Firefox (2 and possibly 3) are unusable on Linux

This will be a short entry but Firefox on Linux is not doing the Linux community any favors. Firefox is really buggy software. At first I thought maybe I was doing something wrong like visiting websites (you know, typical web browsing tasks) but after yet another memory upgrade and yet another Ubuntu release, I am convinced there is something seriously wrong with the Firefox/Mozilla engine on the linux platform. Maybe the FF community grew too fast and the FF group were unable to adequately handle the demands of the modern web user.

There are a couple of problems that plaque my internet use. Slow startup (at least with FF2). Heavy javascript oriented pages wreak havoc on FF and the operating system.

Don't you find it a little odd that Ubuntu just recently upgraded to Firefox 2.0.0.8 only 2 weeks (or so) after the Gutsy (Ubuntu 7.10) release. I bet it was yet another Firefox memory fix or something along those lines. The worst part, as far as I can tell it works fine on the win32 platforms. Never have a problem with it. But once I start using FF on a Linux platform, I start praying to the gods I can do basic tasks like check my email or visit one of the three sites I frequently visit. It is really tragic.

My Solutions

I am trying my best to move away from FF, at least FF2. I am currently writing this blog entry under Firefox Granparadiso (FF3). But it is kind of difficult when you have been using some variation of Firefox for so long. Firefox on windows. Firefox on Redhat. Also, FF shares so many properties with Internet Explorer. I use the latest Opera on occassion and so far it seems to be very stable.

Plugins: Some articles on the web mention that Firefox doesn't work well with various plugins. I only really use Firebug and the non-commercial Flash plugin.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Unit Testing, Java TDD for developers to write

It has been a while, let's kick off 2017 with a blog entry. I have read and I am reading about four or five posts a day about unit testing. It really has been a long time obsession for me. I have moved past the technical and practical considerations on unit testing frameworks and done with the debates with "should you use Junit or Mockito or Karma?" I am more interested in the psychology of unit testing, who does it, likes it, hates it? It really is one of those easy to learn, hard to master concepts. For example, many many may play chess when they are young and can end up being horribly chess players most of their life, I am part of that majority. Unfortunately, I have never played chess and sat down for hours and tried to master it. I never see the common patterns or have a developed end game. I mostly just play with a knowledge of the basic rules. Following good unit testing practices within your software development shop is a lot like playing chess. It is easy to le...
Read more

Is Java the new COBOL? Yes. What does that mean, exactly? (Part 1)

Image
"If you want to know the past, look at your present. If you want to know the future, look at your present." -- Gautama Buddha Java is the new COBOL, whaaaat?     If you are software developer that mainly writes applications for the web; even if you aren't a Java/J2EE developer, you have probably heard the new meme circulating the web and blogosphere. "Java is the new COBOL" . Most blogs and technical writers regurgitate that statement and follow-up by saying that EJBs suck, and some companies are considering Ruby on Rails. I didn't really think much of these posts. I get the impression that a lot of these "managers" don't write any Java or COBOL code. They are really not highlighting the seriousness of the problem. COBOL development has remained stagnant for decades. Java may see the same problem in the future. The Pentagon/DOD has a trillion dollar COBOL problem because it is so difficult to change their ancient infrastructure. Anyon...
Read more

JVM Notebook: Basic Clojure, Java and JVM Language performance

Image
"Measure, don't guess. The primary goal of all performance tuning exercises should be maximize the end user experience given the resource constraints." [1] "It isn't so much a "farewell to the J" as an expansion of the platform opportunities Java provides. Sun's investment to power ongoing development of JRuby and Jython broadens the range and reach of Java, as a whole." -- Rick Ross Overview and JVM Languages    One of the exciting trends to recently emerge from the Java community is the concept of the JVM language. These technologies are all that you would expect them to be. They are implementations of languages that run on the Java Virtual Machine. Some are newly created and some are based on existing, more mature languages. JRuby, Jython are two JVM languages based on CRuby and CPython. Groovy, Scala, Clojure are three completely new JVM languages that were created to add new language features that weren't supported by the core Ja...
Read more