FireFox is Doomed!

[+Red King Subscriber²]

[Max Norris]

It's not just Flash based sites, pretty much any site that's script heavy can slow it to a crawl, especially if multiple tabs are open, and it's not specific to any particular OS.   As much as I prefer Firefox the performance is killing it for me, a finalized and reliable e10s build can't come soon enough.  Temporarily using Chrome just because of this and I can't wait to get rid of it again, the inflexibility and insipid extension restrictions that Google keeps adding are driving me nuts. Once they get it up to par with performance again I'll happily switch back. Or to Edge when that gets extension support, whichever comes first.

[+therealDamien Subscriber¹]

 

 

I keep ending up going back to firefox because.

 

I keep getting bugs or glitches with chrome.

 

windows 10 snap to side of screen causing chrome windows not to respond until unsnapped.

 

keyboard input randomly stops working. have exit and restart chrome.

 

[Anibal P]

 

 

 

I keep ending up going back to firefox because.

 

I keep getting bugs or glitches with chrome.

 

windows 10 snap to side of screen causing chrome windows not to respond until unsnapped.

 

keyboard input randomly stops working. have exit and restart chrome.

 

 

That may have to do with the fact that Win10 is not ready for general consumption and less to do with Chrome, now if it's still an issue after the 29th then you may have a valid complaint 

[torrentthief]

Firefox has improved it's speed every release for at least the last 9 months, i'm using the firefox 64bit betas, v40 will have a final version of a 64bit version. e10s is coming in a few months which will mean that tabs and the browser will have their own processes, the UI will be nice and fast. Native language translation is coming using Yandex too, like how chrome uses google's translation engine. The UI in firefox is very nice now and consistent with their mobile version too. Firefox doesn't block p2p sites and they don't ban extensions that allow you to download videos from youtube.com either. Chrome can't handle lots of tabs, it uses tons of ram and the tabs become tiny so you can't see them, firefox lets you scroll through them with a button on the left and a button on the right.

[Gerowen]

After commenting on this topic I thought I would take the chance to use Firefox on Ubuntu Linux for a while and see how I like it since I haven't used it in a little while.  Netflix still doesn't support Firefox on Linux, so if I want to watch Netflix I have to use Chrome, but generally speaking the experience hasn't been terrible in the past hour or so.  It's Firefox 39 from the Ubuntu repositories.  The font rendering is a little bit nicer than in Chrome.  Would still like Firefox to have a "paste as plain text" right click option.  I'll try it out for a day or two and see how it has changed in recent versions since the last time I used it.

[Boo Berry]

Netflix still doesn't support Firefox on Linux

Nor does it on Windows and Mac unless you're using Silverlight (yuck!). Just waiting for the Adobe Primetime CDM to be supported by Netflix (they're working on it) even though Primetime isn't available for 64-bit Firefox yet. Also, eww Adobe.

 

My main problems with Firefox are;

 

1) The terrible performance and interface lag, especially when opening multiple tabs. e10s does improve this, but I still find it gets pretty bogged down (not using any extensions, FYI). Chrome doesn't have this issue.

 

2) Being the last to support HTML5 video on YouTube (even though WebM support still isn't enabled by default due to it being buggy). HTML5 video playback also seems to cause CPU spikes, hence why Bing doesn't enable video backgrounds for Firefox, heh.

 

3) The horrible, horrible sync feature which will mess up your bookmarks arrangement when syncing between multiple devices (like a PC and cell phone). It also seems to randomly resurrect long deleted bookmarks. Whereas Chrome's sync just works, period.

[Kierax2016]

I find Chrome is a real RAM hog.  Firefox is not much better, but is at least more efficient for my usage, that said I am keen to find alternatives, especially on OS X.  I am using Safari currently on my Mac Mini on Yosemite.  

[TAZMINATOR]

Nor does it on Windows and Mac unless you're using Silverlight (yuck!). Just waiting for the Adobe Primetime CDM to be supported by Netflix (they're working on it) even though Primetime isn't available for 64-bit Firefox yet. Also, eww Adobe.

