Curse

eagleblade · Dec 03, 2009, 05:37 PM // 17:37

Note this is not my article but the same thing has happened to me on more than one OS.

Having used it, watched it crash, hog memory, stall, screw up rendering, …

I have to wonder exactly what the Mozilla corporation is thinking by releasing this stinking pile of bits. My laptop is a dual core Intel machine with 2.5 GB ram, and a fast 7200 RPM SATA drive.

And it is brought to its knees by firefox 3.0. A third of ram gets snarfed by it immediately upon running. User load increases to 1 during anything stressful. Like loading Drudgereport. Javascript? Yeah, it can, and does bring the browser to a grinding halt, driving user load and memory consumption through the roof. Don’t believe me?

Have a look.

[email protected]:~$ top

top - 11:22:31 up 15:57, 5 users, load average: 0.81, 0.91, 0.81
Tasks: 191 total, 2 running, 189 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu0 : 14.6%us, 2.9%sy, 0.0%ni, 81.6%id, 0.0%wa, 1.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Cpu1 : 21.1%us, 3.5%sy, 0.0%ni, 75.4%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2571704k total, 2552028k used, 19676k free, 16004k buffers
Swap: 995988k total, 7748k used, 988240k free, 262708k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
16975 landman 20 0 2021m 1.3g 36m R 19 53.4 11:51.32 firefox
6363 root 20 0 302m 117m 21m S 11 4.7 52:05.96 Xorg
22044 landman 20 0 288m 88m 19m S 10 3.5 0:12.32 opera
Yes, indeed, that is 1.3 GB of RESIDENT memory that firefox has grabbed.

Yes.

All I am doing is reading news sites (Drudge, Fox, Freep, and a few others).

Firefox-2 was good in comparison. No, really. It was.

Notice the Opera line in there. I am typing this in an Opera window, because Firefox keeps greying out at every keypress.

I can’t wait for Chrome. Opera works well, is fast, so I might just switch.

Firefox has become bloatware. We try to actively discourage use of IE due to its numerous security … er … issues. Vista doesn’t work reliably on our corpoate network. I assumed this was the case as Vista was bloatware and not a serious OS. But Firefox? Same browser, many different OSes. Same results on all OSes. Must be something else.

Note: Opera is not compatible with windows 7 yet so the only sad alternative is IE but at least it will not have as many problems as firefox has now. the only thing is if you use IE be sure to get a good script blocker.

gone · Dec 03, 2009, 05:49 PM // 17:49

when people learn to do clean installs(of FF), use plug-ins/add-ons correctly and understand just what exactly Firefox does/does not...well...meh. it's useless to try and explain it.

only real problem I have with FF as of late is playback of .mp3s while browsing. it might not even be FF causing it for all I know.

Kattar · Dec 03, 2009, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Chrome uses more memory. Lol.

gone · Dec 03, 2009, 06:14 PM // 18:14

Kattar · Dec 03, 2009, 06:55 PM // 18:55

Interesting. In all the articles I saw where it was first out, it was using way more memory than FF. It's also of note that depending on which tech site you frequent/what person you ask, you get different results. Most of the benchmarks I've seen say that Firefox uses more memory at idle, but far less at peak that Chrome.

What add-ons are you running, if I might ask?

JupiterStarWarrior · Dec 03, 2009, 07:01 PM // 19:01

??? Firefox doesn't crash for me. It's not bloated, causing leaks, or anything like that. You must be doing something wrong. :-/

gone · Dec 03, 2009, 07:20 PM // 19:20

FF was tuned with Firetune.
-------------------------------------------
Using plug-ins ATM;
Adobe Acrobat 9.1
Google update 1.21
iTunes App detector 1.0.1.1
Java deployment toolkit 6.0.160.1
Mozilla default plug-in 1.0.0.15
QuickTime plug-in 7.6.5.0
Shockwave flash 10.1.51.45
Windows Genuine advantage 1.9.9.1
Windows presentation foundation 3.5.30729.1
--------------------------------------------
Extensions;
Adblock Plus 1.1.1
FEBE 6.3.2
NoScript 1.9.9.18
--------------------------------------------
Theme: Lavafox/Lavafox Blue V1 1.0.7
--------------------------------------------
/EDIT/ NO ADD ONS other than mentioned. (original post had recommended/get)

Chrome, clean install, stock
IE, Clean, stock settings, snagit plug-in installed.
unless my maths is wrong, chrome IS using more mem.

Karate Jesus · Dec 03, 2009, 07:30 PM // 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by flubber

Chrome, clean install, stock
IE, Clean, stock settings, snagit plug-in installed.
unless my maths is wrong, chrome IS using more mem.

I've used Chrome (since it came out) and Firefox both for some time. To be perfectly honest, I can feel it more when I use Chrome...and Chrome has crashed more times in the short time I've had it than FF has ever crashed on me.

I'm not a fanboy for either browser, but I can tell you that I'm now using Firefox (although, I'm using the ExtremeChrome skin which makes it look like Chrome).

gone · Dec 03, 2009, 07:37 PM // 19:37

Kattar · Dec 03, 2009, 08:04 PM // 20:04

Oh yeah, derp. GG on my maths.

gone · Dec 03, 2009, 08:45 PM // 20:45

I'll be durned, for the life of me I can't get that 4th process running that was in my first pic. musta been some sort of caching going on.

Abedeus · Dec 03, 2009, 09:24 PM // 21:24

Chrome is a lot more memory. 4 open windows in FF cost me about 60k now. 4 windows in Chrome cost... a bit less, actually, using Incognito mode.

But normally, yeah, Chrome is a real memory hog.

fowlero · Dec 03, 2009, 09:50 PM // 21:50

My firefox is currently sitting at 310,537k memory usage (i win), and as computer illiterate as i am i'm pretty sure that's a bit too much.

ups

Dont think i have addons but how do you get rid of them if you do?

gone · Dec 03, 2009, 10:38 PM // 22:38

I cant' remember if teabagger (run via spybot) is integrated for use with FF, but that does chew up the resources. From that pic I also see a google toolbar installed. not sure if you have many others installed, but...blargh. they aren't needed.

to answer your question, while browser is running, click the "tools" button at top. then click add-ons in the drop box. the rest is self explanatory.

instead of me going into the about:config schpeel, google Firetune and find a site of YOUR choice. Download and run. if it is the version where it wants to install, find another. installing it is a waste of space. firetune will optimize FF with a few simple clicks. when using Firetune, apply the setting that fit your needs.

after that we can then talk about privacy/security settings.

/edit
Firetune D/L - - Just dl'd it (from link) and ran it, clean, safe. will need winzip/rar to open. I extract files to a new folder that I create on desktop, run app, then delete when done. (save the firetune.zip for later use)
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/B...FireTune.shtml

Abedeus · Dec 04, 2009, 02:48 PM // 14:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by fowlero

My firefox is currently sitting at 310,537k memory usage (i win), and as computer illiterate as i am i'm pretty sure that's a bit too much.

ups

Dont think i have addons but how do you get rid of them if you do?

Wtf, you have 85 processes? I have a W7 and I have only 44, along with my Media Player.