Firefox, why is it slow? Options

[emberfly]

My god... and I thought IE was slow.

So I've been using Firefox as my main browser for about a year now. I must say, up until now I have ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT.

Although, recently, I have noticed that Firefox is running extremely slowly now.

I thought this was my internet connection, and that I couldn't do anything about it.

I tried using Google chrome to view things, and it was like my computer was brand spankin' new. It was absolutely fantastic... kind of like the first time I used Firefox.


I don't get it. It's not like you store files into your web browser (temporary internet files? -- I already deleted those), so I don't know why Firefox is running slower than Chrome. I thought Mozilla always bragged about how fast Firefox was.

I tried IE, too, but don't get me started on that one :P it's still slower than a dead snail.




So what can I do to speed up Firefox? I do not like Google chrome AT ALL. It's amazingly fast, but I just love my Firefox and I want to be able to use it more.. just faster. WAY faster.

[Gigi]

Nah it's pretty normal for Firefox to be the slowest browser. When I have to watch streaming videos uninterrupted I just use Safari.

You can change your preferences a bit...Go to Preferences -> Privacy, and from there you can choose how Firefox remembers history. I like to set browsing history to 10 days (instead of 90), and you can get rid of download history, etc, or choose not to remember history period. 90 days of stuff accumulates and can slow down the browser.

But really I saw a dramatic difference when I used a Firefox extension called Vacuum Places Improved. It's an experimental add-on, but well worth a try.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13878

[Maccabee]

What add ons do you have? Add ons often slow it down a lot. And themes. Safari, is definitely the lightest and fastest. Try uninstalling one add on at a time and restarting. I have used a few add ons that just made firefox freeze for 20 seconds when it started then go really slow. And which version are you using? 3.5 is much faster.

[emberfly]

Thanks Gigi!

I do have a ton of add-ons.. some of them that I don't even use.

I will definitely go download safari, though. I hate having to wait 10 minutes for youtube videos to load.

edit:


so I went to change my browser history to make it 10 days (assuming that would lower the current value), but I already have it set on 1...... so I guess something else is what's slowing me down.

[mipadi]

The speed of your browser has almost nothing to do with its history size. You probably have a misbehaving add-on that's either taking up a lot of memory or using a lot of CPU time.

[heyo-captain-jac...]

And themes. Safari, is definitely the lightest and fastest.

No. Safari is bloated and slow. The only good thing about it is that it passes Acid3.

[Maccabee]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/safari.html
Check out the performance charts.

[heyo-captain-jac...]

Ok, it's faster than an old build of Chrome, a beta Firefox (and a poorly ported version of said beta for Mac), Opera, and IE8. Tested on Vista, with a fairly average, two gigs of RAM, and a three year old GPU. And the benchmarks were done with an application that greatly favors Safari.

[mipadi]

No. Safari is bloated and slow. The only good thing about it is that it passes Acid3.

Bloated and slow...compared to what, exactly?

[heyo-captain-jac...]

Lets check some file sizes.

Safari setup file is 27.2 MB.
IE8 setup file is 16.1 MB
Firefox setup file is 7.7 MB
K-Meleon zip file is 5.5 MB
Maxthon setup file is 5.5 MB
Opera setup file is 5.4 MB
Avant Browser setup file is 2.0 MB.
etc


aka most crap is put into Safari.

[Jghelfi]

well firefox is slow for me, but that is when i try to open it.

it takes sooo long just to open it! ugh i hate it, and i dont even have that much addons, or themes..

but safari 4 is faster

[none345678]

Mine has been slower too, but I am just assuming it's my computer.

[mipadi]

Lets check some file sizes.

Safari setup file is 27.2 MB.
IE8 setup file is 16.1 MB
Firefox setup file is 7.7 MB
K-Meleon zip file is 5.5 MB
Maxthon setup file is 5.5 MB
Opera setup file is 5.4 MB
Avant Browser setup file is 2.0 MB.
etc
aka most crap is put into Safari.

Did you ever think that...I dunno...that the size of the installer doesn't really have anything to do with memory footprint, performance, and other runtime properties?

[Maccabee]

Did you ever think that...I dunno...that the size of the installer doesn't really have anything to do with memory footprint, performance, and other runtime properties?

Seriously!

Ok, it's faster than an old build of Chrome, a beta Firefox (and a poorly ported version of said beta for Mac), Opera, and IE8. Tested on Vista, with a fairly average, two gigs of RAM, and a three year old GPU. And the benchmarks were done with an application that greatly favors Safari.

Ya well, I am useing a mac with 4gb of ram and a 2.5 ghz processor.

[heyo-captain-jac...]

Did you ever think that...I dunno...that the size of the installer doesn't really have anything to do with memory footprint, performance, and other runtime properties?

Yes, but I didn't feel like installing every web browser out there, so that was the best comparison you'll get from me.

[Jghelfi]

i replaced my safari with firefox, but since it takes a bitch of time to start up, im just going to uninstall FF and put in safari 4..

[Maccabee]

wwhy would u install safari if you already have it?

[Jghelfi]

umm i dont. i have WINDOWS XP. so i have IE and now Safari 4

[Maccabee]

You said you replaced firefox with safari. Why did you uninstall safari in the first place. And what does having windows have to do with this. Amd you know you can uninstall ie.

[Jghelfi]

yea i know, but i use IE8 all the time, and there is nothing wrong with it.

i just installed safari 4 and i just did this:

[heyo-captain-jac...]

It's a really bad idea to uninstall IE. A lot of programs integrate IE with themselves.

[Jghelfi]

yea and thats one of the reasons why i dont want to uninstall IE.

[emberfly]

Firefox works fine until I try to use Facebook.

YES!!!!!!
I noticed this a lot recently! It has been completely bugging me and I am so frustrated! I thought the problem was me.. not Firefox! I'm so glad others have this problem XD I thought It was just me.


PHEW so relieved that you said that.


But, yes, Firefox + Facebook =




and also GMAIL! GMAIL HAS BEEN AWFUL FOR ME! I can't even use Gmail recently in Firefox. I'm forced to use chrome.


(or maybe..... I haven't tried it today.. I just removed a ton of add-ons).

[Maccabee]

i hate n00bs.

[heyo-captain-jac...]

You are n00bs.

[Uronacid]

I like chrome.

[Maccabee]

I like chrome.

[none345678]

I tried chrom but hated it.

[Uronacid]

I tried chrom but hated it.

It's alright. I have to say there isn't anything that really stands out, but it's fast and loads pages properly.

[Jghelfi]

why cause they are RIGHT?

get IE8..

[FizzyMilk]

Firefox has never given me problems..if you don't like it try Opera.

Facebook is just...slow.
slower than myspace..which I thought was also slow.
think of all the adds and apps on facebook and such...
slllloqqqqqq

[Maccabee]

why cause they are RIGHT?

get IE8..

Ur joking? Gtfo n00b!

[Jghelfi]

no im not.. IE8 is reliable.. well to me that is..

[heyo-captain-jac...]

IE8 has nearly as many security holes as IE7, and more than IE6.

[superstitious]

The speed of your browser has almost nothing to do with its history size. You probably have a misbehaving add-on that's either taking up a lot of memory or using a lot of CPU time.

Late on this, but my FF was running horribly slow until I removed a bunch of add-ons (still not sure which one was causing problems). Perhaps none of them were causing problems and it's only a coincidence that my FF browser is running wonderfully now. Either way, I'm happy. It was taking over 5 minutes for iGoogle to completely load (and it's fairly empty).