 

My main problems with Firefox are;

 

1) The terrible performance and interface lag, especially when opening multiple tabs. e10s does improve this, but I still find it gets pretty bogged down (not using any extensions, FYI). Chrome doesn't have this issue.

 

2) Being the last to support HTML5 video on YouTube (even though WebM support still isn't enabled by default due to it being buggy). HTML5 video playback also seems to cause CPU spikes, hence why Bing doesn't enable video backgrounds for Firefox, heh.

 

3) The horrible, horrible sync feature which will mess up your bookmarks arrangement when syncing between multiple devices (like a PC and cell phone). It also seems to randomly resurrect long deleted bookmarks. Whereas Chrome's sync just works, period.

 

That's the reason I have Netflix on the streaming box ... I don't use Netflix on PC anymore.

 

On the PC, I surf, graphic design, chat, etc.

 

Videos can be viewed on the streaming box including YouTube.

[Gerowen]

Nor does it on Windows and Mac unless you're using Silverlight (yuck!). Just waiting for the Adobe Primetime CDM to be supported by Netflix (they're working on it) even though Primetime isn't available for 64-bit Firefox yet. Also, eww Adobe.

 

My main problems with Firefox are;

 

1) The terrible performance and interface lag, especially when opening multiple tabs. e10s does improve this, but I still find it gets pretty bogged down (not using any extensions, FYI). Chrome doesn't have this issue.

 

2) Being the last to support HTML5 video on YouTube (even though WebM support still isn't enabled by default due to it being buggy). HTML5 video playback also seems to cause CPU spikes, hence why Bing doesn't enable video backgrounds for Firefox, heh.

 

3) The horrible, horrible sync feature which will mess up your bookmarks arrangement when syncing between multiple devices (like a PC and cell phone). It also seems to randomly resurrect long deleted bookmarks. Whereas Chrome's sync just works, period.

Google Chrome worked out some sort of native Netflix support on Linux using the libnss3 library in Ubuntu.  I don't know the specifics of how they worked it out or what exactly libnss does, but they did, so no more falsifying browser identification or running Windows software in wine or silverlight or anything, :-)

 

Just looked up the libnss3 package that had to be updated a while back that allowed Chrome to natively play Netflix (and Netflix blessed off on it so you no longer get re-directed to the "supported browsers" error page), and here's a screenshot of what it says it does.  Not sure if there's a Windows equivalent they'll eventually use to replace silverlight or not, I would imagine so since it's open source and the description says "cross platform".  (The funny looking marks in the version numbers are just parts of letters where I didn't have those columns expanded all the way out)

 

[Noir Angel]

I personally don't like Firefox and never have but I wouldn't say it's dead by any means, Mozilla just don't have the money at their disposal that Google, Microsoft, and Apple do.

[Boo Berry]

Not sure if there's a Windows equivalent they'll eventually use to replace silverlight or not

For Firefox it'll be the Primetime CDM. Chrome already has had the Widevine CDM for sometime now.

[slam_speech]

**Bangs head on desk**

Sigh...another 'Firefox is dying thread'.  2 things:

 

1.  Funny, OP, 1-4 aren't even remotely accurate.  Firefox has been getting noticably faster with every release and it's responsiveness and page load times are on par with Chrome and IE.  Probably starting with 31.  I run it along with Chrome/Chromium on Windows 10, OS X El Capitan, and Mint on my Retina Macbook Pro.  Windows 10 (Win 8.1 before that) my Asus Vivotab Note (pretty damn low end hardware).  Along with the desktop I use at work running Win 7.  Yes, I do run a bunch of addons that I sync.

