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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Firefox 3 b1 eating RAM like there's no tomorrow…

Firefox 3 b1 eating RAM like there's no tomorrow…
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angelmb
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Nov 20, 2007, 06:08 PM
 
just opening it and browsing these boards, Firefox RAM usage jumped to over 600 MB,



OK, it's still a beta, but this is too much… anyone else getting this behavior under 10.5.1?
     
Cold Warrior
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Nov 20, 2007, 07:27 PM
 
wow.

I'm using it under 10.5.1 and have been using it on these boards, the wider internet, and have had it open for about an hour now. It's sitting at 76 MB. I'm using only the adblock plus extension.

I had difficulty at first with getting it to work well. Fixed it by finding all previous firefox vestiges (including caches, prefs, mozilla system folder, etc.) and deleting them. The beta regenerated all these, which fixed my issues.
     
Cold Warrior
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Nov 20, 2007, 07:30 PM
 
btw, I'm finding this version much more responsive and faster. Faster than Safari 3 now, for me. Also quick at reading its cache.
     
EndlessMac
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Nov 20, 2007, 11:07 PM
 
I'm using 10.4.11 and Firefox 3b1 is using about 67MB of RAM so I'm surprised to see your numbers. Although what's nice about Firefox 3 is now it finally has the "Mac look" which seems to be important to many people and for some people it seemed like it was the only reason why they didn't use Firefox. Of course this is still only beta so I'm looking forward to seeing how much it improves.
     
Cold Warrior
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Nov 20, 2007, 11:09 PM
 
some minor visual changes, which are more Mac-like, but in a kind of MS Office sort of way.
     
EndlessMac
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Nov 20, 2007, 11:23 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cold Warrior View Post
some minor visual changes, which are more Mac-like, but in a kind of MS Office sort of way.
I guess for me it was always the web forms and buttons that were missing the Mac look for me. I've always used themes that gave me more of the overall Mac look but these themes never changed the look of forms and buttons...so for me at least the Mac look is complete.
     
Cold Warrior
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Nov 20, 2007, 11:31 PM
 
yeah, the Mac-styled buttons and forms are a nice touch. Finally.
     
Art Vandelay
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Nov 21, 2007, 12:16 AM
 
Unfortunately they changed the color of window to the same light grey Apple uses for background windows. So, now you can't easily tell if it's frontmost or not.
Vandelay Industries
     
TheoCryst
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Nov 21, 2007, 01:13 AM
 
Originally Posted by Art Vandelay View Post
Unfortunately they changed the color of window to the same light grey Apple uses for background windows. So, now you can't easily tell if it's frontmost or not.
I'm pretty sure that's temporary: they only got the unified-looking toolbar working about one or two days before they branched Beta 1 off the main trunk.

As for the new Firefox: I've been using nightly builds on and off since around Alpha 3 or so, and I must say that I'm greatly impressed. All they need is the new theme (which looks so sweet) and a few stability fixes, and I may finally switch away from Safari.

Any ramblings are entirely my own, and do not represent those of my employers, coworkers, friends, or species
     
angelmb  (op)
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Nov 21, 2007, 03:20 AM
 
Originally Posted by Cold Warrior View Post
wow.

I'm using it under 10.5.1 and have been using it on these boards, the wider internet, and have had it open for about an hour now. It's sitting at 76 MB. I'm using only the adblock plus extension.

I had difficulty at first with getting it to work well. Fixed it by finding all previous firefox vestiges (including caches, prefs, mozilla system folder, etc.) and deleting them. The beta regenerated all these, which fixed my issues.
Truth be told, Firefox RAM usage rocketed over 900 MB and the Mac became almost unresponsive, I had to force quit it and even Activity Monitor and was unable to take a screenshot… no extensions here since Firefox disabled them itself previous to launch… Shall check those previous Firefox-Mozilla related folders, albeit I 'have' to keep Camino's.
     
shinji
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Nov 21, 2007, 03:33 AM
 
Can Firefox 3 beta co-exist with Firefox 2? If I decide to go back to Firefox 2 is that a problem with having to delete anything?
     
TheIceMan
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Nov 21, 2007, 03:56 AM
 
I really like the new look but it's frozen on me a few times already. Had to force quit 3x already. I ran disk repair and restarted so hopefully it's ok now.
     
EndlessMac
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Nov 21, 2007, 04:29 AM
 
Originally Posted by shinji View Post
Can Firefox 3 beta co-exist with Firefox 2? If I decide to go back to Firefox 2 is that a problem with having to delete anything?
They can coexist. What I do is rename my original Firefox as "Firefox 2.0.0.9" or whatever you want. I then install Firefox 3 beta 1. I think as long as you don't have both of them open at the same time then there shouldn't be a problem.

