OK, I’m about sick to death of Firefox. I mean it’s driving me to shrieking rage several times a day.
About every thirty minutes or so, it decides that it needs to do something so important, it should use up 100% of my available CPU cycles, taking my computer away from me for about 50 seconds.
Once or twice a day, it never gives it back, and I have to kill the Firefox process. I then have to start Firefox in safe-mode, let it run for a minute or so, then restart FF normally.
Yes, goddamnit, I have spent hours tracking down fixes for this CPU spike, and have tried over a dozen different ones. I’m sick of fooling with it. “Goddamnit”, because every once in a while I mention this on Slashdot or other popular forum, and I always get some FF partisan telling me what a lazy noob I am for not going to the FF site or forums and looking at the available fixes. (And once, someone told me I’m the only person having this problem, there must be something wrong with me.) So, yes, I have, actually, tried to look this up and fix it and I’m just sick of it.
So today I started trying new browsers.
First up, Chrome. No good, because there’s not a Linux version. Piss on you, Google.
Second up, Safari: Apple or Windows only. No, I don’t want to screw around with Wine. Piss on you, Apple.
Third up, Epiphany. I actually get to install this one.
The Good:
- Fast.
- Clean.
The Bad:
- No bookmark sidebar: showstopper.
- No search bar: showstopper.
- Fails to properly import my Firefox bookmarks: showstopper.
- Fails to find the RSS/Atom feeds on half a dozen websites: showstopper.
The Ugly:
- This is not a damn Eastwood movie. Five minutes finds four killers. Why the hell should I bother looking for and writing about stuff that simply makes me roll my eyes?
- Oh, OK, then, one Ugly: can’t add a tab by right-clicking in the Tab bar. Yes, I added the “New Tab” icon to the Toolbar. That’s why this is an ugly, not a showstopping Bad.
So, Epiphany is a no-go. Partisans? Piss off with your diddly fixes and workarounds. When I first loaded FF, everything I wanted was right there, out in the open. Let me know when you’re serious about making Epiphany a serious tool.
Next up, Opera.
Could it be that Firefox refreshes your live bookmarks (RSS feeds) during those high CPU times?
I have a dual core CPU in my desktop, and I do notice spikes now and then when my huge list of RSS feeds refreshes, but nothing that would slow me down.
What version of Firefox? I’m using FF2 and FF3 on my Fedora 6.
A Writer:
Thanks for the tip.
I’m running Sage-Too for RSS/Atom feeds, which uses its own folder. I’ve actually deleted my Live Bookmark folder precisely to avoid the problem you mention.
As to Sage, I have it set to not automatically update. In addition, the problem occurs even if I have Sage disabled or uninstalled.
The problem occurs even when I run FF in safe-mode.
I’m currently running the Swiftweasel 3.0.3 PGO build of Firefox. I installed it as a test, because it installs into its own directory and forces the creation of a blank profile. I continue to run it because it runs in several processes which somehow makes it easier to shut down when it runs totally amok. (FF itself runs as a single process, and when it runs off the rails, it’s much harder to arrest.)
I routinely disable Java. Disabling Javascript a) is massively inconvenient and b) doesn’t help.
My OS is Ubuntu 8.10. The problem has existed since at least Ubuntu 7.10, with its default FF RC3 browser. (RC3? I think RC3. Whatever the default was at the time.)
Incidentally, since posting this, I’ve also tried Opera. Very nice, but it doesn’t run FF’s add-ons — including Sage, which is the only newsreader I’ve found that doesn’t get in my way too much.