Slashdot Mirror


The New Firefox and Ridiculous Numbers of Tabs (metafluff.com)

An anonymous reader shares a blog post: I've got a Firefox profile with 1691 tabs. As you would expect, Firefox handled this profile quite poorly for a long time. I got used to multi-minute startup time, waiting 15-30 seconds for tabs from external apps to show up, and all manner of non-responsive behavior. And then, quite recently, everything changed. Right now, more effort is being put into making Firefox fast than I've seen since... well, since I've been working on Firefox. And I've been at Mozilla for more than a decade. Part of this effort is a project called Quantum Flow -- a bunch of engineers making changes that directly impact Firefox responsiveness. A lot of the improvement in this particular scenario is from Kevin Jones' work on bringing the overall cost of unloaded tabs as close to zero as possible. While the major work has landed, the work continues in Bug 906076. Test scenario: I took my 1691 tab browser profile, and did a wall-clock measurement of start-up time and memory use for Firefox versions 20, 30, 40, and 50 through 56. In the result, the person found that Firefox startup time has gotten worse over time... until Firefox 51.

210 comments

  1. what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by mark_reh · · Score: 4, Funny
    1. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I typically have at least a few hundred open. 1691 doesn't seem unreasonable at all. Needless to say, Chrome can't handle anything remotely like that... try dropping two zeroes. For me, this alone makes Firefox clearly superior to Chrome.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You didn't answer the question.

    3. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      It comes as no surprise that an asshole such as yourself is too stupid to either use bookmarks or save pages to disk. Zealotry and intelligence are incompatible.

    4. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by BLKMGK · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I, a Chrome user, will happily answer.

      I have a main set of tabs for news sites - Slashdot is one of them, CNN, BBC, Drudge, whatever I feel like monitoring - stocks for instance. This set includes pages to each of my web email accounts too. A second page full of tabs reaches to internal pages for various software setup for my home and HTPC type stuff - Plex, PlexPy, Webmin, my NAS, SAB, and a bunch of others to handle a few VMs. Sadly Chrome sux for ESX so I have some damned IE windows open for consoles and monitoring.

      Then there's the other pages that vary wildly. I have a wide variety of interests. If I begin researching say wood flooring for my home that's a separate page or two filled with tabs. Do a google search on electrical wiring? Each result of interest is a new tab. Ditto' kitchen cabinets and other things. Then there's my various web forums for car interests, parts searches, research into various electronic projects, Youtube videos and well you get the idea. I tend to use a google search as an anchor and multiple tabs after as I dig in deeply.

      Sessionbuddy allows me to keep these across sessions. My current largest saved session contains 517 tabs across 161 windows. This session is 24 windows and 114 tabs and I'm finding that it's not really too responsive right now 16gig memory and sadly cannot use more due to the OS version I'm running - grr! Oh my sessions are synched across hardware so my browsers all have the same plug-ins and I can pull window history too as needed.

      I can use Sessionbuddy to find things of interest from past sessions if I close them to recover memory, I can hover over a minimized window to get a list of the windows and find a "project" and in general I find this works pretty well for me. IE cannot handle this, menu items disappear as memory runs low, FireFox used to just up and die losing my sessions, and Chrome simply handles it but has become slow and bloated over the past year or three. Hopefully they take note of FireFox's advances! Chrome, being more secure, is where I'll likely stay for a browser hoping that they trim some fat as FireFox has

      So yeah, some of us find this pretty damned handy and use quite a few tabs. 1600 is pushing it but 500 was fine by me for sure :)

      --
      Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
    5. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by forty-2 · · Score: 1

      How many of those tabs are refreshing ads in the background, and would it start to become a burden on your network performance? I'm sure it's site specific; dozens tabs of social media is probably going to nuke a connection faster than a bunch of RFCs... Do different browsers handle it differently?

      --
      never drink kool-aid from a big vat
    6. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You know they have this other new feature that lets you group all those pages without needing any memory, CPU, or screen space. They call this cool new feature "bookmarks". You should check it out.

    7. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Porn

    8. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Serious question: what is it about bookmarks that don't fulfill this role for you? Everything you describe, I do in Firefox with bookmarks and folders. Obviously, it takes almost zero extra memory. I tend to keep my tab usage under a dozen or two, since after that things start getting cluttered. So... is it a workflow thing, or a UI issue?

      I keep thinking if one of the browser makers could figure out the answer to this question and make a change to their browser to accommodate people who like to collect windows and tabs as "live" bookmarks, they'd add a few percentage points from users like you who work this way.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    9. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I think the big problem is that users don't understand what that little star on the right side of the browser bar does anymore.

    10. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As someone who is currently running ~500 tabs(*), bookmarks lack immediacy.
      If I am working on one project but then start working on something else, tabs don't require any "save as bookmark" step.
      I just switch to a new tab for whatever I am working on.
      If I want to switch back to using to a project after switching away from it, I just switch tabs, which feels more lightweight than "open bookmark".

      * I didn't set out to have that many tabs. It just sort of happened.

    11. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Bookmarks require leaving to find another. Load up all 1000 bookmarks at once, then ctrl-tab through them, skimming them at 1-2 seconds each, faster than the load time. No time needed wasted watching loading.

      Also, since nobody has implemented a nag-bookmark, what do I do about the 3 to 20 products I am considering buying at any time? I don't want to bookmark the exhaust for my motorcycle. I buy it or not, and either way, I never need it again, once I make a decision. Having the tab(s) open help me remember to make a decision. If I close it, then I'm back to the start on which site had the best price on an Akropovic exhaust. Sure, I could make a new folder for the bookmarks, and throw them in there, but then, I'll forget about them. I ctrl-tab through my tabs at least once a day "Do I still need this?". It becomes a low-priority to-do list. Something bookmarks don't do well.

    12. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Bookmarks don't work well as a to-do list. Open tabs fill that need much better.

    13. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      When researching stuff I tend to just make notes. I've been using OneNote in the past because everything else seems to suck more than it does, but bookmark folders and draft emails to myself work well too. Also Google Docs.

      I used to have tabs open for a year or more, but then I'd find that the web site had gone or the content had changed. So now I just copy/paste the important stuff into a note and a link back to the source.

      Then I close the tabs. They get stale, I move on to other things... And if I didn't make a decision in the first session or two, I'm probably not ready to and need to leave it a while before coming back later and starting fresh. Old tabs just become mental cruft, slowing me down and making me feel bad for not processing them in a timely fashion.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    14. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Believe me, I'm you on this one. This seems like a strange way to organize stuff to me, too. But I think we're just different and we're never going to "convert" to the other camp that uses tabs in this way. I read BLKMGK's comment and immediately thought "You know RSS exists, right?!". A bit further I was thinking, "Why not open a few bookmarks as needed?". But it works for him and if he's fine with it, so be it (no value judgement implied).

      I hate to have tens of tabs opened and if I'm searching for stuff I'll open 2 to 3 results at a time, glance over each and bookmark them if they seem relevant (on a sort of scratch bookmark folder arrangement). News and stuff goes the RSS route. If I need reminders, my cellphone does that with a timer (the PC can do it, as well).

      But there's one thing I do understand: I do spend a lot of my time on PCs on the browser. So much so that sometimes it seems to almost be interchangeable with the OS. From that point of view, arguing against hundreds of tabs is like arguing over having our most useful programs open in the background.

    15. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Note that it doesn't really get cluttered if you organize your tabs as a tree, since you automatically group together related tabs (e.g. a Google search as a top-level tab with search results as nested tabs), and can collapse subtrees to get an overview.

    16. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    17. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by mark_reh · · Score: 1

      Is it really faster to search through hundreds of open tabs than it would be to just do the search for the thing you need using one of the search engines? I just can't wrap my mind around flipping through hundreds of web pages when a fresh search is so easy.

    18. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by ip_vjl · · Score: 1

      It's too bad the news sites you keep open don't "syndicate" their content. Then someone could devise a "really simple" way to aggregate this content. I think this "really simple syndication" would be an excellent way to get a "rich site summary" without needing a million tabs.

    19. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      They work much better as a to do list. You can create categories, due dates, etc. using this feature the have called "folders" and "organize bookmarks"

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    20. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >I, a Chrome user, will happily answer.
        Enjoy being violated by your non-free software.

      >Chrome, being more secure
      Prisons are more secure than a house, but I don't see people clamouring to live in one

    21. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by rlk · · Score: 1

      I don't want to decide "this is something I want to bookmark". Just pop another tab and done with.

      Clutter. Yeah. But why is that a bad thing?

    22. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by rlk · · Score: 1

      It sounds like that means switching between sessions constantly, if you operate the way I do -- jumping around rather than working on one thing for a while. What do you do if you're in the middle of something and "I just want to check the weather radar?"

    23. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by e432776 · · Score: 2

      I agree with you, entirely. Too many tabs seems..unhygienic.

