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Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

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Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#41
> Leaky add-ons usually cause zombie compartments by holding references to DOM structures within a web page even after the page has been closed or navigated away from. This prevents Firefox from garbage-collecting the page’s compartment.

If an add-on relies on persistent references to closed pages by design (such as a form data history plugin), is there a way to adapt it to this new feature to not let Firefox sever it's references under the assumption that it's a memory leak?

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#43
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use Chrome because I think it is bad for the web to be influenced so heavily by an Advertising company. Ultimately, Chrome exists for Google to increase it's advertising profits. It's a clear conflict of interests. Plus, Firefox is a great browser and works really well on my reasonably high spec'd laptop, so it's not so difficult to be idealistic here.

I wonder if I'm the only person that feels anxious that Gmail + Google Calendar + Chrome + Google Drive + Google Search + Google Docs + Android Phone + Google Maps + Google Voice + ... gives one company an astoundingly deep and unfettered view of exactly everything you are doing, who you are talking to, and even what you are thinking (to the extent it is reflected in those activities) at every waking moment of your l…

Maybe, but so far Google has behaved much better that any other company would have in their exact position. Give Apple and Microsoft the same market dominance in online ads and search, and I think we would be a lot worse. Those 2 are behaving pretty badly even when they have much smaller market share.

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#44
post #39

One of the issues I've seen people complain about is having to close Firefox after a few days. I understand you shouldn't HAVE to close a program, but how are people using their browsers that this becomes such an huge problem?

I don't reboot my desktop for months at a time. Current uptime is 25 days... 25 days ago I moved offices. X stays up. Firefox and Chrome and most of the other applications I use regularly stay up. Why should this be exceptional?

What's faster than an SSD for loading an application? Switching to the already open window.

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#45

I used to be an avid Firefox user. I switched to Chrome because it was faster and had all the same extensions I used on Firefox. Why should I switch back? Chrome is still faster no?

Been a firefox user since the beginning, and still haven't found a reason to switch to chrome. A "faster" browser doesn't convince me, and I like firefox's UI teaking possibilities. Besides, never had those memory hogging problems everyone talks about (even on a 1GB ram linux desktop).

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#46

> Leaky add-ons usually cause zombie compartments by holding references to DOM structures within a web page even after the page has been closed or navigated away from. This prevents Firefox from garbage-collecting the page’s compartment. If an add-on relies on persistent references to closed pages by design (such as a form data history plugin), is there a way to adapt it to this new feature to not let Firefox sever i…

No.

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#47
post #44
post #39

One of the issues I've seen people complain about is having to close Firefox after a few days. I understand you shouldn't HAVE to close a program, but how are people using their browsers that this becomes such an huge problem?

I don't reboot my desktop for months at a time. Current uptime is 25 days... 25 days ago I moved offices. X stays up. Firefox and Chrome and most of the other applications I use regularly stay up. Why should this be exceptional? What's faster than an SSD for loading an application? Switching to the already open window.

While this is basically true (and even more so for me, typically 3+ months before a security update finally nags me into rebooting 1 month after it was installed) Firefox saves your open tabs, so restarting takes no time and it is basically like it didn't even happen.

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#48
post #19
post #6

As a webdev who use Firebug (and Adblock) a lot, I'm so glad about this. FINALLY ! However they are three years too late about that, from a market share perspective.

Firefox lost market share because Chrome was a leaner, faster, and better browser. I have started to hear more stories about folks switching back to Firefox because a lot of their issues with the browser have been fixed. And based on independent review sites like Tom's Hardware, there is no longer an appreciable gap in the performance of Firefox and Chrome. As regards market share, Firefox's market share would be in…

"I have started to hear more stories about folks switching back to Firefox because a lot of their issues with the browser have been fixed"

There was a time, some number of releases ago (a year ago?) when FF's memory problems became too much for me, and I used Chrome(ium). I never liked it, personal preference.

Finally some time within that last year FF became acceptable again, then more than acceptable, and I came back. I have not noticed my browser for months now, which is all I ask of any program: I don't want to see or notice the program, only what I'm working on with it. Don't make me notice you, it's distracting.

Although I use Firefox, Firefox is not actually my browser. Firefox plus the particular addons I install is my browser. To me they are very different things.

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#49
post #36
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you use a lot of tabs and don't close your browser for long periods of time Chrome is vastly superior to Firefox (and all other browsers) in terms of memory use and stability. But not in terms of ui, tabs shrink till they hold no text in chrome instead of scrolling like in firefox.

I love the way chrome handles tabs, especially the way they shrink. The icon is enough to distinguish it and even if there is no icon for that page you already know its appromixmate position and can quickly find it (which you just can't when everything scrolls and you have no idea where you are). The firefox tab scroll feature is probably the feature I hate the most, in any browser (yes, you can disable it - but bad…

The firefox tab scroll feature is probably the feature I hate the most, in any browser (yes, you can disable it - but bad defaults stink and you can't just go around and change the settings in everyones browser).

I much prefer the Firefox tab scroll feature, compared to Chrome's way of handling tabs. The handy "show all tabs" dropdown is nice as well. Between the two, I find managing large numbers of tabs to be easier and less painful in FF than in Chrome.

YMMV.

Re: Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks

#50

I used to be an avid Firefox user. I switched to Chrome because it was faster and had all the same extensions I used on Firefox. Why should I switch back? Chrome is still faster no?

I have never understood Chrome users.

Chrome is easily the worst browser on the market, short of IE I would rather use IE 8 than Chrome. As a web dev, I loathe my time testing in Chrome. When a bug report comes in, more times than not, the answer to "which browser?" is "Chrome" because V8 is buggy as hell. And the developer tools are simply worthless because they inject markup into the freaking DOM.

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