Why is Firefox so SLOW?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » June 26th, 2006, 6:03 pm

And we will cry because you are going to use Opera,,,,,, a collective, resounding "BOO HOO"

Noobie · Post by **Noobie** » June 27th, 2006, 2:08 pm

Oh great, an anonymous person who pretends to be more than one person, and also an Opera troll...

I happen to be keeping an eye on Opera's development too, and it's the same story over there. Every new release there's someone going "wow, this is much faster, great", and someone else is going "yuck, this is getting slower and slower, it sucks".

Me, I never got how people can tell the difference in speed between normally functioning installations of Firefox, Opera or MSIE. If one is noticeably slower than the others, something is obviously wrong with the installation of that program on your PC. That you are having problems on your PC with a program doesn't mean that the program is getting worse.

Then again, I realize that this thread is not a genuine call for help, but just spam.

GeekDrop · Post by **GeekDrop** » June 27th, 2006, 8:41 pm

Wow, I can't believe how hostile FF devotee's are when someone comes in saying they prefer another browser.

Personally I've been using FF for awhile and the reason I love it is because of the extensions. On the other hand, there are some things I hate about it, such as the ridiculous amount of memory it uses.

I love FF too, but don't get me wrong: I won't hesitate to jump ship to some better browser should it come along, and I won't feel guilty about it either. That's just the name of the game in software. Either the dev's need to keep their chops sharp and fix nasty bugs, and improve things that need improvement, or get lost in the wake of something better. If Opera had the massive support for extensions as FF does, I may also be an Opera user. Same w/IE7.

If someone comes in complaining of a slow FF browser, maybe the FF devs should take that info and look into things, rather than just brow beat the person saying it, and simply write him off as a troll? To me it's like a failed suicide attempt ... it's a cry for help because they love the browser and still want to use it, but it just ain't working for them. It's the last attempt before moving along to another place, in this case Opera or IE7 is the other place. In the end, it would help ALL of us if they found a better way because they decided to investigate a complaint(s).

If what it boils down to is the inability to afford a compiler to give vast improvements in speed (which I don't really believe) I am sure there would be no problem 'somehow' acquiring the funds to buy said better compiler. Even if it came down to a simple "Donations for a better compiler" link to Paypal, I am 1,000,000% positive the FF user-base would quickly donate enough to get it.

And let us not forget, Opera is shareware. The only reason they can afford a really expensive compiler is because people feel the browser is well worth spending some money on to register it. Trust me, it is N-O-T E-A-S-Y getting everyday internet users to cough up money to buy software. Even in small amounts. They for some reason feel that the price of their monthly subscription to their ISP should be enough to get anything else they want on it for free. So, that must tell you how good Opera really is. And no I'm not an Opera user, so I'm not trolling for it.

I have spoken-eth.

Michelle05 · Post by **Michelle05** » June 28th, 2006, 10:06 pm

I have to agree. After being very happy with FF, after the last couple of releases, I am so frustrated with the speed on my Mac Powerbook and MacBook, that I'm feeling forced to go back to Safari. It takes a long time to load a page and then every 4-5 clicks FF freezes up for 15-20 secs, and the Apple Activity Viewer shows the app as not responding. It's beyond frustrating.

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » June 29th, 2006, 5:26 am

Michelle05, the problems you are describing are usually due to extensions, or possibly the Flash or Shockwave plugin. You will have to do a little diagnosis to find out how to undo the changes you have made to Firefox. See my signature for details.

YesItsSlow · Post by **YesItsSlow** » July 2nd, 2006, 2:54 am

I use firefox and it is like a 56k speed, this is unnacceptable... I really don't like using Internet Explorer cos it is stuffed with pop ups and other crazy crap which doesn't make it work good, but I miss it's blazing speed... Firefox get your act
together and stop spending time on bulky things, remember a good program is not whether it looks good, it is when you click on it, the speed it COMES UP, I click on firefox icon, waiting 6 seconds is unnacceptable!!

Internet explorer is CLICK and it's there.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » July 2nd, 2006, 3:28 am

That's because Internet Explorer is already loaded when you boot up the computer. If you want to preload Firefox you can (some side effects though)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ffpreloader/

zxxz · Post by **zxxz** » July 2nd, 2006, 3:42 am

YesItsSlow wrote:....I click on firefox icon, waiting 6 seconds is unnacceptable!!

Wow, a whole 6 seconds? How will that lost time ever be regained? This sounds so silly to me. But I guess we live in a day and age where 6 seconds feels like forever. I personally think Firefox is worth the extra 6 seconds.

VinDSL · Post by **VinDSL** » July 2nd, 2006, 6:11 am

Heh! Wanna see your fox fly? Encrypt Firefox using TrueCrypt and mount it on a RAM drive...

BTW, I'm a real web developer, and it wouldn't be the same without Firefox. I mean, I could do web dev using Softie products... but who would want to?

There's only two good things about IE, in my world view -- it has a built-in FTP client (which most ppl don't even know about) and it tolerates sloppy coding (which really isn't a good thing, is it?)...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » July 2nd, 2006, 9:03 am

Firefox latest version is slow on my computer. I have the task manager open as I write this message and it shows Firefox being the second highest hog of memory using 26,884k of memory. AOL is number one in the memory hog department.

I have the task manger open when I click on the Firefox icon. Firefox browser doesn't show itself until it reaches 24,000k +. At this point when I click on a menu item, I get the message that Firefox is unresponsive. It doesn't become responsive until it reaches the 26,000k + mark.

