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Firefox: resource hog…

I’ve been using Firefox for, oh, ages and I’m a total, utter fan. Generally slick, usable and stable. Or at least, it was…

I recently (gloat mode on) acquired a 2ghz MacBookPro (end gloat) and was looking forward to screaming performance. My last laptop was a 1-ish Ghz Powerbook G4 and it was creaking at the seams for everything other than, erm, TextEdit or, well, that’s it.

Years of application abuse was to blame, I thought, and a clean, shiny MacBookPro should fly.

Well, fly it did for most things, but I was still getting the spinning coloured wheel of death – what on earth? I also noticed that Firefox was stalling and, infrequently, crashing. Hmmm. I decided to keep the activity monitor open and noticed regular 100% CPU usage (er – it’s a _browser_! 100% CPU? Regularly?).

It’s just crashed again and I’m a bit cross now.

I’d dump it, save only that Safari (while being small, light and quick) just sucks at anything that needs javascript or world-at-large compatibility. Web2.0 via Safari is a sad, cold and lonely world!

So, here’s hoping that some capable people fix my favourite browser: before I go mad, of before I’m the laughing stock of those I’ve harangued for a year about how fab Firefox is…

Ah – the tribulations of zealotary.

InformationWeek | Firefox 1.5 | Firefox 1.5: Not Ready For Prime Time? | December 8, 2005