      However, this discussion also suggests to me that it might be time to overhaul bookmark UIs in web browsers. There may be a way to make them more useful to users currently maintaining hundreds of tabs. A thought, anyway.

    24. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The great suspender is your friend. I used to have big problems when my Chrome hit hundreds of tabs, but the great suspender suspends those that have been idle more than 24 hours (configurable), and they no longer burden the memory or the CPU.

      It has transformed my laptop from a howling monster to something that is once again safe to hold in my lap.

    25. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agree completely. Tabs are augmented memory. It's extra work to make bookmarks, find bookmarks, update bookmarks, delete no longer needed bookmarks, and do all the extra stuff that one has to do according to someone else's theory of how I should spend my time.

    26. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by swilver · · Score: 1

      Bookmarks are a relic from the time when browsers didn't have tabs.

      Tabs should never have consumed as many resources as they did (and they didn't in the past, not until all the bloat was added with each new browser release).

    27. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by swilver · · Score: 1

      Bookmarks are too permanent.

      When I shop on some website, I can open a dozen tabs with things I want to take a closer look at, but not right now as I'm still browsing the list (so they all open in the background).

      Do you expect me to instead bookmark those things, then check them out one by one, deleting the bookmarks of products that I didn't like in the process?

      No.

      Tabs are great as short-lived bookmarks (but can also be used as permanent ones, especially with tab pinning). One advantage of tabs is that they'll remember the position in the page.

      For the user, there should not be a difference between the resource usage of a bookmark and an unused or unloaded tab. That's a technical problem. If the browser is running short on memory, then why not just discard a few tabs until they're selected again? There's absolutely nothing stopping the browser from doing that.

    28. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by tepples · · Score: 1

      So how would an end user go about convincing a major website to start offering an RSS feed and accept the loss of front-page ad views?

    29. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's see what the solution will be when Mozilla nukes XUL extensions in a few weeks, so extensions like Tree Style Tab won't be able to change the UI as much as they do now.

    30. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by tepples · · Score: 1

      Enjoy being violated by your non-free software.

      For one thing, Chromium is free software and includes everything ut Flash Player and Hollywood movie DRM. For another, what laptops that don't come with non-free software are shown in U.S. showrooms?

    31. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Xolotl · · Score: 1

      Yes, because I don't hundreds of tabs on one place but across separate windows which collect them broadly by what I'm doing. Also a search might return a list of tens of hits of which I might pick half a dozen for closer inspection in tabs (open in new tab as I scroll down like AKMarc said above). (1079 tabs at the moment, only FF can handle this).

    32. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Xolotl · · Score: 2

      Also agree with this, this is exactly how I work. 1079 tabs at the moment across 18 windows.

    33. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Xolotl · · Score: 1

      Why would I take the time to do that when I can have a window with a dozen tabs without having to do any naming of folders or organizing bookmarks (which is painfully inefficient on FF and Chrome).

    34. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

      You know they have this other new feature that lets you group all those pages without needing any memory, CPU, or screen space. They call this cool new feature "bookmarks". You should check it out.

      Ah, I can see that you've never actually had multiple research projects running at the same time!

      The browsers I've worked heavily with, Firefox and Chrome, are actually pretty damn lousy if you want to find a specific bookmark quickly by means other than typing key words from the URL or title into the address bar.

      Overall, Firefox's bookmarks work better than Chrome's for the suggested use--I can go through to find the useful pages for my research project and just bookmark the entire window with a name for the folder that I pick at the time of bookmarking. Chrome? If it has that capability, it's well-hidden--and it tends to stuff my bookmarks into folders randomly, actually.

      Neither has particularly good options for sorting through massive amounts of bookmarks. Chrome's bookmark manager doesn't seem to realize you might want to quickly find and move a lot of bookmarks, Firefox's will cough and die horribly in the versions I was even willing to attempt this in. (It took the browser down with it.)

      Using tabs for the same purpose may require more memory/CPU/screen space, but in exchange for that? I can quickly and easily check through what could easily be dozens of pages I've got pulled up just for the paper I'm working on writing, without having to fight the occasionally-very-wonky bookmarks to cough 'em up. That's assuming I'm dealing with a page that's worth bookmarking--some search engines, bookmarked results pages will give you errors when you attempt to retrieve them & some sites have the lovely habit of bouncing you to a landing page if you try to get in via a bookmark...and when you're done convincing it you've an account it will dump you onto the main page instead of where you were trying to go.

      That said, I would certainly vastly appreciate it if at least some problems with bookmarks I covered here got handled--it'd be distinctly useful if you could set rules so bookmarks might get automatically tagged and/or sorted into specific folders, for example, or a by-folder export-as-HTML-list option was given...and as far as I care, any feature which can only be accessed via a secret hotkey combo like ctrl-option-cokebottle doesn't count. (Features obtainable by easily-found extensions, however, do count here.)

    35. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

      "Organize bookmarks" died horribly for me. I actually have had trying to open the bookmark manager crash Firefox.

    36. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      I hear you. That's why I don't use email anymore. My email client crashed back in the 90s.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    37. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by stalky14 · · Score: 1

      How do you go back and find the tab you're looking for when they're all shrunk down to one letter wide?

    38. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're familiar with Git, tabs are like your working directory, bookmarks are like commits. Something in a tab is of interest but can't necessarily be looked at immediately, while bookmarks are for things you definitely want to keep. Not everything in a tab makes it to a bookmark.

    39. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's like the neat desk / chaotic desk dichotomy. Some people love their desk neat and minimal with everything except what they're working on right now neatly filed away. For others (like me) that's a recipe for losing things and forgetting projects: my desk looks like chaos, but I can very quickly find what I need and I don't forget things because, on some level, their physical presence keeps them turning over in the back of my brain for when I come back to them later. Ditto tabs: they keep my stuff where I can quickly put my finger on it, and act as a gentle "yeah, you were working on that / reading that" prod. Bookmarks is like a filing cabinet where ideas go to die.

    40. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by rlk · · Score: 1

      All Tabs extension works nicely.

    41. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Your to-do list has over 1000 items on it?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    42. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Why? Rather than addressing the user's need, you are going to tell them they are doing it wrong? You must work on Linux.

    43. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Xolotl · · Score: 1

      FF doesn't shrink them to one letter wide (a horrible "feature" of Chrome), it shrinks them to about 10-12 characters and then scrolls the list horizontally. And there is a drop-down tab list as well.

    44. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Zaelath · · Score: 1

      What is "ads"?

      Anyone that has more than a few tabs open was driven like dogs before the lash to install flash/adblocking years ago.

    45. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Rolgar · · Score: 1

      Firefox has the option to keep the tab but not actually load the page when you open the browser after closing it. So, If I have a hundred tabs, and close and reopen the browser, the only page that is loaded is the current one. When I close the current tab, or select a different one, the newly selected tab will load. If I want to activate several tabs so I don't have to wait, I can click on them in succession and let them load up and read them when I'm ready.

    46. Re:what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      It dances into the bucket beside it, like a little fireworks show. I watch it over and over again. It's also a lovely metaphor, for catching shooting stars in a bucket. That one makes me sad, because it's mostly impossible, but some days I can still feel the pull of the dream.

    47. Re: what would anyone do with 1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly how i use them. Reminders to read this article later, or check out this project on github. When i have time - i check out recent tabs and close them when done. however they tend to pile up

      5 windows (2 instances of Chrome, 2 instances of Firefox), about 1500 tabs total
      The Great Suspender for Chrome
      UnloadTab for Firefox

  2. how the hell do you find anything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seriously, what is the point of having more than a couple dozen tabs open, how the hell do you find anything that way?

    I understand fixing the issue and all, but...go fuck yourself with 1691 tabs.

    1. Re:how the hell do you find anything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now I understand the point of being able to search tabs based on page title.

    2. Re:how the hell do you find anything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't it just be better to just search for what you want in a web search engine instead of dedicating a tab for every page on the internet?

    3. Re:how the hell do you find anything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would rather Firefox had better search for bookmarks. Right now it just searches titles and keywords of the bookmarks. It also needs to search for content of the pages (like a search engine).

    4. Re:how the hell do you find anything? by tepples · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't it just be better to just search for what you want in a web search engine

      Not if the document you are viewing requires authentication to view. Such documents do not appear in web search engines.

  3. Duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Loading the entire internet inside a single browser session isn't exactly a great idea...

  4. Unstable by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find that Firefox is unstable when there are many windows and tabs. I've reported that numerous times.

    1. Re:Unstable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What version?

    2. Re:Unstable by sheramil · · Score: 1

      I find my brain is unstable when confronted with more than about twenty tabs. I'd report that numerous times, but, you know. Unstable. *falls off chair*

    3. Re:Unstable by swilver · · Score: 1

      I just updated to firefox dev edition 55... and their claim is indeed accurate. It loaded quickly although I only had 800ish tabs open.

