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Firefox 54 Promises Faster Browsing on Macs With Limited RAM
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So why do you use Firefox when you have a dozen other browsers to use? Does Firefox add something to the experience that is missing from the other browsers?
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Firefox is not dead, but what needs to die is people thinking that one browser is either the best or the worst on all counts. It's a highly subjective rating, I believe. And with browsers being free, there's no reason why people can't use multiple browsers at once. I do that... Safari, Safari Tech Preview, Vivaldi and Chrome are usually all in use for different sites/apps. No need to be opening up everything in a single browser window. That's unrealistic and does contribute to resource starvation.
Perhaps something like potential faster browsing for some that is mentioned in this article?
Comparing Chrome's usage to other browsers hardly seems fair. Its bloated architecture is based on running multiple independent rendering engines, in separate processes, to prevent a crash from bringing down the entire browser. Nice concept, but overly bloated in practice. It likely will always be one of the highest RAM-usage browsers in existence.
Firefox at one point many plugins unique to it, that offered functionality not available in other browsers. There still are some unique ones with Firefox, although luckily other browsers now have more of a selection than they once did, and normally you don't have to stick with Firefox. Regardless, there still is a small learning curve when switching browsers. Enough to keep people using the one they prefer.
Although, you have to admit it's a little odd that iMacs come with less RAM by default than MacBook Pros...
Firefox at one point many plugins unique to it, that offered functionality not available in other browsers. There still are some unique ones with Firefox, although luckily other browsers now have more of a selection than they once did, and normally you don't have to stick with Firefox. Regardless, there still is a small learning curve when switching browsers. Enough to keep people using the one they prefer.
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I've used Firefox as my primary browser for over 12 years now on various platforms (mostly Windows and macOS/OS X). Mozilla's browser(s) once stood out with excellent support for web standards, though now that most people have caught up it's not that different among the major competitors. I still support Mozilla because they are the most "free" and open of the major competitors, and I support them philosophically in addition to believing that they put out a high-quality browser, albeit one that has had a few resource-hogging problem in the past. Chrome is pretty similar (even more so now that Mozilla is basically copying them--even removing their much more powerful add-on architecture in favor of Google's), but I still appreciate the open-ness of Firefox and don't think we should let any one particular browser become overwhelmingly popular again, lest we return to the "best in IE" (or Netscape) days.
PS - MacRumors, you're still using the old Firefox logo. They changed it about four years ago. This is the fourth major incarnation of the logo, but the it's pretty easy to differentiate from the previous two with the drastic reduction in glossiness: https://blog.mozilla.org/creative/2013/06/27/a-new-firefox-logo-for-a-new-firefox-era/
PS - MacRumors, you're still using the old Firefox logo. They changed it about four years ago. This is the fourth major incarnation of the logo, but the it's pretty easy to differentiate from the previous two with the drastic reduction in glossiness: https://blog.mozilla.org/creative/2013/06/27/a-new-firefox-logo-for-a-new-firefox-era/
I disagree. I still use Firefox and many people I know do. I can't wait until Firefox 57! Finally the end to XUL!
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One way is to make sure multiprocess is enabled/e10s. Once old legacy addons are gotten rid of the situation will improve even more.
Surfing websites today with several tabs open with 2GB of total ram and no swap files are being used on my PPC running 10.5.x
Switch over to my Intel MacBookPro Core2Duo with 2GB ram running 10.6.x and open the same pages today in tabs and end up with 6 swapfiles and laptop crawls to a stop. Intel is the problem.
Some reasons why I primarily use Firefox:
- Available on MacOS, Windows, Linux and iOS (I use all of them personally or for work)
- Profile management (and profiles can be easily copied across the platforms)
- Performance and compatibility are competitive with other browsers
- Independently developed, not owned by a large ad conglomerate whose main interest is to collect data about its users
- It's the only browser to support bookmark/tab syncing with true end-to-end encryption
- Available on MacOS, Windows, Linux and iOS (I use all of them personally or for work)
- Profile management (and profiles can be easily copied across the platforms)
- Performance and compatibility are competitive with other browsers
- Independently developed, not owned by a large ad conglomerate whose main interest is to collect data about its users
- It's the only browser to support bookmark/tab syncing with true end-to-end encryption
Performance on the Mac with FF is still laggy for me.
