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When will Firefox stop being a resource hog?

  • 2 replies
  • 159 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by grumpyolman

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Serious question...each release of Firefox introduces more memory leaks. If it wasn't for Firebug, I'd probably ditch Firefox and move completely to Chrome. It would be nice to know...

  1. If the Mozilla Foundation sees this as a problem?
  2. The current steps being taken to resolve the memory leaks?
  3. In which upcoming release will we see a dramatic drop in the amount of memory used?

With around 5 tabs open and leaving the browser running, Firefox 3.6 would become very slow to user interaction after hitting around 800MB of real memory. I'd have to restart the browser to get Firefox back to normal.

With around 5 tabs open and leaving the browser running for a day, Firefox 4 was using 1.6GB of real memory. I restarted the browser before it could use any more.

These memory issues are frustrating!

Update 05/09/2011 Screw it...I've moved to Chrome full time and now recommend it over Firefox to anyone that asks.

Serious question...each release of Firefox introduces more memory leaks. If it wasn't for Firebug, I'd probably ditch Firefox and move completely to Chrome. It would be nice to know... # If the Mozilla Foundation sees this as a problem? # The current steps being taken to resolve the memory leaks? # In which upcoming release will we see a dramatic drop in the amount of memory used? With around 5 tabs open and leaving the browser running, Firefox 3.6 would become very slow to user interaction after hitting around 800MB of real memory. I'd have to restart the browser to get Firefox back to normal. With around 5 tabs open and leaving the browser running for a day, Firefox 4 was using 1.6GB of real memory. I restarted the browser before it could use any more. These memory issues are frustrating! Update 05/09/2011 Screw it...I've moved to Chrome full time and now recommend it over Firefox to anyone that asks.

Modified by dkingofpa

All Replies (2)

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I'll have to 2nd this statement in regards to memory hogging. I have a bit of an old system which I built myself a few years back now so I can't afford to run anything that is unreliable. I had been using FF 3.6.16 I think... and was very happy with that as I could have up to 250 tabs open and it was able to handle it and NOT be a memory hog. Running that many tabs is a bit silly and not something I do all the time but just to let all you peeps out there FF on an older version for me was pretty good.

BUT.........There's always a but isn't there...! Now with just 4 tabs open my system is locking up cos FF is hogging around 800mb's

How can such a good browser have become such a unreliable app. It was never as fast as Opera but I have always been impressed with the way FF updates are done, it just works and gives you the feeling at least that they are thinking about security. + I like the way I can block images from some sites etc..

I'm gonna try and downgrade this FF 5.0.1 sluggish, memory hogging piece of crap and if that doesn't work I'm reluctantly shifting to a new browser, possibly Opera as it is way faster than the current version of FF that I have now!!

FF, you have 48 hours not to lose a loyal user from the beginning, get your house in order and make FF reliable once more!!!

Modified by Jabba

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a whole 48 hours? shirley you jest