      Quite happy that they finally fixed this silly problem. Now chrome.

  5. The Tab Groups feature was removed by MrSteveSD · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I often end up with an unwieldy number of tabs and I've recently been looking at ways of managing them. The situation does not look good though. Tab Groups was removed from Firefox and the impending Webextensions crippling of Firefox is apparently going to make it almost impossible to port over existing addons that allow for tab management.

    1. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I open tabs for what I need. If I do not need it, closed (ctrl w).

    2. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Informative

      I group tabs by window, then use "tree style tabs" to put them in collapsible sub-groupings.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    3. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      I would love a system that allowed me to group tabs in a tree-system. "Shopping", with sub groups "motorcycle parts", "Computer parts", "gaming", and groups under those, "Exhaust", "laptop motherboard", "release dates".

      Instead, since nothing organizes tabs in a convienent and visible way, I keep them all open, and ctrl-tab through them as a reminder of what I'm doing in each of those groups/sub-groups.

    4. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Instead of tab groups you can just use bookmarks. You can bookmark groups of tabs info a folder, and then middle click that folder to open them all again.

      Tab groups was a nice idea, I used to use it, but performance was terrible. Firefox was taking 30 seconds to open and become responsive even with only one tab, until I realized that deleting supposedly frozen tabs from tab groups would speed it up. Apparently bookmarks are the only way to really close tabs and free up their resources in Firefox.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by esperto · · Score: 1
      I use tab groups (with a couple of houndred tabs opened) and I'm getting worried about version 56 (or 57, don't remember) getting close, when this extension will not work anymore.

      Several people in this thread suggested bookmarks, including parent, the thing is it hasn't the same workflow, opening a new tab, moving, loading next time, closing, etc is more pratical, and in my mind easier to administer, than bookmarks, which I have a ton but pratically don't use.

      I trully hope that the people at mozilla decides to bring back the tab group feature to firefox, even though most people didn't use (one reason is because almost no one new about it) it is VERY useful for power users.

    6. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Have you tried bookmark folders? I really can't see much practical difference between then and tab groups, besides the thumbnails.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Somebody should invent bookmarks!

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    8. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      The notion of keeping 1600+ things open and active is fundamentally flawed.

      You have an inbox with 1600+ file folders in it.
      1600+ post-its on your whiteboard.
      1600+ people lined up outside your office.

      Instead, you need a multi-part solution.
        - Daily to do list
        - Daily/weekly/monthly/yearly reminders
        - One or more "workspaces" (i.e. your browser session(s))
        - File system/archives/offline/nearline

      And this needs to be tuned/tweaked regularly.

      --
      I come here for the love
    9. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't click a tab folder, and get little icons with each bookmark, and then arrow over to the bookmark you want.

      You can't take a tab, and just slide it over to tab folder in 2D space. You have to consecutively slide through each tab folder and hope you don't accidentally drop it into the wrong folder.

      Bookmarks/folders are "clumsier" compared to tab groups.

    10. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by rlk · · Score: 1

      If it works, it isn't "fundamentally flawed".

      I don't care for these "workspace" solutions, because it means a heavyweight switch between sessions rather than just jumping to a different tab.

    11. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bookmarks requires way too many steps. Clicking the start, setting the name (because websites do a horrible job of using simple titles), typing in tags, and picking the folder. Then you have to remember to review your bookmarks and read through the lists trying to find what you wanted. Next you click on the bookmark and wait for the page to load. If that's the page you want then great. Finish reading it, open up sup pages in new tabs, remember to re-click the start and another button to remove the bookmark, then go through all the new tabs you opened and bookmark each of them. Way too much work. Way too little content.

      For tabs, all your content is in a single list/tree with little loading time. You can scroll through the tabs and see all the pages so you can better browse by visual recall instead of trying to remember the title of that page you wanted to look into. You can easily review a page and close it through 2 shortcuts instead only having a title to go by if you wanted to reduce your bookmarks.

      Despite the poor performance, it is far easier to manage things as windows and tabs than bookmarks. Bookmarks require more typing, more clicking, more loading (harder to find your previous place in those stupid infinite scrolling sites), more thinking (how should I categorize this, remember to go back to it), and more mental context switches. Some of that can be helped by plug-ins which opens a new link as a bookmark, but a tree of tabs is far easier for me to manage than a directory of bookmarks.

      Actually, bookmarking could be made easier. If instead of a tab bar you solely used the bookmark bar/panel and all new links 'opened' as bookmarks and eventually suspended back to bookmarks once you haven't looked at it for an hour then that would be awesome. I think that was the point behind suspended tabs. Too bad those were fucked up. Instead of suspended tabs loading instantly, they basically take the same amount of time as a real tab. 1000 suspended tabs and 1 active tab on startup shouldn't take 5 minutes to load but it does. One of the big issues is all the browser's insane session management. All the browsers store the entire session state when a change occurs instead of storing each tab's data in their own files. If you have 500 tabs, that's 500 tabs worth of data which gets flushed to disk any time you open or close a tab. If they used sane session management instead of being blinded the by glory of JSON, it would have only been 1 tabs worth of data being changed.

    12. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I used the tab groups extension to manage thousands of tabs, it was awesome. But I eventually got fed up with the crashes and no future support, so I rely on tree style tabs now and multiple Firefox profiles (open on the command line using: firefox --new-instance &). It's good enough and has less of a slow down. Crashes won't take out everything you're doing and it's more secure. I have one profile for all my banking and utilities, one for social media activities, one for porn, one for product research when I'm planning on buying something, etc... Though plug-in management is a little annoying.

      I agree that bookmarks require too much of a context switch and lose the visual cues you use to jog your remember when you're scrolling through your tabs. I guess if bookmarks have little pictures of the page when you bookmarked it that would be useful, but for now I'll stick with tabs despite the browser slow down.

    13. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by tepples · · Score: 1

      Opening a bookmark on the bus produces a DNS lookup failure instead of the intended document.

    14. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Not if you open the very few you will need first. I certainly hope that isn't your argument for having 1000 tabs open.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    15. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by Xolotl · · Score: 1

      My computer handles 1000+ tabs [with negligible effort from me. That is not the case for 1000+ post-it notes (on a whiteboard? you know those are for writing on? anyway ...) or 1000+ people, and neither is it the case for doing a daily to do list or reminders or workspaces (I have 18 browser windows open, why would I need to create sepearet sessions and then spend time changing between them?) etc.

    16. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

      That solution isn't likely to be feasible to actually implement, especially with Firefox's plans for limiting what you can do to the UX via extensions. Pale Moon looks like it won't be doing that, but an extension that lets do that smoothly & well (doing the 3rd part with sessions isn't a Good Idea, actually) doesn't yet exist.

      Though, some of the situations, 1600+ whatever there is actually precisely what you need. After all, yes, 1600+ people lined up outside my office might be a bit clunky, it can be distinctly more efficient than having to call all of them up one at a time to assign them to tasks--I can get on a PA system, ask them all at once who has what skill set, tell each group what to do at the same time, and get the entire thing done in maybe an hour instead of taking multiple days. 1600+ post-its on my whiteboard might also work very well if I'm trying to keep track of what solutions have been tried and what the results are, and updating a spreadsheet of this in real-time isn't an option--and if that's not an option, neither would be checking it. (Though I'd not precisely want to trust the glue on post-its to survive this; a corkboard-and-pin system is more robust, even if it would take slightly more effort to move something from the "Not Tried" stack to the "Tried, [Result Classification]" one.)

      Oh, and some of us are in fields where "1600+ file folders in the inbox" is more than likely what will get us a job in the first place, because insane backlog is pretty much the only way anybody is going to hire you--they're be in too much need of extra staff to keep up the 'entry level job, must have 2+ years experience' nonsense.

    17. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by tepples · · Score: 1

      Heavens no. I typically run Firefox with 12 or fewer tabs. Mostly I get "use bookmarks instead of tabs" from those who recommend that I work around broken suspend by instead shutting down the computer completely, and I get "discard inactive tabs" from those who recommend that I work around unavailability of small laptops that run GNU/Linux by using Android/Linux instead. But the "use bookmarks instead of tabs" and "discard inactive tabs" arguments are again popping up in this context.

    18. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Well I hate to say it ... but it sounds to me like you are using both tabs and bookmarks appropriately then. :^)

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    19. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Task list implies available and in front. I've not seen a bookmark system that works the way I described. When I can tag a page "bookmark, show my tomorrow, and delete bookmark", then bookmarks will be closer.

    20. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 0

      Yeah ... because tabs work the way you described. One wonders how you manage to find the submit button to post here.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    21. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Also, no system recovers "workspaces". The browsers set to "restore last session" will only recover the last "workspace" closed, losing all other "workspaces". I don't see how that could be a good system.

    22. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shutup faggit

    23. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 0

      Oh, I see you found the "Post as AC" checkbox! Very good retard!

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    24. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by AK+Marc · · Score: 1

      Tabs work that way. They sit there on top, and you see them clearly. You scroll through them at least once a day, and decide to action the item or skip it for today.

      There's no way to get the same functionality in bookmarks. Yes, I've been told that with only 3 plug ins and extra clicks, I could do something similar, but why go through all that trouble when many tabs works?

    25. Re: The Tab Groups feature was removed by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      If you can't figure out how to view --> bookmarks you really shouldn't be using a computer. You could hurt yourself or someone else.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    26. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      These are basically my 'critical' addons (in order of importance)

      Tab Mix Plus
      Lastpass
      Xmarks
      Ad blocker of some kind
      "Tabs Menu"

      Without those, the browser is effectively worthless to me.

    27. Re:The Tab Groups feature was removed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is why I gave up on Firefox.
      There was no decent way I could find to manage tabs. The only reasonably decent method that came close was a right-click tab manager (forgot the name), but it got horribly slower the higher the FF version number grew.

      In Chrome, I use Tabs Outliner which creates a pop-up window to manage your tabs. (since Chrome lacks a sidebar, thanks Ben, prick)
      It allows you to drag-n-drop tabs all around, tree-style-tabs if you want it, you can make tabs child tabs manually.
      You can put in text comments to group tabs meaningfully, so you can have your "shopping" tabs, or "news sites" tabs and such.
      But best part is you can suspend tabs, which keeps them in the tab list but unloads the whole tab. (removes it from the Chrome tab bar)
      I don't even use bookmarks now. It's clunky as hell in comparison to how streamlined it is using this.
      Only downside, of course, is that shoddy piece of shit tab bar on Chrome is still visible.

  6. Long live Firefox! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fuck Chrome.

    1. Re:Long live Firefox! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chrome, Firefox and Exploder/Edge are all complete garbage.

      Get Pale Moon, Vivaldi or QupZilla. Everything else is inferior.

  7. Tabs aren't bookmarks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You're confusing bookmarks and tabs.

    Read one of those Internet for Dummies books, and you'll figure it out.

    1. Re:Tabs aren't bookmarks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bookmarks?! Oh! You mean Favorites!

    2. Re:Tabs aren't bookmarks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe it's called Hotlist.

    3. Re: Tabs aren't bookmarks by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure in Chapter 1 of that book it explains that if you have too many tabs open .... they have this new feature called "bookmarks" that solves the problem.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  8. You're doing it wrong by somenickname · · Score: 1, Informative

    You're doing it wrong.

  9. Detail by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 0

    I should have said Firefox in Windows, Windows 7 and formerly Windows XP.

    1. Re:Detail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Windows 7 is 7 years old, please upgrade to a newer OS. Mainstream support for Windows 7 ended in 2015.

    2. Re:Detail by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      Windows 7 has 49.04% marketshare, as of "June, 2017".

      --
      I come here for the love
  10. The good old days by sciengin · · Score: 3, Informative

    So they are going back to how it used to be?
    I recall having hundred(s) of tabs open. Back in 2006 on a single-core centrino Laptop with a whoping 2GB of ram and a terrific ATI x700 GPU.
    No issues were had.
    Then they brought in the UX-torturers, started with their ridiculous high version numbers and it all went downhill from there.

    1. Re:The good old days by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      The irony is that Firefox started out as the lean+mean alternative to Netscape. Full circle.

    2. Re:The good old days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they masked the problem by consuming more resources in parallel rather than addressing why they need to consume so many resources in the first place. Firefox (and seemingly all the other browsers too) have some horrible architecture decisions which could massively reduce resource need if they took the time to redesign those parts. But those decisions are good enough if you only use a couple tabs at a time, so 'fuck off for not using the software like I use the software. You're doing it wrong' ~Browser Devs and a bunch of Slashdotters

      There's no technical reason browsers couldn't manage thousands of tabs, they just don't bother with our use case so they pick inefficient ways of doing things.

    3. Re:The good old days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's probably not so much Firefox itself, but the sites behind those tabs with all their ad and user tracking malware chewing up resources.

    4. Re:The good old days by toddestan · · Score: 1

      It's especially ironic that Firefox's installer and footprint is larger than Seamonkey, which is the modern equivalent of the old Netscape Communicator.

    5. Re:The good old days by sciengin · · Score: 1

      No, its Firefox.
      I am using uBlock Origin and NoScript. The former without exceptions and the latter with only allowing scripts that are absolutely necessary for a website to function. Any ads, tracking, etc... is not allowed to run.

  11. What's a 'firefox'? by Evil+Kerek · · Score: 1

    8)

    1. Re: What's a 'firefox'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda

    2. Re:What's a 'firefox'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well you see... One takes standard fox and places it in a metal trashcan with a secure lid. Add 1 gal of gasoline and shake well. remove lid, add 1 road flare as garnish and serve.

  12. Firefox tabs are the new desktop shortcuts by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was always amazed at those people whose desktops were completely filled with shortcuts. I guess they're all using Firefox now.

    I wonder if their houses are stacked floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with old newspapers.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Firefox tabs are the new desktop shortcuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Come on now... those old newspapers are load bearing...

    2. Re:Firefox tabs are the new desktop shortcuts by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      If people used desktop shortcuts in the past, wouldn't they have the sense to use bookmarks?

      I more liken this to someone who has opens every document on their computer just in case they need it throughout the day, and then complains that Office uses too much RAM.

    3. Re:Firefox tabs are the new desktop shortcuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I occasionally assist with support work and there's one user in our organisation who I've witnessed having dozens and dozens of Outlook instances (not message windows, literally instances of Outlook) on multiple occasions. Nothing surprises me anymore.

    4. Re: Firefox tabs are the new desktop shortcuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like a carpenter that holds all of his tools in his arms because a toolbox doesn't have the "immediacy" he needs.

    5. Re:Firefox tabs are the new desktop shortcuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Desktop shortcuts are actually very useful: they let you keep a well ordered folder tree with all your stuff properly filed away without sacrificing the practical benefits of leaving the stuff you're working on close to hand without having to navigate said folder tree. Now if only I could find a reliable, consistent way to stop windows randomly reorganising my desktop every other update.

  13. 640 tabs should be enough for anyone... by Illogical+Spock · · Score: 4, Funny

    Said Bill Gates

    --
    --- Illogical Spock
  14. But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast"! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's the thing that's really pathetic about this whole situation: FF users have been complaining about performance problems for many, many years.

    Yet FF's most ardent supporters have always denied or dismissed these complaints, claiming that "FF is fast" or "FF doesn't suffer from performance problems", despite so many users experiencing horrible performance when using FF.

    So if these performance problems allegedly didn't exist, then why the fuck did Mozilla need to create this "Quantum Flow" project to fix FF's responsiveness?!

    And if there allegedly weren't performance problems, then why have these recent changes resulted in significant performance boosts?!

    It's no wonder we've seen FF's market share drop down to only about 5%.

    FF's worst enemy isn't Chrome. FF's worst enemy is its own advocates, who treat FF's regular users like absolute shit.

    When regular FF users reported very real performance problems with FF, these FF fanatics denied these problems, driving away most of these other FF users.

    Yet here we are, with it being shown that earlier versions of FF did in fact suffer from very poor performance. The FF users who were driven away have been vindicated. The FF fanatics have been proven wrong.

    It's really pathetic that it took this long for these problems to be taken seriously, and even longer for some initial fixes to be made. Maybe FF would still be up around 30% of the browser market, if not higher, had the complaints about FF's performance been taken seriously years ago, and the users who reported these performance problems not been ridiculed and dismissed.

    Other open source projects should learn from the mistakes that FF has made: when a large number of users repeatedly report performance problems, take these reports seriously! There probably is a performance problem that should be fixed! Don't dismiss these users. Don't ridicule and insult these users. Take them seriously! Look into the problems that they're reporting.

  15. It's not that crazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'm a programmer...

    When learning about a topic that I'm trying to implement I often open a new window whose tabs will all be results of a certain context.

    I'm sure most are familiar with ending up at cat videos when initially you were on YouTube for a completely different topic. When I'm doing research and find that a certain search pattern is diverging in a different direction that's when I'll break off into a seperate window.

    This allows me to view context specific history and sites. I don't necessarily want to save a windows tabs as a bookmark collection thus the behavior I'm describing.

    When I look at how I use tabs it's very much like how I organize my virtual desktops in Linux. It would be nice if web browsers had something similar outside of a whole new window.

    So while a shit load of tabs is bad I can see multiple reasons for why it happens.

  16. Why load all of the tabs? by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

    Why are you loading all of the tabs at startup? Do you really need all of them? If you want to change the behaviour so that only the visible tab is loaded then go into about:config and search for "browser.sessionstore.restore_hidden_tabs" (without the quotes). Change the value to false. The tabs will still be there but will only load when you select the tab.

    Maybe Firefox changed the default behaviour and that is why you see the change in performance.

    1. Re:Why load all of the tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It changed the default behaviour to not load background tabs some years ago, however it still lags when you have a certain amount of unloaded tabs in the background. On my low powered netbook the performance tended to bother me when it gets to somewhere in the 2-300 range. On considering that I don't go back through all my old tabs, I restart Firefox with a clean slate every now and then to keep my tab count under control.

    2. Re:Why load all of the tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the browser still takes minutes to start up even only if one tab is restored and the other 999 are hidden. Sometimes I open the browser in offline mode. None of the tab icons show up (active or hidden tabs) when you do that...

  17. Still crashes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So I see this post and decide hmmm, I remember those days let me give it a go. So I installed firefox on 10.9.2 OSX running on a 2.5 core i7 w/ 16gb 1333 and 1tb samsung 840....I used it for a bit to look at my web pages and how they render. Nice and quick. Then at OS shutdown, it hung the system and crashed. Zero tabs were open at the time.

  18. The Firefox we deserve. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So one volunteer, in his spare time, spearheaded this effort to lazy-load tabs more efficiently. If only the rest of us snarkers in the peanut gallery were so bold, we'd probably have the Firefox we want, rather than the Firefox we deserve.

    But no, easier to sit back and bitch and moan about things, distancing ourselves from the hard work, until someone else does it for us for free. And then we snark about how long it took, and how right we were for leaving instead of helping out (even with a casual donation from time to time, because "they're not doing what we want", even when they are). Yay, us.

    1. Re:The Firefox we deserve. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why should I waste many hours (if not days or weeks...) of my time tracking down and fixing stupid performance problems in Firefox, when I can take about 45 seconds and install Chrome, or Chromium, or Vivaldi, or Opera instead and get very good performance? Heck, in even less time than that I could just use a pre-installed browser like Safari or Edge and still get better performance than Firefox!

      Don't give me any bullshit about Firefox "respecting our privacy", either. Just look at its privacy policy to see that it's sending a lot of data back to various places. Be sure to click the "Learn More" links so that you can see the full details.

      Firefox doesn't deserve our contributions.

  19. Wall-clock calling captain oblivious by Razed+By+TV · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That you had to do a wall-clock measurement to determine that Firefox startup time has ballooned is evidence of a greater problem. The focus has been on the rapid release schedule with little to no thought towards user experience.

    Pro-tip: Make my shit fast. Make it super fucking responsive. I don't need the shine, I don't need the glitter. That's where I can rely on a mod/extension community to fill in the short comings. I can't rely on them to put in extensive multicore support. Make the engine that everyone wants to use, and worry about what color to paint the car later.

    1. Re:Wall-clock calling captain oblivious by semper_statisticum · · Score: 2

      Hell yes. I run the beta versions, and bug report when I can and only use FLOSS software like an addict. I admit my ethical preference, and dealing with a Psychology department as often as I do, it's an immense problem that often gets me labelled a zealot. I prefer LaTeX and use point out mathematical flaws and software default errors that result in false logical errors in colleagues' papers like an immense jackass.

      However, even I have to admit that using Chromium, with all its Googley evilness (yes Chromium != Chrome) is much, much faster and responsive than Firefox is. That should worry the mother fucker out of the Mozilla developers, that a hard core FLOSS zealot is willing to admit superiority in another suite of software. Does it however? Apparently not as much as abandoning Thunderbird and focusing on the latest visual makeover for the Mozilla brand.

      Sigh.

      --
      The Spanish Inquisition of Psychometrics; Burning all the heretics.
    2. Re:Wall-clock calling captain oblivious by thejynxed · · Score: 1

      Mozilla has a problem with losing employees with any sort of technical merit and what we are left with is a bunch of window-dressers.

      --
      @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
  20. Firefox used 1 gig for 30-40 tabs... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...at least in my experience. It might have had a memory leak since the RAM usage just kept increasing over time. It was so bad I switched primarily to Chrome.

  21. Am I the only one having problems with Facebook? by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

    I know it's quite hip to tell everyone how much you despise Facebook, but we've all heard it already. Anyway, Facebook kicks Firefox's ass multiple times a day, and I'm not even running Social Fixer or Fb Purity or whatever the weekly fix facebook extension might be. I am however running noscript and ublock origin, but I permit facebook stuff to load and mostly I'm just blocking google syndication on their site. Mostly the site works fine, and then I scroll down and mouse over a comment field or something and Firefox just locks up hard. Sometimes if I am quick I can ^W the tab and it will go away and the rest of the browser will come back.

    I haven't tried Fb in Chrome, which I try not to use unless a site absolutely doesn't work in Firefox, but it sure is kicking Firefox's ass.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  22. they fixed the real problem years ago by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

    It was barely usable for us many-tabs types, until a few years ago when they quit trying to load every single tab when you start it. Now it only tries to open the active tab on each window.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  23. Dear Slashdot by ArchieBunker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I managed to put 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound box and it fell apart. What am I doing wrong?

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Dear Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Shitting in a box.

    2. Re:Dear Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I managed to put 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound box and it fell apart. What am I doing wrong?

      User error. Wrong type of shit according to the box manufacturer.

    3. Re:Dear Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was it an Apple box? Maybe you were holding it wrong.

    4. Re:Dear Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Using the wrong measurement system

    5. Re:Dear Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I managed to put 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound box and it fell apart. What am I doing wrong?

      Shitting in a box. The toilet has been invented (unless you are in India, in which case -congrats on using a box!)

  24. Unreliable, cant trust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have been a firegox user since i started browsing the internet. Until a couple of months ago. A news in this site (or the other red site, SN) warned me that they just reseted my about:config settings without notice. I checked and holy sheet, they actually did. WTF. I was leaking webrtc requests and i didnt know about it. It just wrong. That's it. So I switched to chrome, thanks mozilla. Yes, now i brows with all scripts enabled but control everything with ublock origin, even cross sites requests.
    I have to check seamonkey though.

  25. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are pathetic.

  26. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't believe anyone can use "several hundred" open tabs. Perhaps it's just me, I can't name the 183 (or so) countries of the world, and I often miss one or two US states when listing them. If someone can sit down and list the "several hundred" (or the 1600!!) tabs they supposedly have open, (if they know what they are, it shouldn't take more than 4-5 minutes - and no peeking!) then I'd have to admit that their executive functioning is far superior to mine, but as it is, I simply don't believe they can. (I'd like to see what their dwell time is on each of those several hundred tabs. I suspect the vast majority aren't used every session.)
    So, reiterating someone else's question: why would anyone have "several hundred" tabs open?

    1. Re:Really? by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it's just me, I can't name the 183 (or so) countries of the world, and I often miss one or two US states when listing them

      I can't remember which of the several thousand bookmarks I have are still relevant; nor do I remember, or often have time, to sift through them and delete those which are no longer relevant. Tabs, grouped by window, are an easy way to track this.

      If I'm still researching the topic, any tabs open in that topic's window are relevant (or have not been reviewed yet); when I'm done researching a topic, I bookmark any content I might find useful later and close that topic's window, along with all of its tabs. Done. I don't have to open the overly complex (compared to clicking single "X") bookmark management interface to clean up after a research session, which matters when researching several concurrent topics as I'd spend practically as much time cleaning up after each topic as I spend on the actual research. Most of those tabs have no relevance after the research session ends and, thus, do not belong in the long-term archive that is my bookmark list.

      Mind you, I'm an efficient researcher and tend to keep my tab count under 200, spread across 6 or 7 windows, but I see how someone who opens every link they find on a subject, or who is maybe researching a wider range of topics at a given moment, might peak in the thousands. If you just finished several days, or a week or more, of topical research, would you rather your cleanup process was clicking a handful of "X" buttons to close a handful of windows, or sifting through hundreds or thousands of bookmarks to ensure that you only delete the ones that are no longer relevant?

      Or are you implying that, because some people might lose track of the names of countries or states, we shouldn't have so many? Maybe you think a few nukes would improve things? Should we just bookmark Bolivia and only open it up when you need a bump of coke?

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    2. Re:Really? by Xolotl · · Score: 1

      Exactly this.

  27. I'm angry with FireFox by buss_error · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm angry with FireFox. I have been using it for many years, and for a long time, I thought it to be the bee's knees, the cat's meow.

    However, their high handed way with security and such has come to the point that I can't trust them. I use Firefox browser in my work. When they block things for security reasons, it stops me from being able to work. I have to manage over 250,000 devices on an internal and secure network. We don't have resources to upgrade those devices - indeed, many of them cannot be upgraded.

    Hey - Firefox folks - not every one is a security idiot, and not everyone has the dosh to replace still functioning equipment.

    No matter. I've been reduced to using other browsers anyway because FireFox has become too resource intensive and intrusive. Yes, I know I'm a "special snowflake" but it is disheartening to have to discontinue using a tool I used to love so much.

    I do still use it for my personal needs for the most part, but no longer for my banking or retirement sites. For work I no longer use it at all.

    --
    Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
    1. Re: I'm angry with FireFox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stop upgrading, I'm still on Firefox 47 because the plugin firebug stopped working in new releases

    2. Re: I'm angry with FireFox by theweatherelectric · · Score: 1

      because the plugin firebug

      Firebug was integrated with the built-in Firefox developer tools. As the Firebug team says, "The Firebug extension isn't being developed or maintained any longer". Here's a migration guide.

    3. Re:I'm angry with FireFox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it not better to use a dedicated browser just for those insecure devices, rather than make your general purpose browser insecure all the time?

      Couldn't you just get an old portable version of Firefox just for those devices?

    4. Re:I'm angry with FireFox by buss_error · · Score: 1

      Indeed. We've set up bastions to access these devices.

      To the person that voted this as "flame bait": I can see how you would consider it so. I'm disappointed though. My comments were not submitted as a troll, but a plea to consider that there are those of us that simply do not have a choice to make sure the latest java and the latest codex's are installed. Not when there are hundreds of thousands of devices, and not when some of the gear is too old to support the newest versions, and not when federation for updates is impossible.

      I would wish that all vendors of software consider "at scale" and at least have a plan for those cases.

      --
      Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
  28. Re: But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps. But he is also right.

  29. Firefox is fast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Firefox was/is fast and now its faster with loads of tabs.

    You say so many words, as if the volume of your words changes the reality of the world.

  30. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Long story short: without users, your software is nothing.

  31. Re: But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Firefox is the biggest consumer of RAM on my laptop and the only one that stops responding or forgets how to render itself on a regular basis. This with ~40 tabs. It most definitely has problems on Windows 10 anyway.

     

  32. People still use FireFox? by Nabeel_co · · Score: 0

    I'm genuinely surprised.

    WebKit browsers are so much better. I'm either using Safari or Chrome.

    1. Re:People still use FireFox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I agree with you, I think that's a real shame. Without good competition, we all lose. Maybe this is a positive step for the future of Firefox.

  33. One word for this,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

    That word would be bullshit.

    I've been using it for over a decade, I've made easily over twenty posts on Slashdot about the performance maybe double that.

    I used it exclusively including 64 bit nightly editions, up to I think version 54?

    I reduced my plugins significantly to about 4 or so.
    I'm an extreme browser (although I peek around 400 tabs around once or twice Year, not 1600) and I can assure you at least up until 2/3 months ago, it still ran like crap compared to chrome (and again, I don't even like chrome)

    I simply do not believe this, period. It's bloated crap and needs a MASSIVE fundamental rewrite to fix the disaster it's become. Very unlikely they finally got this all magically fixed after many many years of me being patient.

    Not coming back Mozilla, nope

    (Check my post history, I'm convinced I was one of the last die hards for it )

    1. Re:One word for this,... by munch117 · · Score: 1

      Article: Improvements have been made.

      You: In my experience there is plenty of room for improvement, therefore I do not believe this.

      I hope you can see the flaw in that logic yourself. They're improving exactly the thing you say you want improved, and you're being all pissy about it.

    2. Re:One word for this,... by swilver · · Score: 1

      I tested it just now after I read the story.

      I use firefox dev edition and am on the aurora channel. I had version 54, and I checked for updates, 55 was there. I had 800 tabs open. I let it update, and restart, and yeah, it restarted quick enough that I didn't get bored waiting for it like I normally do.

      A huge improvement.

    3. Re:One word for this,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      Except you know, I've been waiting ten years and it's not improved and yet I used nightly versions UP TO 54,.... the article clearly says that things all changed around 51,....

      So yeah, no.

    4. Re:One word for this,... by AbRASiON · · Score: 1

      If you hit CTRL TAB, what's your time to switch?

      I found a general lag, anything from 200, to even 1500ms in previous builds.

      (When exceeding 100/150 tabs)

    5. Re:One word for this,... by munch117 · · Score: 1

      So you trust the slashdot summary, do you? You must be new here. Read the linked article. Look at the numbers for the first version you haven't tried.

    6. Re:One word for this,... by swilver · · Score: 1

      Instant when I just tested it, but it hasn't been running that long. I've seen tab lag before, I'm not sure if that was solved since the focus was on not using resources when tabs aren't loaded.

  34. Re:Am I the only one having problems with Facebook by KiloByte · · Score: 1

    but I permit facebook stuff to load

    May I ask why? Why in the blazes a reasonable person would ever allow anything Facebook to load (assuming you're not paid for pushing crap there)?

    If you have a family member who insists on still using Facebook, most of the blockers can be configured to allow it through on a single site (like facebook.com directly), I don't have any experience there though (thanks Marduk!). Letting it crap on, track you on, and, as you say, lock your setup on, random third-party sites, is preposterous.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  35. Let them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If people need to shoot themselves in the feet to be happy just let them. And ignore them.

  36. Am I the only one to see this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dietrich Ayala is a developer relationist working for internet freedom at Mozilla, the non-profit makers of Firefox.

    1. Re:Am I the only one to see this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Non-profit = no accountability. That is why Firefox sucks. Oh, wait, Firefox steals our browsing data and sells it to google...

  37. obligatory xkcd by dillee1 · · Score: 2
  38. 1691 tabs? by zifn4b · · Score: 1

    That's so turn of the millennium. 1692 tabs is where it's at now. All the cool kidz are doing it.

    --
    We'll make great pets
    1. Re:1691 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With sixteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus got the screen of blue.

  39. ugh by jtrainor · · Score: 1

    Having hundreds of tabs open is a user stupidity problem, not a coding problem.

    1. Re:ugh by swilver · · Score: 1

      When a user can crash your product just by opening a ton of tabs, where it isn't obvious that this would cause problems, then it is still your products fault.

      If they know it would cause problems, then the number of tabs should have a limit, or a warning or whatever. There is nothing. Instead, Firefox will happily keep opening tabs until it consumes all RAM (or 2 GB for 32-bit version), then becomes an unresponsive blob that users have to kill. Very user friendly.

      And why? All the data is available elsewhere, either in the disk cache, or the remote server itself. Why keep all that shit in memory? Rendering an empty placeholder tab shouldn't take more than a few K, and can be reloaded on demand in fractions of a second.

      Apps shouldn't crash, no matter how stupid the user.

  40. In all seriousness... I don't care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In all seriousness, I don't care. Too little, too late. I already switched browsers long ago and I'm not going back just to have Mozilla ignore their user base.

    Think of the Titanic, imagine if they saw the iceberg 5 miles away and all the passengers yelled at the crew and captain, "hey there is a iceberg straight ahead"
    The captain replies, don't worry about the iceberg, I'll have the crew paint the hull orange.
    Some time passes and now the iceberg is 3 miles away, again the passengers yell to the crew and captain "hey there is a iceberg straight ahead"
    The captain replies, don't worry about the iceberg, I'll have the crew install some flashing lights so the iceberg knows we're coming.
    Some time passes and now the iceberg is 1 miles away, again the passengers yell, more frantically this time "HEY! THERE IS A F'ING ICEBERG AHEAD!"
    The captain replies, don't worry about the iceberg, I'll have the crew install some loud horns so the iceberg knows we're coming.
    They creep closer and closer to the iceberg and there is nothing the passengers can do, they scream at the captain and crew but they continue doing as they please.
    Just before the ship is about the hit the iceberg, the captain turns to the crew and says "you know, I don't think that iceberg is going to move out of the way", he quickly tries to turn the ship, but by this time it is too late and they hit the iceberg.

    Mozilla, Firefox, this story is dedicated to you.

    1. Re:In all seriousness... I don't care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck me, you actually wasted your time typing this trite shite?

  41. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by DuckDodgers · · Score: 2

    Good points, but I would counter with a few things:

    1. This is not the first or only work the Firefox team has been doing to improve performance. You're writing as though this Quantum Flow project is the first performance work they've done ever, or within the past five years. It isn't. The switch to multi-threading has been underway for years.

    2. Firefox's problems today are largely a result of its own success ten years ago. The biggest cause of performance slowdowns is add-ons that have inefficient code, or add-ons that use inefficient code in Firefox. The Firefox team is trying to address this - and every change they make that breaks add-on compatibility brings howls of protest from the community. I don't blame the people who are upset by the changes, either. But the result is that the very things that made Firefox a big success then is slowing it down now.

    3. Conversely, if you want fastest performance try running without add-ons. That's how Firefox has been doing well in benchmarks, like the Tom's Hardware Browser Shoutouts it won.

    4. I don't think the Firefox developers have been the ones telling the regular users that Firefox is fine. I think it's other Firefox fans. I've been defending Firefox for years - but I'm not a Firefox developer or contributor. And I haven't been claiming it's as fast as Chrome, just that it's fast enough.

  42. Re:Am I the only one having problems with Facebook by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    but I permit facebook stuff to load

    May I ask why? Why in the blazes a reasonable person would ever allow anything Facebook to load (assuming you're not paid for pushing crap there)?

    If you have a family member who insists on still using Facebook, most of the blockers can be configured to allow it through on a single site (like facebook.com directly),

    Slowwwww down thar, jack. I'm only allowing facebook crap to load on facebook, and I didn't say otherwise. I perhaps wasn't clear, but making assumptions is half-cocked.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  43. Bookmarks and The Great Suspender by grumpy-cowboy · · Score: 1

    This is what Boomarks are for : keeping a list of frequently visited sites.

    And if you are a tabs hoarder, The Great Suspender extension is your best friend on Chrome : https://chrome.google.com/webs...

    On Firefox, you can use Suspend Tab or UnloadTab extensions I think.

    --
    Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
  44. Fringe use case engineers deciding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This: engineers deciding what gets built for other engineers like them makes sense. Engineers deciding what gets built for the other 99% of the population, you end up worrying about 100 or 1000 tabs, that only someone on the spectrum could possibly keep track of.

    But, 'because agile' and ci/cd, just keep at it...

  45. Porn tabs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After I blow my load I end up closing about 51 tabs

  46. Diversion of resources... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...I've got a Firefox profile with 1691 tabs....

    I'd really not want to see Firefox wasting their precious development resources to make a ridiculous corner case as this one work properly, instead of applying those same precious resources to more pressing issues. Issues that are experienced by a much wider set of users.

    1. Re:Diversion of resources... by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Consider that FF's performance has become more and more sucky, and that fixes which goose it this much for megatab users are probably going to do the normal users a lot of good too.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    2. Re:Diversion of resources... by strikethree · · Score: 1

      I'd really not want to see Firefox wasting their precious development resources to make a ridiculous corner case as this one work properly

      While I agree with you, I would argue that the software in question should handle hitting limits gracefully regardless of how absurd those limits might be.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  47. Problem: FF getting locked down by rlk · · Score: 1

    I'm running FF52 (LTS) because the "consumer" grade Firefoxen don't allow unsigned extensions, with no saving throw (the LTS ones do).

    The next LTS version (57 IIRC) is going to lose real extensions, with only the stripped down WebExtensions.

    So what is a user to do?

    1. Re:Problem: FF getting locked down by tepples · · Score: 1

      the "consumer" grade Firefoxen don't allow unsigned extensions

      That should not affect you if you apply to have your extensions signed as unlisted extensions. But I imagine there's a good reason why you haven't. What might that be?

    2. Re:Problem: FF getting locked down by rlk · · Score: 1

      Because:

      1) I have a bunch of older extensions, some of which aren't signed.

      2) Sometimes I modify extensions (fix bugs, get rid of annoying behaviors).

      3) I don't want to have to "apply" to someone else for the right to run something on my own computer.

    3. Re:Problem: FF getting locked down by tepples · · Score: 1

      1) I have a bunch of older extensions, some of which aren't signed.

      Extensions listed on AMO before signing was instituted were automatically signed. For extensions distributed off-AMO, fork them pursuant to their free software licenses and submit your fork as an unlisted extension.

      2) Sometimes I modify extensions (fix bugs, get rid of annoying behaviors).

      Then you are a developer, not a "consumer" who only views works created by others. Fork the older extensions pursuant to their free software licenses and submit your fork as an unlisted extension, or use Firefox Developer Edition.

      3) I don't want to have to "apply" to someone else for the right to run something on my own computer.

      Then use Firefox Developer Edition.

    4. Re:Problem: FF getting locked down by rlk · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that helps me temporarily (but makes a mess of my distro's packaging -- there are a lot of things that depend on firefox). But only until FF56.

  48. 1600 tabs is bullshit. by Chas · · Score: 2

    Nobody uses 1600 tabs. Sorry, at best, you use maybe, MAYBE 1-3% of those with any regularity. The rest is just masturbation.

    What's REALLY upsetting with the latest versions are the nasty memory leaks and slowdowns in FF since the multi-threading was enabled.

    With just three tabs open (for this example Slashdot, Facebook and YouTube, but I can reproduce the behavior with any number of sites), the browser begins exhibiting multiple tens of seconds of input lag after as little as 5 minutes of browsing. So you click on something and wait, and wait, and wait. And it "eventually" does it.

    It's getting so bad that I'm going to HAVE to stop using Firefox if it continues.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  49. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >I've been defending Firefox for years - but I'm not a Firefox developer or contributor. And I haven't been claiming it's as fast as Chrome, just that it's fast enough.

    People have grown incapable of understanding that the few vocal and ugly commenters out there aren't the norm. That's why they can't measure Firefox's fanbase by anything other than the few weirdos who make them angry. Forget the monumental efforts of people like Kevin Jones. These days a couple of vocal idiots are all that matters, as they exist to validate twisted personal hypotheses, not thwart them.

  50. Troll mod? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I promise you that Facebook is punching Firefox right in the nuts, and I really do want to know if anyone else is having the same problem.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  51. The tip of the iceberg of Mozilla development by Moochman · · Score: 2

    I'm kind of astounded that everyone here is so cynical while at the same time being so ill-informed about the stuff Mozilla is/has been doing the past few years. In addition to "Quantum Flow", they wrote a C++ replacement (Rust) that's concurrency-minded and memory-safe for better performance and fewer bugs, as well as a completely new HTML/CSS rendering engine (Servo) written in said programming language, that's faster than any other rendering engine in existence at this point. All this is coming to Firefox soon. (Although IMHO they might as well just rebrand/rewrite a whole new browser at this point, seeing as Firefox extensions are disappearing and the Firefox's market share has already dwindled). Relevant links: https://www.rust-lang.org/ https://servo.org/ https://wiki.mozilla.org/Quant...

  52. FF Focus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am viewing this article on a cheap ass Android phone with about 256MB of RAM using Firefox Focus. Must say, FF sucked on this phone but this Firefox Focus is slicker than snake snot on it.

  53. Sigh by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    "I've got a Firefox profile with 1691 tabs"

    It must suck to be you. I guess you also have 2321 apps on your iPhone and 4352 open documents in Winword.

    You should read about the x icon in the corner.

    1. Re:Sigh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember books? How dumb it is that there are hundreds of pages in them! A newspaper with dozens articles in it? What a folly.
      What do you need dozens articles in a newspaper or periodical publication for? Do you need them all, can you remember everything from the top of your head?

      This is what the arguments against hoarding tabs read like to me. What if newspapers had an article a page and you could fetch pages one by one : would you drive to the library, borrow a page, get home, then read it? Then for the second page go back to the library, return the first page, borrow another and repeat?

  54. Re:The first sentence says all that needs to be sa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's bitztream - the autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating, Qualcomm-hating, Firefox tab-hating Slashdot troll!

  55. "Googzilla Firechrome" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But does it look like Firefox again, or does it still look pretty much identical to Chrome? That's really the only reason I'm using Pale Moon instead of the newer Firefox: I liked Firefox's customization prior to its GUI change to be "more like Chrome" (which rendered far more difficult my ability to customize its appearance to how I wanted it), and I don't want to have to install a dozen Extensions and Themes just to get it to look and act like it used to -- or like how Pale Moon does pretty much right out of the box.

  56. Tabs for offline reading by tepples · · Score: 1

    If the browser is running short on memory, then why not just discard a few tabs until they're selected again? There's absolutely nothing stopping the browser from doing that.

    Say a user navigates to an HTML document on his laptop, closes the lid, boards a city bus in a city whose buses do not provide Wi-Fi, opens the lid, and switches to the document's tab. If the browser has discarded the document for later reloading, the browser will attempt to reload the document, fail because there is no Internet connection, and show "You are offline" instead of the document. This defeats the purpose of having loaded the document in a tab in the first place. And browsers on tablets have an annoying habit of doing this often.

    1. Re: Tabs for offline reading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Discarding can also be storing in disk instead of memory

      Just need a developer to take the community input and make this happen

    2. Re:Tabs for offline reading by swilver · · Score: 1

      There is this thing called disk cache. Store the tab on disk. If necessary just dump the entire state (like a VM) so it can be restored exactly as-is. There are solutions, you just have to be willing to look for them.

  57. Push all tabs to a bookmark folder? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does Firefox have any way to push all current tabs and windows into bookmark folders?

    A lot of the time I would rather have bookmarks but by the time I think I need a bookmark set I already have 100+ tabs open and it's just too much work so I leave them as tabs.

    I really miss the tab groups that Firefox used to have. Man that made everything easy. I have no idea why they removed such a useful feature.

