Has firefox suddenly got really unstable?

Evil-I · 11 May 2010 at 13:30

Hi All,

I've been a long time user of firefox as my prefered browser but have noticed over the last few months that I'm getting a lot of crashes with it. It's not machine specific either. Its' happening on my home machine, my work laptop and my work desktop all running a variety of OS's. It's even crashed recently on my linux file server a few times.

Whats going on?

E-I

randal · 11 May 2010 at 13:31

It's got slower and bloated that's for sure. I was testing it against Safari and Chrome the other night, and it's by far and away the slowest of the 3.

Shame, because it started off so well and it's got progressively worse from 3.0 upwards.

AbsenceJam · 11 May 2010 at 13:53

randal24 said:
It's got slower and bloated that's for sure. I was testing it against Safari and Chrome the other night, and it's by far and away the slowest of the 3.

Shame, because it started off so well and it's got progressively worse from 3.0 upwards.

It hasn't gotten slower and bloated, it just hasn't kept up with other browsers.

SiriusB · 11 May 2010 at 14:07

There are plenty of tweaks around to help speed up Firefox, but as said it is not really bloated or slow. I have found Safari to be similar in performance to FF and while Chrome is super quick it doesn't do much else - save for gathering every last bit of information about you and your browsing habits.

Evil-I · 11 May 2010 at 14:32

To be honest my issue with Firefox isn't performance it's just the regularity at which it stops responding completely.

SiriusB · 11 May 2010 at 15:20

It isn't an extention causing you some issues is it? Assuming you have the same one on all your computers.

randal · 11 May 2010 at 15:21

AbsenceJam said:
It hasn't got slow and bloated, it just hasn't kept up with other browsers.

It is most definitely slower than Safari, haven't tested Safari on Windows admittedly as I've dumped my Bootcamp partition.

Might install it on my work laptop for some comparisons, but last night pages definitely rendered faster on the other two.

AbsenceJam · 11 May 2010 at 17:16

randal24 said:
It is most definitely slower than Safari, haven't tested Safari on Windows admittedly as I've dumped my Bootcamp partition.

Might install it on my work laptop for some comparisons, but last night pages definitely rendered faster on the other two.

I didn't say it was quick, it's just that other browsers have advanced or were already faster whereas Firefox hasn't really improved performance wise.

asim18 · 11 May 2010 at 17:48

My firefox is working perfectly and has only crashed twice since I started using it a year ago.

You must be running a dodgy add-on or something.

Randomface74 · 11 May 2010 at 17:56

yeah i've been having problems too

thecremeegg · 11 May 2010 at 18:02

Evil-I said:
Hi All,

I've been a long time user of firefox as my prefered browser but have noticed over the last few months that I'm getting a lot of crashes with it. It's not machine specific either. Its' happening on my home machine, my work laptop and my work desktop all running a variety of OS's. It's even crashed recently on my linux file server a few times.

Whats going on?

E-I

I had the same problem - it kept locking up and slowing down if it was left open for longer than 20 mins.....I'm using chrome until they sort it out which I fear could never happen

iamtheoneneo · 11 May 2010 at 18:06

AbsenceJam said:
It hasn't gotten slower and bloated, it just hasn't kept up with other browsers.

yes it has!
how can you say it hasnt?
its full of **** now, pictures for your bloody task bar etc etc, every release seems more crap no-one wants.

adbp1 · 11 May 2010 at 20:14

billysielu said:
yeah i've been having problems too

+1 problems here at home and work 2 differnt os

james.miller · 11 May 2010 at 20:17

i dont think FF is bloated.

then again, it doesnt slow down or crash on me, except for problems caused by flash sites.

Ratbag · 12 May 2010 at 07:18

I've got FF installed and haven't had any issues. But then I don't have many addons installed. Could your woes be addon related?

memyselfandi · 12 May 2010 at 09:06

No problems with Firefox here .... but I to don't run that many add-ons.

The only time I have "hangs" with it are if I'm having general DNS/Proxy related issues which are due to the external network.

Evil-I · 12 May 2010 at 13:34

asim18 said:
My firefox is working perfectly and has only crashed twice since I started using it a year ago.

You must be running a dodgy add-on or something.

I wouldn't say any of the machines are running dodgy add ons, typically they will just have the fairly standar flash extension and maybe media player, certainly nothing out of the ordinary.

OS mix is XP pro, Vista (32bit on work laptop 64bit on work desktop) and Windows 7 64 on my home desktop. Its even flakey in my Fedora 12 linux install!

E-I

Tripnologist · 12 May 2010 at 14:54

I've been noticing problems with it eating large chunks of RAM and slowing down as well. This is on both my home and work computer.
Home PC has a bunch of plugins but my work PC only has 5 plugins.

I mean really, how is it that FF needs more RAM than PS?

Azuse05 · 12 May 2010 at 17:07

Every browser will increase ram use with increased tabs, chrome will happily use 500 if you open enough.

Tripnologist · 12 May 2010 at 17:12

I realise that but even right now, I have 6 files open in Photoshop, one of them having over 100 layers, but it's still using less RAM than Firefox with this single tab open. If I close and reopen Firefox, it'll be using less. Just seems it's not releasing it once it's done with it. Does this on both my home and work PC, my work PC only having a couple plugins, none of which are on my home PC.