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[56K WARN] I love Firefox, no really, I do...

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:16 am
by feyd
I love Firefox, no really, I do... but this is just ridiculous 8O
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This is what I get for using Firefox for twelve hours a day, every day, now.. weeeee.. and I restarted during the day!!


I really really hope they fix that bug soon. :cry:

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 4:23 am
by anjanesh
Same here. This issue of FF's memory has been going on for a long time and there are many threads started at mozillazine but no updates on this one.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 4:38 am
by timvw
Sometimes firefox seems to go really mad.. Usually, when it had troubles with adodb or java plugins...

And last couple of days, it seems to crash regularly when i try to shutdown firefox..

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:44 am
by Buddha443556
I've been having to recreate my profile every other month, got a backup now. FF would start doing some wierd stuff like the textbox cursor would disappear, double opening tabs, two clicks to open links, slow to a crawl ...

I think I never noticed this before because there was always an update just about every month and now they're not as frequent.

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:35 am
by Roja
Two different issues, so I'll comment on each seperately:

Memory: Keep in mind that its hard to directly compare memory utilization with other browsers. Opera is specifically aimed at having an extremely low memory profile, as its used on cellphones and other 'thin clients'. Internet Explorer hides vast amounts of its memory use in shared libraries that Windows loads on startup, which also gives it an unfair advantage on launch speeds.

With that said, My firefox memory usage varies from 25-100mb of memory, depending on plugins, addons, and length of use. I've had it open with 10+ windows, multiple tabs in each for multiple days and never gone above 100mb. However, I do have some tricks up my sleeve. First and foremost, I disabled Java on Day 2 of using it. Sun (in its infinite wisdom) decided to remove the ability to right click on the java icon and remove java from memory after using it. Worse, the latest plugin interface with FF seems extremely buggy, causing my memory to skyrocket, and my browser to crash.

With Java disabled, flashblock, and the web developer toolbar plugin, and nothing else, I haven't had a single browser crash in months, and haven't gone above 100mb of memory used - ever.

Which brings me to issue #2..

Stability: Most of the descriptions fit my experiences with FF before flashblock and disabling Java. Since I did both, I haven't experienced one crash. Trust me when I say I abuse the poor browser, extensively. My suggestion is to start disabling plugins until you find the cause. Start with flashblock and disabling Java. Then move on to removing Quicktime, and if you still have issues, file bug reports on Bugzilla.

I'm not blaming the users here, but my vastly different experience is (I hope) a roadmap that you can follow to get different results.

Personally, I find FF to be the most stable browser I've ever used. Granted, the plugins are a bit wonky, but I personally hate most of that content anyway. Your mileage may vary.

UPDATE:
Some rather visible bugs in Firefox itself resulting in memory leaks have been fixed, which means 1.5 really is noticably more useful over an extended period than 1.0.x is if you keep tabs open or so on.

Plus Fastback is in, which makes navigating between cached pages instant.
The beta of 1.5 is due out today, and apparently, it deals with exactly the memory issue described. When it comes out, grab it and test!

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:41 pm
by Deemo
go Deer Park!


my FF has never gone up that high, but the load times (especially from PortableFirefox) has killed me sometimes

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:25 pm
by Burrito
Buddha443556 wrote:I've been having to recreate my profile every other month
I had to do that as well and I had the mother of all profiles, even the mother of the mother of all profiles, so I scrapped it...someone hail me when it's worked out and I'll rejoin the growing masses.

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:27 pm
by anjanesh
Deemo wrote:go Deer Park!
I dont understand why FireFox would have the name changed to DeerPark when FF's version has not even reached 2.0 !

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:31 pm
by Burrito
anjanesh wrote: I dont understand why FireFox would have the name changed to DeerPark when FF's version has not even reached 2.0 !
hype? deerpark does sound a lot cooler than 2.0.

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:55 pm
by feyd
Mozilla Firefox 2.0/3.0 Roadmap wrote:After some discourse, we have settled on the following naming structure for our releases going forward:
  1. Each major release has a code name (e.g. 1.5 is "Deer Park")
  2. The alpha releases are named “<codename> alpha”
  3. The public beta release is named Firefox 1.5 beta
  4. The final release is named “Firefox <version>”
so uh yeah.. Deer Park is the codename for Firefox 1.5

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:57 pm
by Roja
anjanesh wrote:
Deemo wrote:go Deer Park!
I dont understand why FireFox would have the name changed to DeerPark when FF's version has not even reached 2.0 !
Its a development codename, NOT a new brand.

When they officially killed off the "Mozilla Suite", aka Seamonkey, and branched the developers between the 1.0 (stable) branch, and the 1.5 (new/dev) branch, they needed a clear way to differentiate between the two.

Since there were "stable" branches off of 1.5, and "dev" branches off of 1.0, they needed something more clear..

Which meant that 1.0 became the Firefox Tree, and 1.5 became Deer Park. The branding inside the 1.5 tree was changed to Deer Park ONLY to ensure that developers wouldnt be confused while testing - i.e., to ensure proper bugreports were filed.

Of course, now that 1.5 is wrapping up for Beta status, they've removed the Deer Park branding.. I'm not sure if the 2.0 tree will now become the "new" Deer Park, and 1.5 become the "new" FireFox, with 1.0 being the outdated tree.. or if they will start making things up. :)

Either way, 1.5 beta 1 is being released *today* so the original issue of having problems with memory in Firefox, may be resolved. Download, test, and help out, or don't complain. :P

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:17 pm
by feyd
I'm updating to Deer Park, mostly for the SVG support (which we'll be using heavily for our charting, when possible ;))

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:57 pm
by feyd
No qualms about saying it this way: Deer Park renders pages faster than <span style='color:blue' title='I&#39;m naughty, are you naughty?'>smurf</span>.

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:34 pm
by Deemo
yeah those smurfs are really fast :wink:


Im going to sit with 1.0.6 until the stable of 1.5, but im greatly anticipating it. This will blow IE7 away

Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 2:57 am
by Roja
I bit the bullet and installed Firefox 1.5 beta 1 at home.

WOW is it fast. It renders cached html SO fast. Much, much faster than the old engine, and I thought THAT was fast. Its incredible.

I only had three extensions that I couldnt find updated/functional versions for, and only one makes me upset: The pr googlebar. I used it ALL the time. Hopefully the author will update it for 1.5.

As to memory use, it shows me at 50mb after about 2 hours of use, which is about the same as my experience before - stable, and not blowing up.

Your mileage may vary, but I'm loving 1.5. I just need my pr googlebar, and I wont be going back. :)