Firefox on Linux slower than on Windows?

jae

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2001
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I've begun having issues with Firefox in all my installations. I notice it sputters with a 8 or 9 tabs open, and halts if I then open some amazon tabs. This happens regardless of the distortion (from Arch to Ubuntu Mate to Fedoras).

I'm running a Lenovo X220 w/ i5, 8GB RAM, 120GB mSATA, and 320GB HDD.

I've tried putting firefox's memory in RAM and disk.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
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Amazon has HORRIBLE javascript, if you disable ssl-images-amazon.com in noscript it should be better. In fact I find a lot of sites now days have horrible javascript code that locks up the whole browser. I use noscript and only allow stuff as required, kinda a pain in the butt sometimes though especially with news sites, which will have like 30+ domains, it's gotten pretty ridiculous.

In general I find FF is actually faster and more stable in Linux than it is in Windows, though come to think of it I'd say they're pretty much equal now as I have not had issues in Windows for a while either as I use it at work.
 

replica9000

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Dec 20, 2014
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Firefox on my system starts off pretty fast, but over the course of a week or two, it slows down considerably. I also usually have 100+ tabs open. Firefox on FreeBSD seems to be faster. Could be the lack of Flash and Java support though.
 

KillerBee

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2010
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Not specific to Linux but this may help speed up things:

turn on Tracking Protection in Firefox:
open about:config
Search for privacy.trackingprotection.enabled
Double-click or right-click the preference to toggle the Value to “true”


Firefox’s optional Tracking Protection reduces load time for top news sites by 44%
http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/24/f...n-reduces-load-time-for-top-news-sites-by-44/
 
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KillerBee

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Jul 2, 2010
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I use noscript and only allow stuff as required, kinda a pain in the butt sometimes though especially with news sites, which will have like 30+ domains, it's gotten pretty ridiculous.

My new addon (currently in development) automatically allows only the minimum number of sites needed to view content and leaves all the others still blocked by NoScript :)
 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
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I had a lot of issues last year with FF on Xubuntu. Midori was much faster, but had other issues since it tells most websites it's Safari.

I got to the point where I just restarted firefox after killing all sessions...when I needed to.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
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Know what, I think there is indeed an issue with a recent version. Now that you mention it I've been noticing lot of issues lately too, specifically when trying to switch or turn off a tab, it will half try to close, then just lock right up. Sometimes it will open like 10 new tabs after failing to close one. Usually end up having to use xkill.
 

FrankRamiro

Senior member
Sep 5, 2012
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I had a lot of issues last year with FF on Xubuntu. Midori was much faster, but had other issues since it tells most websites it's Safari.

I got to the point where I just restarted firefox after killing all sessions...when I needed to.

I use Chrome on Xubuntu 14.04 and it's good,better then FF for sure that most the times when i click to enter FF it sais,sorry this is embarrassing, try again
 

jae

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Jul 31, 2001
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Not specific to Linux but this may help speed up things:

turn on Tracking Protection in Firefox:
open about:config
Search for privacy.trackingprotection.enabled
Double-click or right-click the preference to toggle the Value to “true”


Firefox’s optional Tracking Protection reduces load time for top news sites by 44%
http://venturebeat.com/2015/05/24/f...n-reduces-load-time-for-top-news-sites-by-44/

Thanks for that info.

Amazon has HORRIBLE javascript, if you disable ssl-images-amazon.com in noscript it should be better. In fact I find a lot of sites now days have horrible javascript code that locks up the whole browser. I use noscript and only allow stuff as required, kinda a pain in the butt sometimes though especially with news sites, which will have like 30+ domains, it's gotten pretty ridiculous.

In general I find FF is actually faster and more stable in Linux than it is in Windows, though come to think of it I'd say they're pretty much equal now as I have not had issues in Windows for a while either as I use it at work.

I installed NoScript and went to Amazon. Sure enough, everything was smooth with 10+ tabs. Allowed two scripts on the Amazon page, and ofcourse computer started crawling.

My new addon (currently in development) automatically allows only the minimum number of sites needed to view content and leaves all the others still blocked by NoScript :)

Whats the name, website, info?
 

FrankRamiro

Senior member
Sep 5, 2012
718
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I still like Firefox over Chrome, although Chrome is better for sites such as YouTube.

try to watch streams on firstrowsports see if you can block element with adblockplus,if you are able! then you are a champ ,and You can teach me how to do it the easy way as i can do it in Chrome with Ablockplus?
 

replica9000

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Dec 20, 2014
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try to watch streams on firstrowsports see if you can block element with adblockplus,if you are able! then you are a champ ,and You can teach me how to do it the easy way as i can do it in Chrome with Ablockplus?

Wouldn't even let me view the site with ABP enabled.
 

FrankRamiro

Senior member
Sep 5, 2012
718
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76
Wouldn't even let me view the site with ABP enabled.


Bro Use Chrome and use adblockplus,and follow these instructions, that how i've done it in Chrome,

i use to have Firefox but at some time i was presented with that same black screen in Firefox and i never could figure out how to block element in firstrowsports, and came across this easy way, see link bellow, for Chrome so much so that i changed all my PC's browsers to Chrome even i signed in, in Chrome, and use SYNC option so my favorite bookmarks are all there on my pc's all the time,if need to reinstall OPS,Browser and so on,
Chrome is the best.

