Anyone else using firefox 3? I've been using the nightly build as my main browser since opera got royally fucked with version 9.5 (constant cpu usage, high memory usage, graphic glitches), and aside from not having a proper fastforward button and not being able to put my tab bar on the bottom, I like it. It has a much smaller footprint and actually functions without crashing.

A few plugins don't work properly even with nightly tester tools, but that'll come later. Anyone know how to speed it up? Particularly rendering and possibly parallel connections to pages to speed downloads.

I may go back to opera 9.2x but this is fun to play with for now

11/5/2007 6:32:52 PM

already with a new one?

11/5/2007 6:45:54 PM

i've used it off and on. definitely not much to get excited about in the features department. haven't studied the internals enough to know if it warrants the .0 bump.

11/5/2007 8:09:10 PM

Opera 9.5 is out?

11/5/2007 8:16:15 PM

i can't say i'm seeing it run any more frugal with my ram either

11/5/2007 8:16:34 PM

yeah, http://labs.opera.com

11/6/2007 12:29:37 AM

fastforward button? what's that do in opera?

11/6/2007 9:32:58 AM

I'm still using opera 9.0, don't see a reason to upgrade then if gets worse. I am very happy with Opera, doesn't take up 161,336K in memory usage like Firefox does frequently.

11/6/2007 9:53:34 AM

i like the speed dial from opera and the mouse commands seem more natural than firefox. i wish that more webpages didnt have issues with it though.

11/6/2007 10:09:35 AM

fast forward lets you browse sequential pages/threads/galleries with a simple hold left click, click right. even pages that dont have a "next" button are often supported depending on link structure

11/6/2007 11:35:34 AM

firefox needs to find a way to stop using 160 megs of ram

11/6/2007 11:51:13 AM

^
not gonna happen for a while.

11/6/2007 12:31:22 PM

Why is it a problem that Firefox actually -uses- the RAM you install in your machine? I have 2gb, and I'm happy to see applications use it. I realize not everyone has 2gb, but you should definitely have at LEAST 1gb of RAM these days, there's no excuse.

The reason Firefox uses so much is 1) because you use a lot of extensions, and 2) because it keeps previous pages in memory so you can quickly go back to them ... and if you have the right extension, it keeps even more pages in memory and indexes them for searching, thus using more memory.

11/6/2007 3:37:09 PM

Quote :

"Why is it a problem that Firefox actually -uses- the RAM you install in your machine?"

Because it prevents the other things that need the RAM from actually using it?

11/6/2007 6:33:14 PM

^... but it doesn't, it just uses RAM that is available and your OS will shuffle accordingly, that's why you have a swap file.

11/6/2007 7:39:04 PM

Flock FTW

11/6/2007 8:42:01 PM

Quote :

"^... but it doesn't, it just uses RAM that is available and your OS will shuffle accordingly, that's why you have a swap file."

Yeah, in theory. In practice it eats all the memory it can.

11/6/2007 8:49:10 PM

why would you want to force your apps to use a swap file? you like that hard drive grinding sound?

that said, i still like FF better than IE or Opera. I just shut it down if im using resource intensive apps. I need to get off TWW and do some work anyhow

11/7/2007 1:10:12 AM

Quote :

"In practice it eats all the memory it can"

yeah, but is this such a bad thing? i've got a gig or more on all my machines and it doesn't bother me if it uses 200 mb and i still have 600 mb free

Quote :

"I just shut it down if im using resource intensive apps. I need to get off TWW and do some work anyhow "

[Edited on November 7, 2007 at 11:01 AM. Reason : .]

11/7/2007 11:00:36 AM

Some of us need to have our web browsers open to do work. The gig of ram I have is all well and good until Firefox alone eats 400 MB of it and I need to have other programs open.

So yeah, it eating all my memory is a pretty bad thing.

11/7/2007 1:41:22 PM

So firefox uses 400MB of RAM now?

