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Firefox 4 In Nice But Still Has A Long Way To Go

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 03:00 AM PDT

Upon the release of Firefox 4, a member of the Firefox User Experience team (yes, there is such a thing) posted a Reddit thread which at the time I write this has 2,000+ comments and is rising. In the beginning of the thread lists some important stuff Mozilla is working on right now for future releases of the Firefox browser, namely:

The next version of the Mozilla JavaScript engine
Better integration with the Windows 7 environment (Aero, mostly)
Faster startup performance
Each tab in a separate process

I put the last one in bold because that above all else is what Fx desperately needs to get implemented to cease being a memory-munching monster. Faster scripting, better integration with the Win7 UI and faster startup is nice, but that all matters for naught when the browser turns into a sloth by not being able to release memory properly.

My personal opinion is that I truly do not care how good the browser looks, how well it parses scripting or how fast it starts up if I keep having to restart the f**king thing just to keep it running fast.

Thankfully, Mozilla does have tabs-as-separate-processes in the works with what they call the Electrolysis project, but here’s the issue:

What both Google did with Chrome and now Microsoft with Windows Internet Explorer was concentrate on speed over features, function over form. Neither browser has nearly as many built-in features as Fx does, but both run circles around it in practical application.

Here’s the bitter reality when it comes to browsers: Benchmarks mean nothing. You can throw all the wonderful glowing statistics of how X browser beats Y and Z browser in speed tests, but the true test is how a browser performs when left open for a long period of time. Any browser performs wonderfully on first startup, but what about leaving sites that update themselves in background tabs over time? What then? People do leave Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and Facebook open in tabs.

If you use Fx with a bunch of stuff open as noted above, then let the browser sit there for even as little as 15 minutes, the browser will slow down to turtle speeds, forcing a restart; version 4.0 of the browser did not fix this problem.

I do genuinely like Fx 4, but these days IE9 is getting most of my traffic because that browser knows how to release memory properly. I can leave it open as long as I want and I know it will not kill my computer. Chrome users can claim the same thing, and they’re right.

If there were any one piece of advice I’d give the Fx team, I’d say a re-shift in priorities is necessary. The memory release problem needs to be at the top of the list and fixed first, then concentrate on the scripting, UI and so on. Until that happens, the browser will continue to lose out to Chrome and IE9. Both may be "uglier", but work a whole lot better for long-term use.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Firefox 4 In Nice But Still Has A Long Way To Go

My Complaints About Internet Explorer 9

Posted: 22 Mar 2011 02:43 PM PDT

IE9 is definitely a huge (and I mean huge) improvement over IE8, however there are certain things about the browser I don’t like. Some of my complaints are new while others very old that stem all the way back to the IE6 days.

If you’re running Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7, yes I do recommend the upgrade to IE9, but as with any product it has its flaws; below are a video of a few of them.