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.