It takes a long time for Firefox to reach the 26,000k +.

Further Firefox remains in memory after exiting. When it remains in memory like that, not only is it hogging up precious memory, but the browser won't show its face until I bring up the task manager and shut Firefox down, and then click on the icon.

Blew

VanillaMozilla · Post by **VanillaMozilla** » July 11th, 2006, 1:34 pm

Anonymous wrote:Further Firefox remains in memory after exiting.

You have a particular problem which has nothing in particular to do with the subject of this thread. If you want help with your problem, please start another thread and carefully describe the symptoms, what changes and additions you have made to Firefox, and what you have done to solve the problem. Somebody will be happy to help you, and your chances of getting useful help will be considerably improved if you spend some time trying to solve the problem yourself.

This whole thread really ought to be locked soon, as it has become little more than a dumping ground for grumbling about miscellaneous problems. This is a support forum, but it's pretty hard to help anyone under those circumstances.

David.P · Post by **David.P** » July 25th, 2006, 11:32 am

Let me quickly jump in here. I am as well a heavy user of Firefox, and I love the extensions principle as well as the unique "find as you type" feature. I use FF all day long, on a professional basis being a patent attorney.

However - Firefox is slow.

SLOW. Has always been and still is slow as compared to IE6, IE7, Opera, Maxthon and Slimbrowser etc., and - interestingly - especially as compared to the blazingly crisp K-Meleon -- which uses the very same rendering engine (!) as Firefox.

Firefox page rendering takes about two to ten times as long as it takes to render the same page in any of the other browsers mentioned above. That's on my 2GHz, 1GB system. Pages that are completely overbloated, code-wise, like e.g. ebay.com, don't make much difference though -- they rather are a pain in whatever browser you may throw at them. However, slim pages like, for example, many online forums, where you would expect fast loading, crisp response and quick navigation, that's where FF over time gradually becomes [a pita], sorry, just too slow to be usable, and enjoyable.

Furthermore, regrettably, the Firefox GUI - especially the menus - is still awkward and sluggish as compared to a native GUI like e.g. in K-Meleon, IE, or Opera.

As NukeyDoo did put it spot on further up this thread, the above indeed is more than anything merely a "cry for help because I love the browser and still want to use it, but it just ain't working for me" any longer.

I mean, Firefox is one of the biggest things that have hit the web and the software landscape, ever. But how is it then that it is not possible to make FF work at least as good and as fast as K-Meleon, a browser that is being developed basically by one single person?

Thus, as far as I'm concerned, as soon as ANY other browser can offer decent highlight / find as you type functionality, I'll be quite happily off and switching away from FF.

David.P

JolietJake · Post by **JolietJake** » July 25th, 2006, 12:33 pm

NukeyDoo wrote:Wow, I can't believe how hostile FF devotee's are when someone comes in saying they prefer another browser.

Personally I've been using FF for awhile and the reason I love it is because of the extensions. On the other hand, there are some things I hate about it, such as the ridiculous amount of memory it uses.

I love FF too, but don't get me wrong: I won't hesitate to jump ship to some better browser should it come along, and I won't feel guilty about it either. That's just the name of the game in software. Either the dev's need to keep their chops sharp and fix nasty bugs, and improve things that need improvement, or get lost in the wake of something better. If Opera had the massive support for extensions as FF does, I may also be an Opera user. Same w/IE7.

If someone comes in complaining of a slow FF browser, maybe the FF devs should take that info and look into things, rather than just brow beat the person saying it, and simply write him off as a troll? To me it's like a failed suicide attempt ... it's a cry for help because they love the browser and still want to use it, but it just ain't working for them. It's the last attempt before moving along to another place, in this case Opera or IE7 is the other place. In the end, it would help ALL of us if they found a better way because they decided to investigate a complaint(s).

If what it boils down to is the inability to afford a compiler to give vast improvements in speed (which I don't really believe) I am sure there would be no problem 'somehow' acquiring the funds to buy said better compiler. Even if it came down to a simple "Donations for a better compiler" link to Paypal, I am 1,000,000% positive the FF user-base would quickly donate enough to get it.

And let us not forget, Opera is shareware. The only reason they can afford a really expensive compiler is because people feel the browser is well worth spending some money on to register it. Trust me, it is N-O-T E-A-S-Y getting everyday internet users to cough up money to buy software. Even in small amounts. They for some reason feel that the price of their monthly subscription to their ISP should be enough to get anything else they want on it for free. So, that must tell you how good Opera really is. And no I'm not an Opera user, so I'm not trolling for it.

I have spoken-eth.

I agree completely.
I have found myself falling out of love with Firefox due to it's hogging the resources (56,665Kb at the moment but it's not unusual to see 80+ with just one tab open and no extensions installed.) It's not as fast as previous releases and I'm running the same system. There are a couple of annoying bugs that, apparently, haven't been pinned down.

bgfunk76 · Post by **bgfunk76** » July 25th, 2006, 12:36 pm

For your reading pleasure-
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/memusage.html

blah667 · Post by **blah667** » July 26th, 2006, 9:21 am

NukeyDoo - Opera is absolutely free of charge for almost a year already.

And for me Firefox works ok most of the time in terms of speed of rendering, albeit it's noticeably slower than Opera9. My main gripe with Firefox is that it's UI is sluggish. Sometimes it takes seconds to switch to another tab, or you can see the stages of drawing a context menu on the screen. No other application is that slow if it comes to the UI. It's almost like a java application.

Why is Firefox so SLOW?

I agree. It's slow.