Here the way i did it in Chrome,after installing Chrome i installed adblock plus, then i went to firstrowsports opened the page, with the firstrow page opened then i clicked on the red Adblock applet then clicked on block Element and again clicked on red adblock applet and a colored screen opens and
this will show in the corner, ifirstrowus.eu##DIV[id="adblockplus"] just leave ##adblockplus and click add and that's it no more dmn adds in that site

http://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters...ul_tip_for_firstrowsports_new_adblock_prompt/
 
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FrankRamiro

Senior member
Sep 5, 2012
718
8
76
Bro Use Chrome and use adblockplus,and follow these instructions, that how i've done it in Chrome,

i use to have Firefox but at some time i was presented with that same black screen in Firefox and i never could figure out how to block element in firstrowsports, and came across this easy way, see link bellow, for Chrome so much so that i changed all my PC's browsers to Chrome even i signed in, in Chrome, and use SYNC option so my favorite bookmarks are all there on my pc's all the time,if need to reinstall OPS,Browser and so on,
Chrome is the best.

Here the way i did it in Chrome,after installing Chrome i installed adblock plus, then i went to firstrowsports opened the page, with the firstrow page opened then i clicked on the red Adblock applet then clicked on block Element and again clicked on red adblock applet and a colored screen opens and
this will show in the corner, ifirstrowus.eu##DIV[id="adblockplus"] just leave ##adblockplus and click add and that's it no more dmn adds in that site

http://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters...ul_tip_for_firstrowsports_new_adblock_prompt/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dF3cRtJXzc
 

replica9000

Member
Dec 20, 2014
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0
try to watch streams on firstrowsports see if you can block element with adblockplus,if you are able! then you are a champ ,and You can teach me how to do it the easy way as i can do it in Chrome with Ablockplus?

So, that website isn't a site I normally go to, but I just happened to have the Stylish plugin installed, and wrote this code to view the website with ABP enabled in Firefox

Code:
@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@-moz-document domain("ifirstrowus.eu") {
#adblockplus {position: absolute !important; width: 0 !important; height: 0 !important; left: -9999999px !important;}
}
 
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KillerBee

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2010
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jae said:
KillerBee said:
My new addon (currently in development) automatically allows only the minimum number of sites needed to view content and leaves all the others still blocked by NoScript

Whats the name, website, info?

I've only got as far as the 'initial concept' part of development.

Sort of like a hired consultant
Great ideas but I don't actually ever 'do' anything :)
 

TeknoBug

Platinum Member
Oct 2, 2013
2,084
31
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Wow never had issues with Firefox in Linux (and recently quit using Chrome as my main browser due to google changes) , but Amazon is a crap site and as already said enable tracking protection which shouldn't affect you especially when you're using adblock
 
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zanejohnson

Diamond Member
Nov 29, 2002
7,054
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81
definitely not for me, i have a AX2 3700+/2GB dual booting XP MCE and Ubuntu 14.04....

so i can compare side by side.... firefox opens MUCH quicker in ubuntu,


really i much prefer Chromium in linux to firefox however.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,166
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126
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It's getting worse. Mostly when opening or closing tabs, it just freezes and acts very jittery. I think it's time to start looking for a new browser for Linux. I just hate the idea of starting over as far as bookmarks go. I have over 10 years worth of bookmarks. I guess a cleanup wont hurt, I don't really use half of these anyway. Adblock would be what I'd miss the most though. Freaking youtube commercials are ridiculous. Some even play mid video now. Can't imagine going without adblock.
 
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replica9000

Member
Dec 20, 2014
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I can't get used to Chrome, but I'm finding that I'm using it more for media stuff. Some things that play in Chrome don't play in FF very well, or at all. Also, since FF 37, the browser will randomly stop responding, but that could be due to my compile options though.

In Chrome, I can't get past the ugly fonts.
 

ninaholic37

Golden Member
Apr 13, 2012
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It's getting worse. Mostly when opening or closing tabs, it just freezes and acts very jittery. I think it's time to start looking for a new browser for Linux. I just hate the idea of starting over as far as bookmarks go. I have over 10 years worth of bookmarks. I guess a cleanup wont hurt, I don't really use half of these anyway. Adblock would be what I'd miss the most though. Freaking youtube commercials are ridiculous. Some even play mid video now. Can't imagine going without adblock.
For me 38.0.5 is running about the same here as previous version on Slacko Puppy Linux. I don't save history or sessions though, and normally keep Flash disabled. The fact that I don't have a swap dir might help because it never hits the slower HDD and I'm pretty good at keeping things within my 1GB RAM. You might be right that doing a cleanup or "refresh Firefox" in about:support might help. If I have too many HTML5 videos open that are over an hour long my laptop sometimes slows to a halt and I need to Ctrl-Alt-Backspace outta there though. :awe:
 

ninaholic37

Golden Member
Apr 13, 2012
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Freaking youtube commercials are ridiculous. Some even play mid video now.
I noticed this too. When watching Star Trek: Ship in a Bottle on Youtube, a new commercial would play about every 7 minutes. I have no bandwidth limit and could press "Skip Ad" after about 5 seconds each time though, so just streaming it normally wasn't too much of a nuisance.