Firefox 3.5 = Windows ME

[dirkshat]

The subject sounds like trolling and I apologize for that, but this is my feeling about 3.5.x. I have been using firefox from the very start and I have never had this many issues and crashes with the browser, ever.

Tonight I let the 3.5.5 update run it's course hoping that this would fix my stability issues, (which have been getting steadily worse with every point revision of 3.5.x,) and the browser became unbearable to use. Every 10 to 20 seconds the browser would lock up for a few seconds before letting me continue doing anything. I started troubleshooting. First, I had a lot, A LOT of tabs open. I WANT the ability to have a million tabs open if I prefer to with a 4gig RAM machine. I closed everything down to 3 browser windows with not more than 5 tabs each and restarted. Still the freeze or lag every 10-20 seconds. Started paring down all of my addons and restarting until I got down to the three addons I won't do without, (Flashblock, AdblockPlus, and IMGZoom.) Still the same freeze up. Finally, extremely fed up, I disabled all addons and restarted. Still the same freeze up.

This is the point where I gave up, which I know is dumb, because I hadn't really followed the techniques outlined here in the forums to stabilize my program. But this is my point. I'm not a grandpa, teenage girl, or Amish. I'm becoming a computer programmer and have been fiddling around with computers for quite some time now. (Which should mean I know better, of course.) I followed up with all of the updates that I was notified of on a year old stale Vista install and an RC Win7 install, and had the same stability issues with 3.5.x on both. (I know I should use my Ubuntu more on this Tri-boot machine, but have just been more comfortable in windows much to my dismay. And the 3rd partition is my hackitosh, which doesn't work completely because I can't shell out for or want the Blessed Hardware of the few.)

My point is that I did a few more techniques than a less savvy computer user would do and FF 3.5.x kept getting worse with every update. 3.5.5 update made the browser basically worthless and has driven me elsewhere. Firefox is the only browser I care about, so I'm now on beta 1 of 3.6 in hopes that I'm not crashing several times a day and have to keep my important pages open in chrome.

I don't want to downgrade to 3.0.x or move to Opera, Chrome, and definitely not Safari, and please don't take that as a troll. I love FF and want it to do well, but as a somewhat savvy computer user, I can't use a browser that crashes at least every other day and at most many times a day. FF 3.5.x has made me more of a chrome user than I want to be, which is probably why I am ranting here. I expect more out of FF and have been let down with every crash, which has never been as numerous as it has been with the 3.5.x branch. I have several users who depend on me for tech for free or low cost, and they are Gramps and teenage girls and non computer types, (strangely, no Amish...) I can't depend on 3.5.x working reliably on those machines and don't want to steer non geeks away from FF.

Inexplicable instability was what made Windows ME such a turd, and I find the same whiff of that same turd in FF 3.5.x, (Vista's crappiness was due to 3rd party drivers.) I'm sure this will bring a rash of "Works for me, must be you!" types of responses. that's okay and expected. I just needed to rant a bit and let others know that I and several others have crashed FF 3.5.x more than any previous version combined.

So now I'm on a fresh install of 3.6b1 and crossing my fingers things will be better, HOPING things will be better for my favorite browser. It has to get better, because FF is driving me to find alternatives!

[Gingerbread Man]

IMGZoom

A long time ago, I was also plagued by constant crashes. After a lot of frustration, it finally occurred to me that the problem was Image Zoom. I ditched it as soon as page zoom was added to Firefox.

This is the point where I gave up, which I know is dumb, because I hadn't really followed the techniques outlined here in the forums to stabilize my program.

Basic troubleshooting.

[4td8s]

So now I'm on a fresh install of 3.6b1 and crossing my fingers things will be better, HOPING things will be better for my favorite browser. It has to get better, because FF is driving me to find alternatives!

Running FF3.6b1 isn't a good idea because it's a beta and NOT the final release. there are still some bugs/issues that need to be worked out before 3.6 becomes final in a few months. but if FF3.61 runs better than the current FF3.5 version on your machine, then who am I to stop you from using it.

though I always run Firefox with several "memory tweaks" to reduce the chances of Firefox having problems on my machines. also get rid of any addons/extensions/plugins like Image Zoom that give Firefox fits.

[malliz]

Please don't just do a google search for memory tweaks as most of them are wrong or out of date.

[dirkshat]

(Still on 3.5.4 on this win7 machine, waiting for it to crash before FF's 3.5.5 update takes. On the note of not running beta software, I'd rather crash with something fresh than software purporting to be a stable release.)

I don't think the vista machine's trouble was with IMG Zoom, since it too was disabled along with everything else while the trouble persisted.

If it is IMG Zoom's fault, then it is time for me to shut up and write a better image zoom. FF's page zoom does not do it for me. I want right click independent zooming of elements. All of the other zoom addons don't have the simplicity that I desire.

My point really is that this tendency to crash more often will drive non Geeks to alternatives and never come back. It is also definitely time to adopt a per window process model at the very least so that a user like me doesn't have to reopen my million tabs. I know that this is easier said than done.

Time for me to put up or shut up, eh?

[Omega X]

My point really is that this tendency to crash more often will drive non Geeks to alternatives and never come back. It is also definitely time to adopt a per window process model at the very least so that a user like me doesn't have to reopen my million tabs. I know that this is easier said than done.

Mozilla is very aware of those issues. However no matter the plans, it won't stop finicky geeks from claiming the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.

But Anyway.

The CrashKill project, aimed at preventing poor quality Plugins and Addons from Crashing Firefox as well as addressing common internal crashers.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/CrashKill

The Electrolysis project, aimed at creating a per process implementation of Firefox's systems.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis