Firefox - Too much fire burnt the Fox?
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
Sadly, I agree with you. I've almost stopped using FF these days and mostly survive on Chrome and Opera.
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
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Sadly, I agree with you. I've almost stopped using FF these days and mostly survive on Chrome and Opera.
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
I am using chrome a lot more often recently. One reason is it now works on linux which I use about 50/50 with windows. The other reason is that it is for some reason much faster than IE or FF at connecting to my web view for my svn server. I am talking about 10s of seconds faster. I am sure there is a config problem with apache but it does not happen in chrome for some reason. The thing that keeps me from using chrome all the time is the linux port (chromium) does not work well with google mail (popup errors ...)
John
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I am using chrome a lot more often recently. One reason is it now works on linux which I use about 50/50 with windows. The other reason is that it is for some reason much faster than IE or FF at connecting to my web view for my svn server. I am talking about 10s of seconds faster. I am sure there is a config problem with apache but it does not happen in chrome for some reason. The thing that keeps me from using chrome all the time is the linux port (chromium) does not work well with google mail (popup errors ...)
John
John M. Drescher wrote:
I am sure there is a config problem with apache but it does not happen in chrome for some reason.
Chrome seems to a marriage of IE and FF of sorts. What I mean is that pages that don't work in FF (broken layout, void clicks etc.) somehow work better (if not 100%) in chrome. As a developer, some IE only settings can be found in Chrome (e.g. innerText. Chrome supports both textContent and innerText) Anyway, seems re-assuring that I'm not the only one with problems with FF.
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
I don't have any problem with FireFox's speed. I also don't bother with a crap load of add-ins or toolbars. I'm very minimalist (I don't have any icons on my desktop either).
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001 -
I don't have any problem with FireFox's speed. I also don't bother with a crap load of add-ins or toolbars. I'm very minimalist (I don't have any icons on my desktop either).
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
I'm very minimalist (I don't have any icons on my desktop either).
Then you would most certainly hate the 67 icons I have on my current windows desktop. :laugh: In linux I only have 3 icons mainly because kde4 has replaced desktop items with plasmoids and they make it more difficult to add shortcuts.
John
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
I've just switched back to using FireFox after using Chrome almost exclusively and while it did eat up a heap of RAM last night (~1GB) it's not particularly slow, although admittedly IE8 and Chrome do load faster. I did come across a blog post which added some "features" of Chrome to FireFox and I am loving it since those. Theme: Strata40 Extensions: Firebug, Greasemonkey, LocationBar², StrataBuddy, Xmarks
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I am using chrome a lot more often recently. One reason is it now works on linux which I use about 50/50 with windows. The other reason is that it is for some reason much faster than IE or FF at connecting to my web view for my svn server. I am talking about 10s of seconds faster. I am sure there is a config problem with apache but it does not happen in chrome for some reason. The thing that keeps me from using chrome all the time is the linux port (chromium) does not work well with google mail (popup errors ...)
John
I hate to say it, but unfortunately Chrome boots surprisingly faster than other browsers and most websites (95% of them?) work well in it, so it gets the cake. For the rest, I use Opera (which is an excellent browser too) and IE will be used only for MSDN downloads.
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
I use Firefox and have not been entirely pleased. But it's better than IE8 (though not by much in my experience.) I gave Chrome a spin and while I liked the leanness, I missed to many little features of Firefox (I use almost no add-ons, so that isn't an issue.) I'll definitely try the next version of Chrome. I found all of the above to be much better than Safari and Opera.
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
mrchief_2000 wrote:
Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working!
It was the reallt good drugs they 9MS) put in the cake they gave Mozilla. :suss:
Francis Bacon, "Their arises from a bad and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind."
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
I fired up Firefox to do some web testing today for the first time in almost a year (I use Chrome) and was amazed at how sluggish it felt. I won't be switching back. Chrome FTW.
