What is the new Firefox?

[TorzJohnson]

I'm just about done with Firefox. Version 3.5.3 takes waaaaaaaaaay too long to start up. They don't seem to be particularly interested in fixing this problem, despite about a million complaints all over the internet. And I'm not going back to IE, ever.

So, what's a good browser that is now what Firefox used to be? Fast, sleek, uncluttered and customizable? That's what I want.

 

[mbrooks]

The only browser that's been making a splash in recent months/years is Google Chrome. I don't know much about it, though.

 

[dpm802]

I tried Google Chrome when it first came out, and it was pretty fast and slick looking. But the lack of extensions and customizations made me put it away after a few hours, and I haven't looked back.

I'm a die-hard FireFox Fan ... I've got it loaded with extensions and find that it does a better (but not perfect) job of net-surfing than anything else I've tried.

As for the slow start-up problem, I just leave mine open all the time, since it is the application that I use more than all the others put together. About once a week, I will close it and re-open to flush the cache and trim the memory usage. Aside from that, it runs fast and solid whenever and wherever I surf, and the extensions make it even better.

 

[SavantStrike]

Is this a problem only on the Windows platform?

I haven't noticed any slowdown problems with FF on Linux... ever...

 

[aquilla]

i only ever use opera browser, on my linux laptop, windows pc and my n95. i find it fast, quick starting, intuitive and feature rich, the speed dial being about my favourite part. so i'd recommend opera

 

[bythbook]

I've been using Chrome - I miss some of the extensions & themes & other bells & whistles of firefox - but Chrome fires up FAST and has been incredibly stable. The newest Firefox was crashing on me every time I tried to use Photobucket... was slow & clunky - just as you're finding.

 

[machine99703]

Jim, that slow start up problem is firefox scaning all of your temp files (and I mean all of them) to create randomness for security features. Clean your cache and temp files as frequently as you can and it will help quite a bit. Also make sure your firefox is up to date, they are working on speeding up this process and each update it will get better. Even with it's minor issues I could never give up firefox. The internet without ad-block is a terrible place.

If your clear cache isn't cleaning all of your temp files you can delete them manually.

Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\History
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Recent

Windows Vista /7:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
%TEMP%

 

[sol92258]

Firefox user here, have not noticed any slowdown on mine.
I also use Opera a lot, and if it had some more extensions/addons, it would probably swap places with FF as my primary browser.

I tried Chrome a few weeks after it came out, it was slower than IE...so I uninstalled and tried again...still slower.
Tried it on 3 machines, only one was it usable - used a different download each time, so it wasn't a bad installer.
I do need to try it again, and see if it's any better. A lot of folks really seem to like Chrome alot, I'm just quite leery of Google getting so embedded in every aspect of the interwebs...they're products are free, but they're office is the dream workplace - that can't all be ads, they've got some major funding coming from somewhere....

so anywho, might give Opera and/or Chrome a try, like I said I'm | | that close to making Opera my primary browser

 

[Phog Allen]

Well I have to say that I have had my share of grumpy moments with Firefox 3. 2 just ran...and ran and ran. No glitches, no slowdowns, no whacked favourites menu etc. I hate the so called awesome bar and did everything I could to stifle it. It works better now but why wasn't it just a tools option to shut if off to begin with? Since updating to FF3 I have had several mini updates seemingly one right after the other. The menu problems were weird but an update from 3.5.2 to 3.5.3(literally within a couple of days of each other)both caused and then fixed it. Just weird. I do love the FF extensions and IF Opera did RSS the way FF does, then I would switch over to it right now. At least till I was sure FF was getting de-bloated or whatever you want to call it. Just a grump from me. I do like the fact that IE has serious competition though.

Regards, Todd

 

[aquilla]

I also use Opera a lot, and if it had some more extensions/addons, it would probably swap places with FF as my primary browser.

opera does have a suprisingly large amount of addons, a quick search of google for opera plugins brings alot up.

 

[dbconlin]

I have been using Chrome since it was released. It is much faster than IE.

I have to use IE at work for some of the software we use there. Until recently, I kept an IE window open for our corporate database and a Chrome window open for information gathering, my personal email account, and...B&B, I guess. Recently, I have had a network issue where I am not able to run Chrome within our network at work, so I have been forced to IE for all tasks. It is really a drag - I got quite used to the lightening-fast tab opening and page loading. Bummer.

Unfortunately, I have found that Chrome does not always work with some web pages, including certain JavaScript or Flash (?) plug-ins.

 

[TorzJohnson]

Jim, that slow start up problem is firefox scaning all of your temp files (and I mean all of them) to create randomness for security features. Clean your cache and temp files as frequently as you can and it will help quite a bit. Also make sure your firefox is up to date, they are working on speeding up this process and each update it will get better. Even with it's minor issues I could never give up firefox. The internet without ad-block is a terrible place.

If your clear cache isn't cleaning all of your temp files you can delete them manually.

Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\History
C:\Documents and Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Local Settings\Temp
C:\Documents And Settings\*user*\Recent

Windows Vista /7:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
%TEMP%

I read about this and I thought CCleaner was getting them all, but I will go through manually and check for anything it may have missed now. Thanks for the tip!

 

[marvin100]

I love Firefox and use it a lot, but it's a huge resource hog (even older versions were guilty of this).

Chrome is fast and sleek. It's not as extensible as FF, but it's reliable and lightning-quick.

 

[_JP_]

I read about this and I thought CCleaner was getting them all, but I will go through manually and check for anything it may have missed now. Thanks for the tip!

You can set Firefox to automatically clean out all of the cache and history files when it closes.

 

[mretzloff]

Chrome is fast and sleek. It's not as extensible as FF, but it's reliable and lightning-quick.

See, I had the opposite experience Chrome took forever to load and when it did it was only slightly faster than Firefox. I may try it again. I think Firefox is still better because of the extensions. I used Chrome for a few weeks and missed my extensions too much.

 

[sol92258]

See, I had the opposite experience Chrome took forever to load and when it did it was only slightly faster than Firefox

same here, but it was slower than IE, which was slower than FF, which is slower than Opera, in my experience

 

[mretzloff]

same here, but it was slower than IE, which was slower than FF, which is slower than Opera, in my experience

Is IE faster than anything?

 

[Luc]

It must be the cache as mine is cleared everytime I close it. It doesn't take long to load either.

I also use the portable version on my usb stick for work and that one is also fine!

 

[Trench]

Instead of moving to a totally different browser, why not go back to 3.0.x?

 

[sol92258]

Is IE faster than anything?

ummmm....USPS?