Is Firefox bloated?


Recommended Posts

I don't think Firefox is bloated, but on occasion it starts sucking RAM and gets slow.

586436117[/snapback]

only if u have alot of tabs open or sites that have alot of flash media on it as well, or if u have low ram, your pc can get bogged down

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll agree on the memory problem; right now this is the only page I have open and Firefox is using 74MB of RAM. I have 512 so it's not really a problem but it is still ridiculous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't use firefox, but I wouldn't call it bloated.

People over use the term bloated, they use it when they can't think of another way to express what they don't like about some software. That means just about all of you people here at Neowin. It's just lonely people trying to belong and feel needed. They jump on every bandwagon that comes along. Neowin is the support group and bashing software a security blanket.

If you step back and take an objective look at this, you see how ridiculous it is.

I don't use Firefox because it's UI is a mess. I also got tired of having to make a new profile every new version, or every month or so, just to fix a problem with the browser.

586435940[/snapback]

You say calling an application bloated is some sort of security blanket? MMkay.

In terms of calling a browser this and that, how about some of you actually qualify what you are saying. For example, saying the firefox ui is a mess is fine, but please, tell us why - give us some examples. It is just as bad as saying firefox is bloated - it doesn't mean anything unless you provide some sort of rationale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think Firefox is bloated, but on occasion it starts sucking RAM and gets slow.

586436117[/snapback]

As a Firefox enthuiast, I have to admit - you're right! This happens to me all the time. I work with a lot of tabs open for a long time. My system crawls like a slug until I restart Firefox. (The web browser uses up over 100MBs of RAM by the end). I can't wait until this problem gets fixed.

However, in regard to this thread, I have just one thing to say:

"What the ****?" Firefox is the light version of the Mozilla suite, which like nearly every other browser of its day, was notorious for feature-creep and bloat. I'd like to remind you, Firefox has always been a browser only - it does nothing else, like IE and Opera do. Since it was phoenix 0.1, it has been decreasing in file size, so obviously keeping Firefox streamlined is a priority of its developers. Firefox consists of a slowish layout engine and DOM called Gecko, Necko for networking, and a JavaScript engine called Spidermonkey wrapped up tightly in a simple XUL-based interface. With only the necesary core web browser components, and few excess features, I fail to see the bloat. Viewed relatively, Firefox has the least bloat of any graphical browser.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Firefox isn't bloated in my opinion. It's not really as "lite" as IE7, because I don't think IE7 IS lite. Internet Explorer 7 is like the result of a nuclear attack on it's toolbars, so everything's scrambled ...

Firefox is much faster, sleek and easier to use than IE ...

That of course is only my opinion ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bloat...hmm, what defines bloat? Try MSN Messenger 6, 7 or 7.5 and you'll see what I mean. Bloat is defined by us geeks as unnecessary additions to a program. Bloat, then, becomes a subjective concept, because it us what we, as the end-users, define as unnecessary. Some people may hate RSS support, tabs, bookmarks, themes, toolbars - they might just want an empty window with your forward, back, stop, refresh and home buttons and a URL bar. Then, from their point of view, Firefox becomes 'bloated', because it has all these 'unnecessary' features. The point I'm trying to make here, is that 'bloat' isn't a universal thing, everybody has different conceptions of the term, and to define 'bloat' is to ask somebody whether they feel something is necessary or not - a matter of opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ambience, you're right, but you must not have read the threadstarter's post! He didn't say he would rather have a super-minimal browser. He said, from what I could gather from his lack of sensible English, he thinks IE7 is a less bloated choice. Excuse me? I think he's living in the twilight zone.

Edited by celebrus
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To answer the question in subject..

No, Firefox is not bloated.

It is a bare browser with minimal, but by no means lacking, functionality.

The extention system allows you to easily expand upon and change the default interface and functions.

The theme system allows you to customize the appearence however you like.

And it has a pretty solid engine too.

But it all comes down to preference.

Edited by knigitz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is bloated.

Program Files folder and hidden Mozilla folder (yes, using FF) under the Application Data sub folder in Document and Settings(stores the themes and extension support)

These folders can consume a fair bit of space, surprising a large amount.

Memory usage, well we all know about that one.

As far as looks, no, you can customise it how you want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is bloated.

Program Files folder and hidden Mozilla folder (yes, using FF) under the Application Data sub folder in Document and Settings(stores the themes and extension support)

These folders can consume a fair bit of space, surprising a large amount.

Memory usage, well we all know about that one.

As far as looks, no, you can customise it how you want.

586438225[/snapback]

:/

Edit:

Opps, forgot about the Deer Park Folder (Add's another ~17MB to it)...but still ":/"

post-34386-1125129181_thumb.jpg

Edited by HoochieMamma
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well Jasur, my IE folder is 33.7MB and lets not forget all the DLL's IE uses that are in the Windows folder.

My Deer Park folder is 16.3MB and Mozilla folder is 11MB that = 27.3MB Hmmmmmm

Edit: well I just cleared my private data and now the Mozilla folder is 4.19MB

Edited by rschultz2002
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yikes has neowin become the firefox fanboy network  :blink:

586435641[/snapback]

I'm an opera user and I disagree with the stater that said firefox is bloated

Even if I use opera as default browser, I'm objective enough to know this statement is a pure thinking.

and as stated before, it is bloaded as when you add extentions..

why ppl here always says fanboy to ppl argumenting to protect firefox on false statements..

wow :no:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mozilla/Firefox is slow but I will not call it bloated. A web browser is quite complex, and to support all standard, and unfortunately non-standard code that is present on the internet, they have to use a lot of processing power. However, a browser like Opera (or KMeleon, Skipstone, which are based on the same gecko engine) manages to handle this much faster than firefox, so that is one area I sure hope it will improve.

As for interface speed, the post 0.8 builds for linux started using the GTK2 toolkit by default, and this made them a bit slower.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not at all.

But the only thing I am not satisfied with Firefox is that it takes more CPU usage than any other browser (and I have a slow PC).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For a simplistic browser, I won't agree that Firefox is 'bloated', instead its interface is sluggish.

I don't see how hard it is to use a native Windows UI, or if not native, something that is fast and snappy. Look at Camino - why can't it be done on Windows?

Before you refer to K-Meleon, sorry but IMO that browser is a headache to use. But it's just my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

my firefox usually eats up betwene 60-100MB ram when I am using it. Of course i have about 6-12 sites opened in it at once, some playing wmv, flash, midi, mp3 etc.

586439319[/snapback]

This is mine with just neowin open

post-56742-1125170243_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

deer park takes about 32mb where as IE takes about 22mb in xp64

586440176[/snapback]

Qualify for ****'s sake. How many windows? How many tabs? What sites? Are they both loaded to the same site? etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.