# Has the quality of Firefox gone down recently?



## RCuber (Mar 1, 2012)

I am noticing a drastic performance drop in the recent builds of Firefox. 

I have only 4 extensions installed at home, NoScript, AdBlock, Download Helper, and one more. 

The startup time is pathetic, opening TFD, Gmail and youtube simultaneously via bookmarks causes it to hang for 5-6 seconds. this is not just in one computer .. its across multiple devices. 

so the question is .. Has Quality of Firefox gone Down? is Mozilla loosing the plot to build quality software instead of releasing updates ever now and then?


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## Faun (Mar 1, 2012)

losing


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## Krow (Mar 1, 2012)

Nope. Version 10 is fine on windows. On linux, flash-heavy sites make it hang. But i think FF is acutuallybresponding to competition faster ever since the new numbering system.


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## ico (Mar 1, 2012)

No. I don't think so. Firefox is my default browser in Linux.


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## Skud (Mar 1, 2012)

Memory consumption is still its Achilles Heel. But in my book still the best.


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## RCuber (Mar 1, 2012)

ico said:


> No. I don't think so. Firefox is my default browser in Linux.



Yes Firefox in my Linux installation works really good. But not in Windows.


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## ico (Mar 1, 2012)

Skud said:


> Memory consumption is still its Achilles Heel. But in my book still the best.


Old myth. Firefox has the lowest memory consumption.


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## tkin (Mar 1, 2012)

It went down, but now back on track, still takes longest to launch among all three major browsers but good none the less.


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## gopi_vbboy (Mar 1, 2012)

yes even hangs while rendering a bit heavy  page for me compared with chrome which is smooth on same machine.


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## asingh (Mar 1, 2012)

tkin said:


> It went down, but now back on track, still takes longest to launch among all three major browsers but good none the less.



Ya, launch time is lame. I think it checks for updates and add in updates on launch.


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## tkin (Mar 1, 2012)

asingh said:


> Ya, launch time is lame. I think it checks for updates and add in updates on launch.


No, I have mine disabled from checking updates at startup, FF has been suffering from slow cold launch for a long time now.


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## thetechfreak (Mar 1, 2012)

I use Firefox both in desktop and laptop. Only thing that is a pain is the startup time.


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## Piyush (Mar 1, 2012)

works good on *nix platforms
but something really messed up in Windows platform


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## Anorion (Mar 1, 2012)

idc, I use Opera, the website is borked if it doesnt work on Opera


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## clmlbx (Mar 1, 2012)

Latest version of chrome that is 17 is using lot of memory comparing to previous versions


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## Gauravs90 (Mar 1, 2012)

why should one even consider memory consumption as 2GB of memory is enough for any browsing needs and now a days its the minimum requirement for any system...


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## Skud (Mar 1, 2012)

ico said:


> Old myth. Firefox has the lowest memory consumption.




I have seen it consume as high as 900+ mb. And this is on 10.0.2.


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## Krow (Mar 2, 2012)

Skud said:


> I have seen it consume as high as 900+ mb. And this is on 10.0.2.


It scales. You have 8GB RAM, so FF uses more. Heck, all apps use more. In my office PC with 1GB RAM, FF 10.0.2 never exceeds 220 MB.


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## Skud (Mar 2, 2012)

Its behaving like this in a laptop with 2gb RAM. Also in a desktop with 4GB. Major problem is that due to this it stops responding for some moments while browsing.

Not really much bothered with RAM usage in my Gaming PC. Pagefile is turned off and its doing fine. And it has Waterfox installed in it. And Opera 64-bit.


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## gopi_vbboy (Mar 2, 2012)

i think firefox 4.0 was good and had major improvements.


How can i stop ff from updating automatically


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## Krow (Mar 2, 2012)

gopi_vbboy said:


> How can i stop ff from updating automatically


*support.mozilla.org/media/uploads/gallery/images/2012-02-17-12-43-43-4c258f.png


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## Liverpool_fan (Mar 2, 2012)

Don't use Firefox in Windows, but in Linux it is fine. Cold starts half a second faster than Opera and Chrome. Flash is a major pain though.