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
IE is my default browser so that I don't lose touch in my web work with the one that has the largest market share. It has all the normal stuff loaded (adobe reader, flash, etc.). FF is my "clean" browser which I use when poking around the web via Google & not knowing what neighborhood I'm likely to land it. Also handy to avoid all the pesky distractions people load their sites up with, i.e. flash, etc. Chrome and Safari are installed for when I need to do compatibility testing. I don't care about Opera compatibility and wouldn't care about Safari were Apple not a religion. I spent ages developing native Windows applications. With all the horsepower, responsiveness and UI capabilities that come with that environment, I have a really hard time getting excited about any brand of web browser. Installation / deployment benefits aside (and they are considerable), it's a huge step backwards for software development and feels doing brain surgery wearing mittens. IE, FF, Chrome... blech. It's like asking me which brand of rotten eggs I prefer. Who cares?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
I'm using a fairly old Win XP box with 1 Gb RAM. Firefox is my default browser. I run about 25 active extensions. The only negatives I experience are slow start-up (but once started I typically leave it running all day anyway) and memory usage (I have a config trick to tame that). Once up and running I see no difference between Firefox and Chrome, which I also have on the system. Any speed differences there may be are trumped by network latency. Therefore deciding between browsers comes down to functionality and usability. Right now, for me, Firefox wins. When Chrome extensions are stable (probably in a few weeks), and my most important extensions are replicated on it, then things may get interesting.
Kevin
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
Every time I think FF is getting too slow, I load up IE8 and use that for a bit... Start-up time hardly matters when it takes longer to initialize each new tab than it took the program to load in the first place. Chrome is nice and speedy, but a real pig when I have a lot of tabs open. Lack of FlashBlock doesn't help there either. So for now, Chrome is my "apps" browser and FF is my "reading list" browser.
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I don't have any problem with FireFox's speed. I also don't bother with a crap load of add-ins or toolbars. I'm very minimalist (I don't have any icons on my desktop either).
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
I don't have any problem with FireFox's speed. I also don't bother with a crap load of add-ins or toolbars.
I do bother with a crap load of add-ins or toolbars and I still don't have any problem with FF's speed. What am I doing wrong?
Kevin
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I'm using a fairly old Win XP box with 1 Gb RAM. Firefox is my default browser. I run about 25 active extensions. The only negatives I experience are slow start-up (but once started I typically leave it running all day anyway) and memory usage (I have a config trick to tame that). Once up and running I see no difference between Firefox and Chrome, which I also have on the system. Any speed differences there may be are trumped by network latency. Therefore deciding between browsers comes down to functionality and usability. Right now, for me, Firefox wins. When Chrome extensions are stable (probably in a few weeks), and my most important extensions are replicated on it, then things may get interesting.
Kevin
Kevin McFarlane wrote:
I run about 25 active extensions. The only negatives I experience are slow start-up
People claim or rather blame addons for slowness. However, for me, a fresh clean installation is still slow in starting up and executing web pages.
Kevin McFarlane wrote:
memory usage (I have a config trick to tame that).
Reminds me of IE registry hacks! This itself is a reminder that FF by default is bloated. They just have a lifesaver in that setting. Even that setting, while taming/capping memory usage, doesn't make it any faster. The whole point here is that does every good software, after a while, goes the MS way - i.e. becomes bloated and less useful?
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I remember, not so long ago my tryst with a new browser began. It was fast, lightweight and claimed to be more secure than the browser god at that time - IE6. No points for guessing, the new kid on the block is called Firefox. Fast forward to a year later... The new kid has earned quite a reputation and is starting to raise attention as the IE killer. With hundreds of addons and more pouring in day by day, the kid is really going places. It still remains fast, lightweight and secure. I even read an article that says the Facebook is urging it's users to switch from IE to FF. Fast forward to present day... The kid has transcended into adulthood. Has become a major player and released version 3.5! As with every adult losing some of his agility with age, this adult was no exception. The browser has become bloated (too much fries?), takes 2-3 minutes to startup and claims to have become faster and secure! So there are talks about 'increased randomness', 'scanning temp folders for getting the ever eluding purely random number' and how they cause the slow startup. Addons like Vacuum Places are topping the charts and blogs/bug reports to fix the slow startup are probably getting more hits than 'Get Firefox'. So I follow all that, even start with a clean install with a clean profile. The kid is now becoming god like - refusing to load any faster (sometimes even slower than the real god). So I bite the bullet, click on Firefox icon and take walk to get my coffee. When I come back, it's loaded and there - what an absolute delight! So I launch a barrage of activites (like browing social network sites, checking on deals and stuff) which I'm so used to getting done in few minutes. To my absolute amazement, Facebook load takes an awful amount of time, as does running any rich app like Mafia wars for example. It now eats up 200 - 500 mb or more of RAM (on Windows 7 PC) and is a CPU hog when 4 or more tabs are open. Unwilingly, I like at the new new kid on block - Google Chrome. Despite despising it for its lack of features/addons, the new kid is really really fast. So its fast, lightweight and claims to be secure. Everything runs great and having multiple tabs is no problem at all. Conspiracy theory - MS planted someone at FF to come up with a real idea to slow down the browser and its working! The death pill has been injected. If Mozilla team is off doing new things, then this adult is fast going to die a silent death - one less user at a time (count me in). At the time of writing th
Something I wrote a few years back that you might find relevant (or at least entertaining) in this regard. Pro Developer: Feature Creature[^] Sometimes the best thing you can do for your app is know when to quit.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
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Every time I think FF is getting too slow, I load up IE8 and use that for a bit... Start-up time hardly matters when it takes longer to initialize each new tab than it took the program to load in the first place. Chrome is nice and speedy, but a real pig when I have a lot of tabs open. Lack of FlashBlock doesn't help there either. So for now, Chrome is my "apps" browser and FF is my "reading list" browser.