 

2.  I am going to repeat what I have said before (actually one thread below)--don't use one source to show browser market share.  Since Net Applications and Stat Counter actually measure two totally different things.  Let's look at them:

 

Browser usage March 2015 StatCounter NetMarketShare Chrome 49.07% 24.99% Internet Explorer 17.88% 56.54% Firefox 16.81% 11.89% Safari 10.93% 5.00% Opera 1.62% 1.15%

 

If you just look at desktop, Firefox had 18.6% on StatCounter.  Honestly, StatCounter would be a better indicator of browser health than NMS.  Because SC counts the number of visits, NMS counts unique visitors.  So, if you visit 1000 sites a day in Firefox and 1 in IE then NMS would count each once.  However, in SC Firefox would get counted 500 and IE once.

 

So, if we look at StatCounter(desktop only) 18.6% is still a good marketshare.  IE is barely a percentage point above FX.  Firefox has actually been pretty stable the past 2 years there has been an ~8% decline.  It has stablized since early this year on NMS, btw.  IE has ~15% decline, btw.  Even more interesting is Opera's highest market share on the desktop in the past 5 years has been 2.07%, but they are still around.

 

My guess as to why FX declined at a greater rate on NMS than on SC, is because more Enterprises have adopted Chrome.  However, the userbase for Firefox has largely remain constant as indicated by SC.

 

If FX is dying, then IE is racing to the bottom quicker and Opera will be dead if it lost more than 1.71 percentage points.

[ambiance]

What a load of crap.

[slam_speech]

P.S.  The OP seems to like to troll Firefox users.  He has another post about Firefox sucking.  All phrases with nothing to back them up.

 

Personally, I always thought Firefox's market share was undercounted on of these analytics.  85% of FX users use extensions VS. 30% of Chrome users.  I would say quite a few use Ad/Tracking/Script blockers, so the StatCounter and NetMarketShare never see them.

 

Also, NetMarketShare tends to use online commerce and B2B site.  Which makes me think that enterprise, school, and other public computer's adoption of Chrome is the main cause for decline on NetMarketShare.

[monkeylove]

I switched to Cyberfox 64-bit from Chrome, but I'm not sure if I want to go back because there are several extensions that I need and want to customize the UI.

[ViperAFK]

Nor does it on Windows and Mac unless you're using Silverlight (yuck!). Just waiting for the Adobe Primetime CDM to be supported by Netflix (they're working on it) even though Primetime isn't available for 64-bit Firefox yet. Also, eww Adobe.

 

My main problems with Firefox are;

 

1) The terrible performance and interface lag, especially when opening multiple tabs. e10s does improve this, but I still find it gets pretty bogged down (not using any extensions, FYI). Chrome doesn't have this issue.

 

2) Being the last to support HTML5 video on YouTube (even though WebM support still isn't enabled by default due to it being buggy). HTML5 video playback also seems to cause CPU spikes, hence why Bing doesn't enable video backgrounds for Firefox, heh.

 

3) The horrible, horrible sync feature which will mess up your bookmarks arrangement when syncing between multiple devices (like a PC and cell phone). It also seems to randomly resurrect long deleted bookmarks. Whereas Chrome's sync just works, period.

1. This has been improving significantly within the past few years, and on most machines I can barely even tell any difference in responsiveness between fx and chrome anymore, outside of some specific edge cases that still lock firefox's UI up (such as opening my rutorrent webui). The first e10s implementation will only be using 2 processes (one for UI, and one for content), so there will still be significant room for responsiveness improvements once it lands, because they will eventually move it to a process per tab model like chrome.

 

2. This is just as much google's fault as anything, they are constantly fiddling with youtube and breaking it on other browsers. You should recall that firefox actually had functioning youtube html5 support very early on, until google abruptly started arbitrarily requiring MSE (which conveniently was only implemented in chrome and no other browsers at the time), so every other browser was left playing catch up. Even Opera, which is chromium based only gained support for MSE recently.

 

3. I will agree with you there. This is literally the only reason I don't use firefox anymore, this drove me insane: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=812348. And the fact that this issue doesn't even seem to be a very high priority doesn't give me any confidence that it will be fixed any time soon

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

Firefox UI is outdated crap with blurry icons on a highdpi screen, They should replace the current blurry icons with svg icons to fix this, the ui itself is made with css and looks sharp though.

[Yazoo]

you are not alone. 99% of firefox users already switched to chrome.

Is this true? Source? or were you trying to say a lot of users have switched?

[Andrew Marty]

Hey guys!

 

Figured I'd chime in with my experiences with Firefox since I've been using it since version 1. It has changed substantially some for the good and some for the ehh.

 

I absolutely love Firefox (let's get that out there lol.) I've compared Firefox and chrome side by side on the same machine and it is just faster and smoother. I actually like the new design that Firefox implemented in (I believe it was version 32 but correct me if I'm wrong.) When I was using Chrome (ditched Firefox 32 because I felt like they weren't focusing on some key points that needed addressing) I had to find a freakin extension for every function Firefox had built in, on Chrome - which to me was ridiculous lol.

 

As I used Chrome, I was not a fan of its memory leaks on my system (did substantial testing on my machine) and Chrome for Android (as a sidenote) murdered my phones battery (battery usage was between 12-17% WTH?)

 

Firefox 38 quickly came and I figured I'd give my beloved browser a try again. Installed it side by side with chrome, launched them both and loaded a couple sites and Firefox dominated chrome. Firefox had the site loaded while Chrome was still thinking how the hell it should proceed in loading it lol. So ditched Chrome as fast as I installed it haha and removed it on my phone and brought Firefox back and couldn't be more in love haha.

 

I'm also a heavy Firefox power user (about:config is my best friend) so I've tweaked a ton of things which in turn - I've seen make Firefox more powerful, faster and all around better to use. If anyone would like the tweaks and what not that I've used - feel free to ask. I've also disabled hello, pocket and whatever else I didn't need, which I notice lessens some memory and makes it a tad quicker.

 

But regarding the first post that started this thread - Firefox doesn't have those 4 listed issues - not anymore as what I can see since I use it every day. Also the graphics render - is a intel driver issue - you have to update your intel graphics driver . The graphics issue has never happened to me so...can't speak for everyone else.

 

Any questions feel free to ask since I'm a die hard Firefox fan!

[T3X4S]

OP either loves to troll, or has some serious issues.
There doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason to his trolling, its kinda all over the place.

1 thing is for sure, he thinks people who use FF are old, out of date, not tech savvy, not hipsters, not cool, and not as trendy as chrome users    yeah... exactly

I like Firefox, been using it for years.  Occassionally when it has its reoccurring problem with flash, I will use Chrome, but as soon as its fixed (either with an update, or a flash update)  I'll go back to FF.

I use it @ work and having the Sync feature saves my insanity with my work laptop and my workstations.  In fact my entire team uses FF


Im surprised we havent heard from that one guy who claimed a few weeks ago how chrome was a trojan LOL

[A Real American!]

OP either loves to troll, or has some serious issues.

 

 

Looks like you are the one having issues. Here's why:

 

1. Firefox shares declining

2. Firefox user-base declining

3. For you only Firefox is better while 99% people in this thread like Chrome.

4. Chrome also have sync (much better than Firefox)

5. Chrome is faster, stable, secure in terms of performance and usage. While Firefox sucks at everything. 

6. Your entire team is probably living in the 90's. Most likely they are outdated people living in caves  

[oldtimefighter]

3. For you only Firefox is better while 99% people in this thread like Chrome.

This is the second time you meationed 99%. You said 99% of Firefox users have switched to Chrome and 99% of the comments here have been pro-Chrome. Neither are close to being true... Actually, the pro-FF comments have edged out the pro-Chrome ones on this thread which you obviously have not read. Facts seem to have no meaning for you or you don't understand how percentages work.

 

All browsers have pros and cons and we get that you prefer Chrome so please stop trolling.

[gameboy1977]

It sound like Apple IPhone VS Google Android commercial says don't fight!

[th3rEsa]

Pocket Now Integration. Why would you add a third party service to your browser?

Pocket is rather great. Why, on the opposite, should Mozilla spend human resources for developing their own alternative to a service like Pocket (which is what they'd probably have done else)?