11/7/2007 1:43:57 PM

firefox3 with 20+ tabs = 122mb ram usage
opera 9.5b with 20+ tabs = 168mb ram usage AND 48% cpu usage (100% of one core)
opera 9.2 with 20+ tabs = 176mb ram usage
ie 6 with 20 instances = 220mb ram usage
fuck ie7, not installing it

[Edited on November 7, 2007 at 5:30 PM. Reason : d]

11/7/2007 5:30:12 PM

i have firefox open right now with 5 tabs and it's using 178 MB

11/7/2007 5:32:15 PM

Quote :

"So firefox uses 400MB of RAM now?"

After running it all day on my work computer, yes.

11/7/2007 6:05:52 PM

OK so I beleive you people aren't making up that you're having problems with firefox eating up more RAM than it should, but a lot of us aren't seeing this problem. Are there some sites that just fuck firefox up or something? I mean what kind of stuff are you guys visiting? Have you compared IE and firefox ram useage with those same sites open?

11/7/2007 8:26:37 PM

I promise anyone that the memory issues you have with Firefox are due to a problem extension leaking memory, tell that developer to fix it.

Stock Firefox has absolutely no issues.

That said, I have 22 extensions installed and usually leave Firefox open for days and days unless I need to restart my computer. By that time the memory usage has "ballooned" to about 300mb with all the tabs I've opened/closed or just left open. And it never affects any games I play, or apps I open.

There are probably more than a few extensions that have horrible memory leaks, I try to stay away from those. How can you tell, you ask? Trial and error is your best option, start off with just a few and over time enable more until you find that your memory usage is out of control again. Alternately you can try using the Leak Monitor Extension https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2490 to help find the pesky leaker.

But again, it's not Firefox, it's one of the extensions you installed.

Edit: Oh and there's this site for a quick look to see known extension issues: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions

[Edited on November 7, 2007 at 9:25 PM. Reason : .]

11/7/2007 9:23:34 PM

just be glad that you dont have safari. that browser eats memory like it was Thanksgiving

11/7/2007 10:11:30 PM

^^nope. i have no extensions installed on this computer (it's at school)

11/7/2007 10:20:29 PM

memory usage has been a focus in firefox 3: http://www.squarefree.com/2007/09/20/firefox-memory-usage-and-memory-leak-news/

at least vanilla firefox 3 will be better, not sure on addons/extensions.

11/7/2007 10:26:10 PM

^^ Might that have something to do with the fact that Firefox on school machines is mostly run as a program distributed through the novell launcher crap? That's unless they've actually got it installed locally on all the machines now. I know that even recently when I open firefox on school lab machines I get that "distributing application" window and command prompt blip so... yeah.

[Edited on November 7, 2007 at 11:23 PM. Reason : ]

11/7/2007 11:22:23 PM

no
this is the computer at my desk. i'm not talking about a lab computer. it was just bought by my research group. i should have just said "work" instead of school, because that's basically what it is.

11/7/2007 11:23:44 PM

Hmm alright then. Any idea why it performs so differently like that? I mean he's got a basic unmodified Firefox install, I've got a basic unmodified Firefox install. I'm assuming his is up to date like mine is.

Mine has been on for about 5 days now with at least 5 or more tabs open and is using:

123,640kB (currently 9 tabs)

and this guy's is using 400+ mb at times?

Is there a particular kind of site that firefox just handles terribly or something?

11/8/2007 12:15:51 AM

Well, other things to take into consideration, have there been other apps running on his computer, or has Firefox just been allowed to pretty much use RAM as it sees fit because nothing has come close to using up all of his RAM?

Firefox likes to remember where you've been if it doesn't interfere with other apps. It's more of a feature than a memory leak, but so many people complain

11/8/2007 1:07:49 AM

I use Bonocho for mac - tweaked FF version.

It's pretty good about the memory thing...

11/8/2007 6:46:51 AM

3.0b2pre beta2 prerelease today

11/8/2007 4:18:56 PM