Do you remember when Mozilla released Firefox 1.0 back in 2004? Mozilla started a revolution introducing a user-friendly, safe and stable browser to the market. Even if Firefox didn’t actually dethrone IE when it comes to number of users, it was most certainly the browser beloved by online users. Mozilla achieved that thanks to Microsoft, as well. How? By ignoring the need for improvements in Internet Explorer for years. Only recently Microsoft realized that it’s the browser that is the “window to the world”. Enough sentiments. I am writing this post because today I stopped using Firefox for any personal use. it’s gone.
The reason for this is simple for me. When Google introduced Chrome, I was amazed by how fast it can be. Both the application itself and speed it was rendering websites with. I thought, with the new competitor in town, Mozilla will fix Firefox memory allocation issues and improve browser speed. I kept using Firefox mostly for its addons and, I guess, trust that built up year after year of using it. It’s 2011 and what do I hear about Firefox 5.0 after it’s been released? Memory leaks. Here’s one comment from memory leak topic on Mozilla’s official forum that sums it up:
They did nothing to fix the memory leak. Just finished shutting it down after it consuming 1.475 GB of RAM even with only 3 pages open – three pages that only took up 120-140 MB under 3.6.18. There is no excuse for FF4 and FF5 to be using this much memory. None.
This just tells me that Firefox became what it was once fighting with. A browser that fails to listen to its users and improve. Most serious issues have not been fixed for years now. Even if memory leaks haven’t been happening to more than 5% of users, it’s still an issue that should have been addressed as most critical bug to be fixed. Why? Because it’s the most avid Internet users that keep 15 tabs open at the same time looking for information. And these users were Firefox evangelists. They were telling others to switch from IE for, back then, obvious reasons. I remember numerous occasions when I was telling people that just got their first home PC why they should use FF after I installed it on their machines. That were the times of good old Firefox 2.0.
Now I’m fed up. I’m tired of waiting for a company with such great history and resources to get things done.
Here’s why I abandoned Firefox today:
- Years of reported memory leaks bug that hasn’t been fixed. New Firefox versions keep having same problem.
- Firefox prides itself on its large community of extensions, but blames extensions for all its memory problems.
- Restart browser after each addon is installed. Funny, because everyone’s always been complaining about the need to restart Windows after updating system/browser.
- Application itself (without any addons – clear install) has longer loading times than Chrome and Opera.
- Slow page rendering in comparison to competition. Heck! even Internet Explrorer 9.0 loads faster and seems to have found a great way to get rid of all that clutter in UI.
- The browser itself, without any addons, offers no new competitive solutions or technological advancements. Yes, they do have Firefox Sync but the first time I set it up, it had problems merging bookmarks between 2 devices.. Resembles more of a third-party plugin integrated into FF rather than an integral part of the browser.
- Advertising browser with thousands of addons is like selling iPhone advertising apps only. Basically, you’re saying that your product is worthless without third-party input.
I will not wait another months for Firefox 6.0 that will supposedly be better, and have new “revolutionary” UI that will increase browsing space by extra 3 pixels. My secondary browser is now Opera that, unlike Firefox, has really improved a lot in the last year and is working great for me so far.
What’s your browser of choice? Which one do you think will become the most popular among casual interent users?
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