FF gets majority of its revenue from Google.
Works fine here. Scrolling isn't as smooth as in Safari, but that's also true for Chrome.
I believe that's no longer the case:
https://www.cnet.com/news/firefox-maker-mozilla-we-dont-need-googles-money-anymore/
Yes scrolling is an issue as well but I get hiccups a lot with it freezing for seconds.
I'm glad they're getting self reliant, I love their browser and never went on the Chrome bandwagon no matter how much teasing I get from friends about using FF.
I don't see that here. How many extensions are you using? If you use more than about 10 that may be an issue.
As I said before, 32 bit against 64 bit.
If you really want to know then open Activity Monitor, it tell you a lot more about where RAM is consumed, and if it's a 32 or 64 bit process.
How far the mighty has fallen. I was an avid user and beta and nightly tester since version 0.6. Now it is a bloated piece of crap that has not moved with the times.
Firefox still has the worst performance of the major browsers, at least on My iMac and Macbook Air. Especially on the MBA, any media site will run the fans into overdrive. The only extension I use is RES (Safari, Chrome, and FF) and I do use Flash on all 4 browsers. I'm posting this with FF 54 and with just this one tab FF is using 1.6Gb RAM in its 2 processes. Safari, even with its 10 processes, totals only 404Mb.
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That's weird. Currently viewing this page, Firefox uses about 350MB for the main process, and about 200 for the web content process. Which of the processes is so much bigger on your system?
Right now, after a fresh start and navigating to this page, Firefox Web Content 552Mb (55% CPU) and Firefox 372Mb (6% CPU). Firefox is static in background, posting this with Safari.
The CPU load is even more shocking. With this page just sitting there, I get something like 0.5% for each process.
Have you tried going to about:performance and checking if one of your extensions acts up?
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The only extensions I have installed are RES and Checker+ for Gmail. Both are acting fine according to Firefox. I’ve run Refresh too but nothing helps.
EDIT: I wiped everything Firefox and Mozilla from my Macbook and reinstalled. After opening, syncing, and restarting, I navigated straight to MacRumors, searched "Firefox", selected this thread, and Firefox Web Content is at 741Mb, and Firefox is at 447Mb. Chrome same steps... all processes total 381Mb. Safari 549Mb.
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I don't trust Chrome with my privacy, and it can be a worse CPU hog than FF, just for different types of sites. Safari's URL bar is broken for actual URLs, and its customizability is crap. I try the new upstarts now and then but haven't been impressed - they're solving problems I don't have.
Firefox has always had the best dev tools on the block for my use cases. In some ways it's still more customizable even than Chrome. And 15 years worth of muscle memory and experience bending it to my will as a power user are a major barrier to switching even if I found an alternative I actually liked.
I find myself using Safari more and more for web apps that don't run well in FF. It's really annoying to use two browsers for different apps because making sure you open the right links in your non-default browser is a PITA. But no way Safari ever becomes my default.
[doublepost=1498154997][/doublepost]I like using Safari but I regularly run into stuff that does not work. For example yesterday I went to change my paypal debit card pin and the option was not there in safari either on my phone or mac. Chrome used to be my secondary but now I think firefox has bypassed it. Even firefox focus on ios is good. Anyway, I rarely run into problems with something not working on firefox, every so often I do on safari and thats without ad blocker, etc.
Yes, I know paypal sucks but transferring between paypal usa and mexico is easy. Hopefully shortly a citibank/citibanamex link will replace it.
Anyone claiming firefox is dead is wrong. Firefox mac is now getting there.
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