To The People Who Use Firefox..

[Rhosfelt]

I am an avid lover of Firefox (on windows when I have to use it) but how can people use it on a Mac? It is extremly slow compared to Safari, and I even have that one plug in "faster fox" or something idk..

Seriously is there something I am not getting, I want to start using FF because it can handle some plug ins better, and has more written for it..

A little help please?

>Ricky

 

[Eidorian]

Tab management and less issues over NFS.

In before flame war.

 

[mcnees287]

tabs are the main reason i chose firefox over safari.

FF isn't that much slower than safari is it?

 

[mkrishnan]

To avoid the inevitable devolution...

Why ask people who use Firefox to defend it to you? You already know Firefox, so you know what its redeeming qualities are.

You have two major options:

1) Figure out how to make Firefox livable for you on a Mac... if this is what you want, focus on what you want (speed, anything else?) and let people specifically help you with any tricks to make Firefox faster. Like evaluating whether you want to try a Firefox 3 alpha/beta, some configural or plug-in tricks, etc....

2) If you don't think you can live with FF, then ask about the things you want and how you can get them in another browser, to determine if you should migrate to Safari, Opera, Camino, Shiira, or another browser.

But it seems to me that having people defend Firefox/Mac to you is just silliness.

FWIW, legal disclosure, I rarely use Firefox/Mac (in spite of using it routinely on Windows) because I prefer Safari 3.

 

[gamac]

I think some are not reading the OP's question properly...

The OP "loves" firefox but it appears to be running very slow on the OP's system.

The OP is asking for advice on how to speed firefox up / fix the slow response problem.

 

[Rhosfelt]

Well I was mainly asking if it is like 1/4 the speed of safari on other people's macs as well...

I want to migrate from Safari to Firefox, because some things I do are not supported in Safari yet, Like NHL Center Ice for preseason games/Safari messes up the coding in my blog/doesn't play .mp4 movies well/other video plug ins usually don't work/get random crashes..yet Safari looks a lot better, and is so much faster.

Also, tabs wtf? Safaris tabs are fine?

 

[Squonk]

Also, tabs wtf? Safaris tabs are fine?

In Safari 2, you cannot reorder tabs. I'm not sure if that is what the OP is referring to or not.

For me:
XP at work = FireFox
Mac's at home = Safari

It is interesting that on different platforms, different browsers strike my fancy. I really don't like how long it takes FF to launch on my Mac. Safari is up and running in 25% of the time.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Well I was mainly asking if it is like 1/4 the speed of safari on other people's macs as well...

I want to migrate from Safari to Firefox, because some things I do are not supported in Safari yet, Like NHL Center Ice for preseason games/Safari messes up the coding in my blog/doesn't play .mp4 movies well/other video plug ins usually don't work/get random crashes..yet Safari looks a lot better, and is so much faster.

Also, tabs wtf? Safaris tabs are fine?

I am using Firefox 2.0.0.7, and the latest public non-beta version of Safari 2. Unlike you, Safari seems slower than Firefox to me, and I do NOT have Fasterfox installed. I have no idea why Firefox runs so slowly for you.

 

[mkrishnan]

As far as the looks go, some options include the Grapple theme and the iSafari add-on (I use Grapple when I do use Firefox). Also look at the builds of Firefox that use Aqua widgets.

Also check out these processor-optimized builds of Firefox.

Also did you try Camino already? You may end up liking it.... Or Firefox 3, if it's stable enough for you. I think there are usable Cocoa builds of Firefox now, but I'm not sure.

P.S. wrldwzrd89, FWIW, Safari 3 is substantially faster than Safari 2 and very stable. I think it really depends on how you define fast, though. Certain aspects of Safari 2 are faster than the equivalent aspects of Firefox 2 (I think the UI is overall more responsive). In contrast other aspects of FF are faster (I think it renders faster a lot of the time, although Safari 3 may be better than FF2).

 

[Rhosfelt]

In Safari 2, you cannot reorder tabs. I'm not sure if that is what the OP is referring to or not.

For me:
XP at work = FireFox
Mac's at home = Safari

It is interesting that on different platforms, different browsers strike my fancy. I really don't like how long it takes FF to launch on my Mac. Safari is up and running in 25% of the time.

Same for me XP = FF and OSX = Safari (for now)

And is reordering tabs that big of a deal? I don't get that lol

I guess if you can have bookmark folders, on the toolbar like in Safari, on FF I think I will be switching for a while..

Also I am using FF 2.0.0.6 could that be a problem?

Safari = 3.0.3

 

[DaveF]

I am an avid lover of Firefox (on windows when I have to use it) but how can people use it on a Mac? It is extremly slow compared to Safari, and I even have that one plug in "faster fox" or something idk.

It feels fine on my new MBP. Nothing particularly slow compared to running on Windows.

What do you find slower than normal? Any websites in particular?

 

[mkrishnan]

Definitely try the stuff that's in my previous post, but now that you clarified that you're already using Safari 3... Safari 3 was designed specifically with the target of speed. Apple has advertised the speed heavily. It's a speed demon in my experience. So yeah, I'm not sure anything will get you to the speed that Safari 3 has -- I find it to be faster than anything I use on Windows or OS X. But the stuff I mentioned should help close the gap with FF2 on Windows.

 

[chuckiehina]

For me

Tabs are nice but compatibility is a bigger player (with respect to Safari). The main one that comes to mind is "buttons", Safari seems to add some sort of curved feel to edges (Aqua like still?), most of the time the does not cause any problems but occasionally it will screw up the layout of pages.

