Firefox has awful performance, hangs, freezes, etc.

juampiursic

Hey! What's up? So, I use Firefox for all related work stuff, I don't like having different users/sessions on Chrome so I use Firefox only for my work email, social media accounts, Google Drive, etc. So I do this both on Windows and on Solus but since a couple of weeks Firefox on Solus is running like s**t, it hangs, freezes, keeps reloading tabs now and then when I switch.

I tried erasing everything Firefox and reinstall but that did nothing I can't think of anything else I can do so if anyone can help me, please I'll appreciate it.

[deleted]

Even if you erase everything firefox, there may be some files remaining. So you must clear cache and temporary files.
also Firefox is yet to be updated to version 91 on solus repos...so your issue might have been already fixed in the latest version.

alternatively download from their website directly: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-desktop-release

brent

I'm firefox heavy, but I'm not having this behavior. If it's repo firefox (not flatpak etc) you should be fine. There's about a dozen more variables that could account for sluggish browser behavior. But [deleted]'s advice sounds great. behavior like that could be from a new install associating with old files/directories.

juampiursic

brent It's repo Firefox. It was running great and at some point it started to hang, freeze, reload tabs, etc. I'm linking a video to sum what mostly happens. I cleared cache and deleted temporary files so I'm gonna reboot, reinstall Firefox and see what happens.

eye4bear

Read somewhere online today that Firefox has lost about 50M users worldwide, sad to say.

brent

eye4bear Can't claim to keep track of all relevant tech news but whenever I see stories about people abandoning firefox it's mostly because of philosophical differences. I don't see the stories about people fleeing about performance issues..but I have seen them and read them on occasion.

[deleted]

brent some browsers do some things better than others

most cloud gaming services recommend a chromium based browser...none says anything about Firefox. Their say is that Firefox is not yet ready for online games. and it has been proved that chromium works better for gaming.However,when it comes to privacy and security it is Firefox that wins. Due to its low market share, gecko based browser are less targeted for attacks.

eye4bear yeah its concerning that it happened but Firefox still has around 19.8 crore(198 million) users who trust Firefox than other browsers. Lets hope Mozilla does some magic overnight that would give Firefox a new life 😔

And in case someone wants to see such a site where firefox is blocked then oktagon.tv might be a good example. the site works on webkit/chromium only( i discovered this from webcompat.com)

brent

juampiursic yeah see it's a little hangy--quick but not real quick. system monitor or htop can see if could be anything besides firefox is sucking up memory or speed. If you are on budgie/nautllus files than I can rule out indexer/indexing...but just on budgie.

juampiursic

brent Don't have anything else besides Firefox. Specs are 5600X + 3070 + 32GB RAM + NVME, there's plenty to suck up hahaha but I was trying with only Firefox and no other app open and it does the same since a couple of weeks. I don't have any extensions or themes either.

Guess I'll wait for 91 update.

WetGeek

juampiursic Guess I'll wait for 91 update.

You guys using Firefox really impress me. You plow through so much adversity and just keep on keepin' on. Nothing gets you down!

brent

WetGeek (tongue planted firmly in cheek😉)---and this is why I have a backup browser or two, primed to go.

juampiursic

WetGeek I've used Firefox but I mainly use Chrome and it's being like years and years, I've recently started to used Firefox when the pandemic started for work, we created a Google account for Drive and YouTuve lives, and also we got an Office 365 account so I need to have everything on one browser 'cause I don't like having different profiles on Chrome and I really don't like Edge or Vivaldi, they effing ugly.

WetGeek

brent this is why I have a backup browser or two, primed to go

A backup or two? You some kind of a coward?

brent

WetGeek
[clears thoat] allow me to sheepishly say some browsers do some things better than others [cryptically logs out]
😀

kyrios

[deleted] And in case someone wants to see such a site where firefox is blocked then oktagon.tv might be a good example. the site works on webkit/chromium only( i discovered this from webcompat.com)

When I see such things I usually drop a mail to their support asking when they are going to support Firefox so I can register to their service.

Saying a site is optimized or only works with specific browsers was something I used to see in the 90's/first half of the y2k but then devs got used to web technologies. Companies that still behave like 20 years ago on It just deserve to collapse.