a big loss). It is weird that this issue is seldomly mentioned, but I think that it is much more important then the other performance benchmarks such as javascript performance.

fenesiistvan 13y ago
I am curious if the lack of such kind of complaint happens because usually people start their browser at morning and keep it open. I prefer to frequently close my browser and reopen when needed.
- nextw33k 13y ago
  I think you underestimate how good modern operating systems are at memory management. I have 30+ tabs open (rather than bookmarking) and Firefox hasn't been closed for days. Spending developer time on things like start up and installers which are just 1% of what software does is not very productive. Yes its good to look at start up every now and again, however it shouldn't be the main focus of any project.
ygra 13y ago
Interestingly, that complaint no longer exists for me. Firefox really starts instantly. Which is unfortunate, as it's the first program in my task bar and I'm still used to use Win+Shift+1 to start a new instance. Which, if Firefox isn't already running, results in it asking whether I want to start in Safe mode because I was holding shift.
nly 13y ago
I don't have no/low tab cold start problems in either. ... that said, try closing Chromium with 20 odd tabs open and then reopening it. It'll take bloody ages to reload all those tabs. Firefox lazy tab loading saves a metric buttload of time in this scenario.
moron4hire 13y ago
Whaaaat are you doing? I've got it on an SSD on lesser specs than you and it comes up practically instantly.
ZeroGravitas 13y ago
Have you tried the "reset" procedure? I don't think what you're experiencing is normal. http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix...
pwnna 13y ago
Do you have stats? Go to Help => Firefox Health Report and look at the data on startup time and so forth. I seem to remember that there are things you can do if you deviate too much from the average of others.. but I don't remember where to find that info.
cpeterso 13y ago
Are you comparing cold start times? Don't IE and Chrome launch a "quick start" background process when you boot Windows?
cpeterso 13y ago
Tom's Hardware Guide's "Web Browser Grand Prix" measured Firefox's startup times being much faster than Chrome, for both cold and warm starts and single and multiple tabs. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-27-firefox-21-opera-next,3534-4.html http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-27-firefox-21-ope...
- unknownian 13y ago
  As a Firefox user, I must say that these tests don't mean much considering web browsers are updated every day to week to month depending on the version used. Each browser wins at one point.

fenesiistvan 13y ago

I am curious if the lack of such kind of complaint happens because usually people start their browser at morning and keep it open. I prefer to frequently close my browser and reopen when needed.

nextw33k 13y ago
I think you underestimate how good modern operating systems are at memory management. I have 30+ tabs open (rather than bookmarking) and Firefox hasn't been closed for days. Spending developer time on things like start up and installers which are just 1% of what software does is not very productive. Yes its good to look at start up every now and again, however it shouldn't be the main focus of any project.

ygra 13y ago

Interestingly, that complaint no longer exists for me. Firefox really starts instantly. Which is unfortunate, as it's the first program in my task bar and I'm still used to use Win+Shift+1 to start a new instance. Which, if Firefox isn't already running, results in it asking whether I want to start in Safe mode because I was holding shift.

nly 13y ago

I don't have no/low tab cold start problems in either. ... that said, try closing Chromium with 20 odd tabs open and then reopening it. It'll take bloody ages to reload all those tabs. Firefox lazy tab loading saves a metric buttload of time in this scenario.

moron4hire 13y ago

Whaaaat are you doing? I've got it on an SSD on lesser specs than you and it comes up practically instantly.

ZeroGravitas 13y ago

Have you tried the "reset" procedure? I don't think what you're experiencing is normal. http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix...

pwnna 13y ago

Do you have stats? Go to Help => Firefox Health Report and look at the data on startup time and so forth. I seem to remember that there are things you can do if you deviate too much from the average of others.. but I don't remember where to find that info.

cpeterso 13y ago

Are you comparing cold start times? Don't IE and Chrome launch a "quick start" background process when you boot Windows?

cpeterso 13y ago

Tom's Hardware Guide's "Web Browser Grand Prix" measured Firefox's startup times being much faster than Chrome, for both cold and warm starts and single and multiple tabs. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-27-firefox-21-opera-next,3534-4.html http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-27-firefox-21-ope...

unknownian 13y ago
As a Firefox user, I must say that these tests don't mean much considering web browsers are updated every day to week to month depending on the version used. Each browser wins at one point.