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Firefox Going the Big and Bloated IE Way?
abhinav_pc writes "Wired is carrying an article pondering whether Firefox has become big and bloated, much like IE. As the browser's popularity has risen, the interest in cramming more features into the product has as well. Slowdowns and feature creep have some users asking for a return to the days of the 'slim and sexy' Firefox. 'Firefox's page-cache mechanism, for example, introduced in version 1.5, stores the last eight visited pages in the computer's memory. Caching pages in memory allows faster back browsing, but it can also leave a lot less memory for other applications to use. Less available RAM equals a less-responsive computer. Firefox addresses this issue somewhat, setting the default cache lower on computers with less than a gigabyte of RAM. Though the jury is still out on where the perfect balance between too many and too few features lies, one truth is apparent: The new web is pushing our browsers to the limit.'"
That's why I never get the first post!
Let's make a new and smaller browser, based on the same rendering engine! We'll call it Phoenix or something like that. You know, like it's brand new! It comes from the ashes, it must be good! And we won't bloat it, no, no. We'll make it speedy!
Where did I hear that before?
At least when you install Firefox, you don't get some version of Windows along with it :-)
I mean, talk about bloat!
A quick glance at the Firefox features page lists these things, which as far as I'm concerned are bloat as they are not fundamental to a web browser:
I don't see any reason why all of those things are integrated and not seperate addons. And that list gets bigger with each new version.
My attempt to get modded up (any positive mod) by only quoting grandparent, parent, and the summary(and in that order). . . here goes:
Most annoying thing are the crashes of Firefox 2.x! I don't care if it eats a lot of memory (I've got 2GB - who wouldn't these days?) or is bloated, but I can't stand the crashes!
I'm running 3/4 of a gig, and I've never had Firefox crash. And I have BOINC running all the time. My CPU is spinning pretty high all the time, and I tend to have a good bit of my RAM being used all the time. So I don't know what you're doing wrong dude.
Firefox addresses this issue somewhat, setting the default cache lower on computers with less than a gigabyte of RAM.
If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
It's time to bring back VRML!
If firefox becomes bloated I will eat the internet with a fork.
Get it? 'Fork'? *wink*
I wouldn't worry to much.
Oh and give epiphany a try.
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
Simple!
:D
Mine is Good
The OS could send a "SIG_FREE_UP_SOME_DAMN_MEMORY". The best part would be applications that don't handle it would just crash, freeing up lots of memory :) But yeah, your point is valid; An OS managed shared cache could make cache management easier. An easier to add although not quite as elegant solution would be to have that cache be part of the desktop suite; While not fully shared, at least all the desktop apps for one user would be cooperating.
Speak for yourself, dude....
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
- Movement I: There is no such problem, it's all FUD - Allegro assai
- Movement II: Look over there, it's "M$ Windoze" - Grave larghetto
- Movement IV: The community is "fixing" it - Lentissimo non tropo
- Movement V: Free software is undeniably superior to everything - Andantino grazioso
- Movement VI: This doesn't work, but try this other broken thing instead - Moderatto con brio
Bravo maestro!I can watch whats going in and out of my ethernet and wireless card, but even so opera could be using some undocumented "feature" of a closed-source operating system to make sure I don't see it.
That's possibly the most insane statement I've ever read by someone who claims to be savvy enough to fork a development project on his own. If you really think it's possible for an OS to pass information over a network in such a manner as to make it undetectable, then I have a very special invisible firewall to sell you. Don't worry, it's open source.. I only charge for the distribution costs.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
GRANDMA, LISTEN ITS ABOUT:CONFIG
ABOUT WHO NOW?
CONFIG!!!
KENNY FIG??? Alpha Bravo Oscar Uniform Tango colon Charlie Oscar November Foxtrot India Golf
Of course this is irrelevant, because real men use lynx.
Daniel
Yeah, they're currently addressing that problem by rewriting Gecko in PHP (the UI will, however, continue being written in their flavor of eXtended ML). It will run on Mozilla's webservers and you will be able to run Firefox via any compatible web browser.
Apple, OTOH, will rewrite Safari, KHTML, Konqueror and most of KDE in Objective Ruby, which will run on their iNternet iServers, accessible via iTCP/iP (compatible with Mac OS 10.9 and up). Right after they switch their kernel to Hurd.
Yes, that's exactly how the future is going to be or my name is not Sir Reginold Frankbarrister O'Fritzebolt-Tooley the Thirteenth!
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Exactly. 640K ought to be enough for anybody.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Yeah, it probably would have consisted entirely of porn.