I've been jumping back and forth between the two when I have to go to an important website that I need to work. Other than that I've using Firefox beta 1 most of the time and it's been pretty good for me.

The problem I do get from having two versions of Firefox installed is that every time I jump back and forth both Firefoxs act a if I just updated to a new version meaning that it asks me if I want to check for plugin compatibility, gives me the "you've updated to the latest version page", and some of my preferences are reset to default. It is kind of annoying but other than that I haven't really had any problems going back and forth as of yet.

Remember to report any bugs on the official Firefox forums so they can work out all the bugs for Mac OS X.
     
Cold Warrior
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Nov 21, 2007, 08:38 AM
 
I don't think they can coexist well, because they're still using the same files in the same paths, each changing them slightly and expecting their version of things. My beta experience was horrible until I completely wiped all vestiges of version 2.

YMMV because this is, after all, a beta.
     
rickey939
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Nov 21, 2007, 01:28 PM
 
What is this new "coming soon" theme look like?
     
imitchellg5
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Nov 21, 2007, 02:08 PM
 
OMG!1 A first release beta not working right!? Still not as bad as Safari 2 was sometimes, I've caught it using a Gb of RAM before.
     
besson3c
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Nov 21, 2007, 02:08 PM
 
I wouldn't count on all of your add-ons working though.
     
shinji
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Nov 21, 2007, 07:36 PM
 
I backed up my Firefox 2 profile and removed everything before trying it...didn't reimport based on that.

It looks and feels pretty nice...Adblock plus is a little weird though if you go to adblock frame, you still have to enter what you want in the filter manually, it doesn't do it automatically.
     
Silky Voice of The Gorn
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Nov 21, 2007, 09:11 PM
 
Meh; nearly every bit of FF3b is custom widgets. The pref panel, the dropdowns, everything. Why is it so hard to use native UI? Camino FTW.
     
shinji
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Nov 21, 2007, 09:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn View Post
Meh; nearly every bit of FF3b is custom widgets. The pref panel, the dropdowns, everything. Why is it so hard to use native UI? Camino FTW.
Not for me, are you using the mac theme, proto?
     
Cold Warrior
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Nov 21, 2007, 09:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by shinji View Post
Not for me, are you using the mac theme, proto?
I am now!! Looks pretty good. Thanks!
     
besson3c
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Nov 21, 2007, 09:41 PM
 
Where is the Mac theme?
     
Cold Warrior
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Nov 21, 2007, 09:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Where is the Mac theme?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6050
     
besson3c
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Nov 21, 2007, 09:55 PM
 
I thought Firefox 3 was going to be a Cocoa app that did not rely on XUL for interface elements? If we are talking about a Mac skin, I would assume that this work isn't done yet, or that this is false?
     
EndlessMac
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Nov 22, 2007, 02:53 AM
 
Here is some more information about the memory problem some people are having: link

The problem seems to be fixed in the nightly trunk builds. You can download the latest trunk builds here: Trunk & Branch Builds FAQ - MozillaZine Forums Download the .mac.dmg version and apparently they call the nightly builds Minefield so don't be surprised if it doesn't say Firefox when opened. They basically update Firefox beta every night so it's best to make sure you have the latest version before reporting a problem on the Firefox forum.
     
Silky Voice of The Gorn
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Nov 22, 2007, 03:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by shinji View Post
Not for me, are you using the mac theme, proto?
I do web dev, so UI hacking is a no-no. Anyway, it's the principal of the thing.
     
shinji
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Nov 22, 2007, 03:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by Silky Voice of The Gorn View Post
I do web dev, so UI hacking is a no-no. Anyway, it's the principal of the thing.
When you run the beta for the first time it links to it at the bottom of the page for mac users...what effect would it have on web development? All it does is give you native mac form elements and changes the toolbars.
     
angelmb  (op)
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Nov 22, 2007, 05:20 PM
 
Originally Posted by EndlessMac View Post
(…) The problem seems to be fixed in the nightly trunk builds.
(…) Download the .mac.dmg version (…)
Thanks, will try that one.
     
.Neo
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Nov 24, 2007, 09:53 AM
 
Originally Posted by TheoCryst View Post
I'm pretty sure that's temporary: they only got the unified-looking toolbar working about one or two days before they branched Beta 1 off the main trunk.
That's because Mozilla keeps using a non-standard interface on Mac OS X. If they used the default way of Mac OS X handling things the Unified toolbar would be there automatically (On Leopard) or by ticking a checkbox in Xcode (On Tiger).

Hopefully Firefox 3 will be a leap forward when it comes to this.
     
   
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