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## Skud (Mar 2, 2012)

Main reason I use Firefox is add-ons, there are some like Diigo which doesn't work in Opera. And also have gotten used to it.


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## Prime_Coder (Mar 2, 2012)

If you have installed add-on then there may be a time-lag in start-up, but still Firefox is fast enough.


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## clmlbx (Mar 2, 2012)

I use lot of Addons and no one beats chrome in that, very quick start, quick browsing


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## gopi_vbboy (Mar 2, 2012)

Thanks krow.


But still not understanding why firefox freezes on page renders.I tried all ff tweaks but no improvement.

------

I see some improvement with this

    Open Firefox
    Type about:config in address bar
    Hit Enter
    You will get a warning message, hit the button “I will be careful, I promise”
    You will get a lot of entries which you can modify for changing settings of Firefox
    In the filter bar type: browser.sessionstore.interval
    Change this value. Its in milliseconds. Increase it to a bigger level.


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## tkin (Mar 2, 2012)

^^ Doesn't happen to me.


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## srkmish (Jul 26, 2014)

Has anyone used the Firefox 31. Really nice interface. Im loving it. And it might be a placebo effect, but it seems a bit more responsive and faster than before. The lack of a dedicated search bar on the right and the absence of master password are why i will never migrate to chrome and firefox has made the browser more awesome with 31.


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## SaiyanGoku (Jul 26, 2014)

^ chrome has omni bar (address bar and search bar combined into one)


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## nomad47 (Jul 26, 2014)

SaiyanGoku said:


> ^ chrome has omni bar (address bar and search bar combined into one)


Firefox also has it


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## chris (Jul 26, 2014)

After lot of difficulty, i switch from Firefox to Chrome. I was using some extensions, that made switching to chrome difficult (like TextAloud). I loved FireFox, main reason i switched on Windows as security, with no sandboxing, i had to use Sandboxie with firefox, that caused problem with Flash (protected mode) and keeping flash updated was a problem, some times it fail to update. Switching to Chrome helped me say good bye to Windows. Now using chrome on Ubuntu. Have firefox installed on ubuntu, but scrolling is slow, not sure related to my mouse. I don't like too many process by Chrome,  it have security advantage, but it made difficult to use task manager/ps aux.


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## ico (Jul 27, 2014)

SaiyanGoku said:


> ^ chrome has omni bar (address bar and search bar combined into one)


so that means for searching YouTube or Urban Dictionary or whatever, you need to do a Google search. 

If anybody uses Chrome, he better use Opera.

Custom Search Engines are good in Opera. Right click any form and create one. Choose a keyword. eg, create one for YouTube with the keyword 'yt'. Then type "yt prem aggan review" in your address bar and you see YouTube search results.


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## chris (Jul 27, 2014)

ico said:


> Custom Search Engines are good in Opera. Right click any form and create one. Choose a keyword. eg, create one for YouTube with the keyword 'yt'. Then type "yt prem aggan review" in your address bar and you see YouTube search results.



You can do the same with Google chrome. Both use chromium, so i don't think there will be much difference, but Google have more fund to support the browser, pay security researchers.


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## ico (Jul 27, 2014)

chris said:


> You can do the same with Google chrome. Both use chromium, so i don't think there will be much difference, but Google have more fund to support the browser, pay security researchers.


ok, so it's built into Chromium now.

Opera had this feature even before the Chromium/Chrome era. And then they have Mouse Gestures, Speed Dial and Stash.

On Android, Chrome is the laggiest and the crappiest browser imo. Opera and Dolphin are good.


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## srkmish (Jul 27, 2014)

on android, i love the boat browser mini.


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## gagan_kumar (Jul 27, 2014)

idk about u guys but i have to use FF in safe mode always to be more responsive still it takes time.....................


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## rijinpk1 (Jul 27, 2014)

^^why?


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## beingGamer (Jul 27, 2014)

I use Chrome as my default browser. But for website development/debugging there is no substitute for Firefox.
Firefox takes time to load i agree, and it's from long time. it's not new.


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## ico (Jul 27, 2014)

I guess, we could do with a new thread regarding Firefox. This thread was for 2012 era and the poll doesn't really tell the current situation.

Closing.


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