  58. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by tepples · · Score: 1

    3. Conversely, if you want fastest performance try running without add-ons.

    I don't see how running without add-ons would help performance, as disabling add-ons causes sites to load excessive tracking devices, real-time bidding scripts, animated advertisements, and video advertisements.

  59. Which "newer OS" not compromised by ad industry? by tepples · · Score: 1

    Is Apple the only laptop maker whose products 1. run "a newer OS" that isn't designed as one huge tracking device for the advertisement industry and 2. are in U.S. electronics showroom chains? Because for years, I haven't seen any GNU/Linux laptops in showrooms near me; it's just Windows 10 and macOS.

    Until then, Windows 7 receives "extended support" (security updates) until 2020.

  60. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's actually been my impression that sites run faster with add-ons disabled. I don't have hard data, though, so don't give any weight to what I write. What I suspect - a wild guess, mind you - is that for example older versions of EFF Privacy Badger are single-threaded, so they actually slow you down more by blocking three hundred trackers spread across forty tabs than you would be if you just let all those advertising networks run their code.

  61. hoarding? by s.petry · · Score: 1

    You should really consider looking into having similar problems. Why? A human can't pay attention to that much information at any given time. If you are researching a book, you may have a hundred or two references but most of those are one time checks. Not open reading material, and not something you need after you make sure you have the quotes/concepts correct. Once you have to fish for labels in your tabs, the efficiency drops dramatically. You are faster to have a bookmark or re-search for the source than wait for a mouse-over popup to tell you the title.

    Now I am quite sure that we all have different limitations. I'm sure we could find the limit on efficiency though, and I'd be willing to bet a box of donuts that it's well below 100.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  62. Out of Wi-Fi range by tepples · · Score: 1

    And why? All the data is available elsewhere, either in the disk cache

    The changes made to a document's DOM by scripts aren't in the disk cache. One example of a document is any Slashdot discussion page. Scripts collapse or expand comments, add a "Reply to This" box, and add newly posted comments when the user activates "Check for New Comments" link at the bottom.

    or the remote server itself.

    Once a battery-powered computer leaves the range of Wi-Fi hotspots whose WPA2 password you know, "the remote server itself" is no longer accessible. Browsers for tablets aggressively discard inactive tabs under memory pressure, and it frustrates me because by the time I get around to reading a document, it's been discarded, and I can't retrieve it again because I've already boarded the bus. Browsers for laptops don't have quite as much of a problem because operating systems for laptops instead use a page file when under memory pressure.

  63. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by Cinnamon+Beige · · Score: 1

    It's actually been my impression that sites run faster with add-ons disabled. I don't have hard data, though, so don't give any weight to what I write. What I suspect - a wild guess, mind you - is that for example older versions of EFF Privacy Badger are single-threaded, so they actually slow you down more by blocking three hundred trackers spread across forty tabs than you would be if you just let all those advertising networks run their code.

    Depends on the add-ons you're using...and how trustworthy those advertising networks are. Malware infections tend to slow computers down, and would it particularly hurt sites or ad networks to start making it be standard policy that ads capable of injecting malware just don't get in? (I'm not going to ask that they vet where the links go, that does seem a bit too labor-intensive and easily abused, but it shouldn't be difficult to just refuse to run ads that have the technical capability of loading programs on somebody's computer without their permission/knowledge.)

    NoScript deserves particular mention here, as it definitely makes sites with javascript written by an alleged programmer run faster...by letting you keep those buggy scripts from running at all.

  64. work-flow fungibility porn by epine · · Score: 1

    I didn't set out to screed at this length. Shit happens. It might at first look appear to be a bramble patch. Appearances are deceiving.

    Every word here is as deliberate as accidental off-the-cuff could possibly be. I suppose I could open up every second snarky entry on TV Tropes.org just listing all the rhetorical devices employed within (should my browser permit this).

    However, I spent my wad in the composition and don't feeling like going back over it with a grooming rake. Colour me slovenly. Yes, Dragon Killers Wear Black, but not while actually killing dragons.

    ___

    I have three displays, so I have three FF tab bars on my working desktop. The vast majority of my windows are full screen. I use middle mouse on the title bar (push to back) to rotate through multiple windows on one screen. I rarely have more than three windows per screen.

    In addition, I have a bunch of desktops. Stray tabs from half-completed research topics get grouped together into a new window, which is titled with FireTitle. Then the window itself gets fired off to an alternate desktop. I find that my tab bars become annoying with more than 10 tabs, unproductive at 20 tabs, and almost unusable at 30 tabs (unless my work process is extremely stack oriented, and they all tear down again in LIFO order).

    Sometimes a work process starts out LIFO, but then you realize that you're cross-referencing tabs on the same FF window that are far apart. Crossing the phase boundary from a stack-based workflow to a heap-based workflow with more than a dozen tabs open is usually what triggers forking a new window and a mark-and-sweep GC into a named tabs-for-later window, immediately "niced" onto a different desktop).

    Now we need to get into why bookmarks suck.

    You see, there used to be this technology called a "book", subtype: comprehensive reference work, subsubtype: warts and everything.

    People talk about code smells. I'm more likely to talk about documentation smells. A super common documentation smell these days is "let's not even mention the possibility of not-yet-implemented, but super obvious feature that completes the conceptual paradigm". You know, the kind of software which discusses the fabulous cosine feature on their home page, mentions the related feature sin as a footnote in some appendix, and the tan feature not at all, anywhere, ever (maybe the bowels of an associated bug tracker as a feature request, largely snowed under by discussion of "do we REALLY need this" scrum-brainrot feature triage).

    A scrummer might think, well, sin is sufficient, anything more would be feature creep. And there is some logic in that, as viewed by anyone who hoped that all Java floating point primitives would be bit-identical across all machine architectures, forever.

    But it turns out that floating point is nasty, in the same way that managing memory is nasty, so nasty that we often abstract memory management right out of the software specification (some specifications are just too hard).

    sin(x) equals cos(pi/2 - x) only for extremely high quality values of pi.

    tan(x)=sin(x)/cos(x) only for a Taylor series expansion of sin(x) with enough precision to complicate memory management .

    I'm just using this as a hyperbolic example of skin-deep identities.

    Another example: if you've got copy and delete, do you really need move? (If you've previously abstracted memory management right out of the specification, you might struggle to answer "yes".)

    What reference book technology used to do is have a little paragraph near the front of a relevant chapter which declared that for the purpose of this application, you do have a complete set of sin/cos/tan, but you don't have a complete set of copy/delete/move (some composition required).

    There's a systemic reason why the official online documentation goes to code-smell "obnoxious silence". Because S

    1. Re:work-flow fungibility porn by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      You sort of went off the rails there (or you did some rails before you wrote it) but wither way, yeah, basically everything you just wrote.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  65. Zillions of tabs by Residentcur · · Score: 1

    That's not how it works. That's not how any of this works. Sounds like tabs are being used instead of bookmarks. Or I don't understand something. Firefox still hangs frequently when I have only a few tabs going, if they're to the ridiculously complicated pages that are so common these days. HuffPo and its friends are some of the biggest miscreants. Ditch the nonoptional videos, guys.

  66. Re:Am I the only one having problems with Facebook by KiloByte · · Score: 1

    Slowwwww down thar, jack. I'm only allowing facebook crap to load on facebook, and I didn't say otherwise. I perhaps wasn't clear, but making assumptions is half-cocked.

    Sorry for questioning your sanity then :)

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  67. Desktop browsers discard DOMs to the page file by tepples · · Score: 1

    In principle, browsers for desktop operating systems already discard DOMs to the page file. One drawback of this approach is fragmentation: because one 4K page of memory may contain objects associated with more than one tab, it might take longer for a document to get completely paged out. To what extent does Firefox try to keep a document's data together in address space?

    1. Re:Desktop browsers discard DOMs to the page file by swilver · · Score: 1

      I don't think memory fragmentation is a real issue at all. Physical fragmentation is a non-issue with MMU's. If we're talking fragmentation of Firefox internal structures, then a level of indirection can allow it to move structures around to prevent fragmentation.

  68. How's life in the hypocrite lane?

  69. 2000 tabs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Man... Thats a lot of porn for one session...

  70. Re:But for years FF fanatics told us FF was "fast" by thejynxed · · Score: 1

    I wonder how many of these speed tests are run with JS and video loading disabled vs having it on and using real world browsing scenarios. I know running with no JS breaks things on the modern web, but even crusty old IE runs like speedracing champ when the mostly useless crap found in JS scripts isn't allowed to load, ditto with videos.

    --
    @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
  71. Re:Which "newer OS" not compromised by ad industry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope, OSX calls home and uses telemetry before Microsoft started doing it.

  72. Re:Which "newer OS" not compromised by ad industry by tepples · · Score: 1

    Could you describe further? When has Apple violated its privacy policy? Or which practices does this policy allow that are still unacceptably intrusive?

    And which brand of laptop should I try in a showroom instead?