Shog9 wrote:
Every time I think FF is getting too slow, I load up IE8 and use that for a bit
ergo my reply - speed is relative :)
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IE is my default browser so that I don't lose touch in my web work with the one that has the largest market share. It has all the normal stuff loaded (adobe reader, flash, etc.). FF is my "clean" browser which I use when poking around the web via Google & not knowing what neighborhood I'm likely to land it. Also handy to avoid all the pesky distractions people load their sites up with, i.e. flash, etc. Chrome and Safari are installed for when I need to do compatibility testing. I don't care about Opera compatibility and wouldn't care about Safari were Apple not a religion. I spent ages developing native Windows applications. With all the horsepower, responsiveness and UI capabilities that come with that environment, I have a really hard time getting excited about any brand of web browser. Installation / deployment benefits aside (and they are considerable), it's a huge step backwards for software development and feels doing brain surgery wearing mittens. IE, FF, Chrome... blech. It's like asking me which brand of rotten eggs I prefer. Who cares?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Christopher Duncan wrote:
Who cares?
Most users don't but lots of techies do. I care because if a browser has features that make my browsing more usable or productive then I will use that browser in preference to others. But unless you know what those features are, and find them valuable, then you will see browsers as much of a muchness.
Kevin
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Kevin McFarlane wrote:
I run about 25 active extensions. The only negatives I experience are slow start-up
People claim or rather blame addons for slowness. However, for me, a fresh clean installation is still slow in starting up and executing web pages.
Kevin McFarlane wrote:
memory usage (I have a config trick to tame that).
Reminds me of IE registry hacks! This itself is a reminder that FF by default is bloated. They just have a lifesaver in that setting. Even that setting, while taming/capping memory usage, doesn't make it any faster. The whole point here is that does every good software, after a while, goes the MS way - i.e. becomes bloated and less useful?
mrchief_2000 wrote:
People claim or rather blame addons for slowness
They do affect load time. If you disable them all start-up time is significantly faster. It may still be slow from your perspective though.
mrchief_2000 wrote:
still slow in starting up and executing web pages.
I never notice a difference.
mrchief_2000 wrote:
Reminds me of IE registry hacks! This itself is a reminder that FF by default is bloated
It's Firefox's about:config entry. I agree the memory and start-up issues are problems. It's just that they're not severe enough for me to trump usability and functionality. So Firefox wins hands down for now. Back in 2000-2001 IE 6 won hands down. I've learnt however that it's virtually impossible for someone else to change people's browser preferences. hey have to change on their own. :)
mrchief_2000 wrote:
The whole point here is that does every good software, after a while, goes the MS way - i.e. becomes bloated and less useful?
Yes. I expect the same will happen to Chrome too. Then someone will release another fast and lean browser and users will complain of lack of functionality. Look at the Chrome forums to see what I mean. :laugh:
Kevin
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Something I wrote a few years back that you might find relevant (or at least entertaining) in this regard. Pro Developer: Feature Creature[^] Sometimes the best thing you can do for your app is know when to quit.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Preettty good! Enjoyed it!