The problem is usually the page author trying to do something the is slightly out of spec, but it is still a problem.

Most of web page development is done in either windows or linux. As a result compatibility with FF is always checked, not so with Safari. The result is some cosmetic inconsistencies tend to regularly pop-up in Safari.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

<snip>
P.S. wrldwzrd89, FWIW, Safari 3 is substantially faster than Safari 2 and very stable. I think it really depends on how you define fast, though. Certain aspects of Safari 2 are faster than the equivalent aspects of Firefox 2 (I think the UI is overall more responsive). In contrast other aspects of FF are faster (I think it renders faster a lot of the time, although Safari 3 may be better than FF2).

Hmm, interesting. I think I'll stick with Firefox for now, simply because of the pure awesomeness that is Greasemonkey and Stylish, combined with Adblock Plus and NoScript.

On another note, is that enhanced Netscape-style plugin specification completed yet? If it is, Safari 3 is compatible with it, and the FF extensions I use are available in this format, I'd switch back to Safari instantly.

 

[Mac In School]

I don't notice a difference in speed. I did go through the Make Firefox Faster steps, that have been around for ages.

If it's a rendering issue, maybe I just have a beefy enough machine that I don't notice.

 

[Taylor C]

I actually find that Firefox loads pages as fast if not faster than Safari. Maybe my perception is off. Anyway, I use and love firefox. With some hacked settings (http pipelining/max requests, as detailed in "Make Firefox Faster" link above, in addition to aqua widgets, etc). The only thing Firefox doesn't currently have, which is a fault on Apple's part, is the ability to sync directly to my iPhone. It's not a huge issue, though.

 

[GNice]

Firefox runs every bit as fast as Safari on my iMac...I much prefer Firefox at this point...

 

[naturallight]

I've been using firefox on my MBP for the past few months, and it's been great, no issues, until just a few days ago.

Now it takes 30 - 60 sec to load a page. And I'm getting constant beachballs, even when I try to do something simple, like just select the window (ie like right now I have safari open, and I tried to switch back over to FF, and it just beachballs.)

Safari works fine, so I know it's not my internet connection. I've tried restarting and all that.

I think I just need to reinstall FF. Am I going to lose my bookmarks though?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I've been using firefox on my MBP for the past few months, and it's been great, no issues, until just a few days ago.

Now it takes 30 - 60 sec to load a page. And I'm getting constant beachballs, even when I try to do something simple, like just select the window (ie like right now I have safari open, and I tried to switch back over to FF, and it just beachballs.)

Safari works fine, so I know it's not my internet connection. I've tried restarting and all that.

I think I just need to reinstall FF. Am I going to lose my bookmarks though?

You will, if you don't save them and copy them to your new Firefox profile. I suspect that your current profile is simply corrupt. Fixing this doesn't require re-installing Firefox, only moving your old profile so that Firefox creates a new one, then copying over the stuff you want to save (most important would be the bookmarks.html file).

Your profile is found in ~/Library/Application Data/Firefox/(random string).slt, where ~ is your home folder.

 

[naturallight]

You will, if you don't save them and copy them to your new Firefox profile. I suspect that your current profile is simply corrupt. Fixing this doesn't require re-installing Firefox, only moving your old profile so that Firefox creates a new one, then copying over the stuff you want to save (most important would be the bookmarks.html file).

Your profile is found in ~/Library/Application Data/Firefox/(random string).slt, where ~ is your home folder.

Thanks, I found the bookmarks file and saved a copy, but how do I move my old profile? (I'm a n00b)

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Thanks, I found the bookmarks file and saved a copy, but how do I move my old profile? (I'm a n00b)

Drag the aforementioned folder elsewhere - your Desktop is one place you can put it. When you next launch Firefox, it'll create a new profile. Quit it, copy the bookmarks file you saved to the new profile, and launch Firefox again. Presto, your bookmarks are back.

 

[webgoat]

tabs are the main reason i chose firefox over safari.

FF isn't that much slower than safari is it?

how are the tabs in firefox better than the tabs in safari?

 

[Dany M]

I use it more then safir is becasue of the many addons i have.

 

[bousozoku]

I am an avid lover of Firefox (on windows when I have to use it) but how can people use it on a Mac? It is extremly slow compared to Safari, and I even have that one plug in "faster fox" or something idk..

Seriously is there something I am not getting, I want to start using FF because it can handle some plug ins better, and has more written for it..

A little help please?

>Ricky

It all depends on the system. Firefox 2.0.0.7 is quicker on my system than Safari most of the time and it's certainly supported by more websites, so it's the best choice for me. I've noticed that the Windows version sometimes works better but that's changed with the various patches since version 2 first became available and they work pretty much the same for me now.

The Fasterfox extension really doesn't help and with default settings, causes more problems for servers than it should. Adblock or even Adblock Plus is much better at speeding up things because it eliminates those pesky adverts.

The big problem with any browser on Mac OS X is the plug-in interface plus the (lack of) speed of the Flash plug-in. On Windows, the Flash plug-in uses the ActiveX/OLE 2 conduit/security breach, which works really quickly, rather than use an older, slower interface.

Firefox 3 is still in alpha test but it's quite a bit better, except that it doesn't have a lot of compatible extensions right now. The speed and rendering are quite nice and the overall capabilities will be good enough that even the Safari fanatics may admit that it's good.

 

[Taylor C]

Firefox 3 is going to be really good.