Thread: Mozilla Firefox 3.6 BETA Released!

Is the resource footprint smaller? I'm using Chrome now because it apparently consumes like... a third of the resources Firefox does, but I really miss No-Script and AdBlock Plus.

Firefox uses a shit load of memory. I have a crappy work computer and it shits itself if I have FF open too long.

Firefox only uses a shitload of memory if you tell it to. If you're too lazy to Google the memory optimizations, then you deserve a bloated browser.

Originally Posted by Ewok

Originally Posted by WileECyte

Firefox only uses a shitload of memory if you tell it to. If you're too lazy to Google the memory optimizations, then you deserve a bloated browser.

That's the elitist attitude that stops people from using open-source software. Things should "just work", open source or not, where work means "it does it's job without annoying me". For some, that's using less resources.

Exactly. IE doesn't do this. Chrome doesn't do this.

Personally I use FF on all my computer because I am dependent on a few extensions.

I wasn't even aware that you could configure Firefox to have a smaller footprint. If that's the case... I'll google how to do so and go back to using Firefox.

Chrome is a great browser, but I really... really... REALLY miss things like No-Script and AdBlock Plus. I just don't want to have to spend 80,000kb of memory on having a browser open in the background when Chrome can do the same thing for like 26,000kb.

Originally Posted by Ewok

Originally Posted by WileECyte

Firefox only uses a shitload of memory if you tell it to. If you're too lazy to Google the memory optimizations, then you deserve a bloated browser.

That's the elitist attitude that stops people from using open-source software. Things should "just work", open source or not, where work means "it does it's job without annoying me". For some, that's using less resources.

This is not a comment coming from an open-source elitist. I would have made the same comment had it been a commercial package. People should know how to use the software they have. Sure I could have phrased it a little nicer, but I didn't... Unfortunately, developers have to make certain decisions during the development process. Firefox decided to use system memory to improve performance. You can't make everyone happy.

That being said... I really don't see Firefox as that much of a resource hog... I have Firefox 3.5, IE8 and Chrome (Developer Channel) open with the same 3 pages (Gmail, Facebook & TTP). Here's what I see:

Firefox - 1 process 145 megs
Chrome - 6 processes 154 megs
IE 8 - 4 processes 171 megs

Chrome's memory use is deceptive. Each tab is its own process (just like IE).

My problem is more with the memory leak issues that I have seen. At first they all look the same. Leave them all open. I left a FF window open one day and my FF process grew to almost 500mb and that was with one tab opened.

You know more about this probably, but can the extensions cause memory leaks like that?

Absolutely, extensions can cause more memory use and leakage. I tend to not leave my browser open, so I guess I don't notice it as much...