# Why is firefox so terrible now?



## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

I'm trying to stick it out with Firefox as long as I can but this is ridiculous. First, I noticed it crashed when I try to go to a certain website that keeps popping up on some of my searches. Then I noticed that it can't play vine videos, but since I'm not a heavy vine watcher, I found this easy to overlook. Now Firefox can't even render certain pages on this forum. 

Firefox is so much better than any other browser when it comes to extensions, I still struggle to find an equivalent to many of my Firefox extensions, even in chrome. Sadly, I just may have to switch. Bleh.


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## Jcoj613 (May 1, 2011)

Chrome da best


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## SupaDupaFly (Sep 1, 2011)

Firefox has become the new internet explorer.


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

SupaDupaFly said:


> Firefox has become the new internet explorer.


I used to laugh when chrome fanboys said this but it's starting to seem that way.


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## vela (Apr 19, 2012)

Maybe your profile is messed up? Try making a new Firefox profile and moving your bookmarks over to it. 

I had a profile from the 3.6 days that I had to replace recently as it became very broken. 

As for the others things you mentioned:

I tried Vine, it works fine in Firefox. No issues at all playing the videos.

As for crashing, I've found Firefox has been getting more stable over the years. I rarely have it crash on me. No more so than any other browser. I use them all here, I'm a hardcore browser nerd.  

The issues you're having might be due to a corrupt profile. Try making a new one and see what happens.


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## frank81 (Dec 1, 2011)

One thing that I noticed was Firefox getting more & more heavy on Ram. I switched to Seamonkey few months ago. Maybe not many extensions as in Firefox, but I don't use them anyway.


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## leave me alone (Apr 1, 2011)

I am just curious, which are the extensions that Firefox has and that other browsers doesn't.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

I don't find Firefox terrible at all. Some reasons why it might not be quite as great as it could be?

Chrome. Firefox has probably lost a lot of people to Chrome simply because peer pressure works.

For some crazy reason, they've started updating Firefox faster than many of the best extensions can be updated. 

Sometimes there will be a fantastic extension (Like Bar Tab) and the author just suddenly decides not to bother with them anymore. So you have something you've come to depend on that doesn't work anymore the next time you update to a new version of FF.

When they decide to make an unpopular change in Firefox, they're stubborn about it and rude to the people who complain. You can usually find a workaround if you dig for it but you generally won't find much help just by trying to ask in the most obvious places. 

I'm still not going anywhere.


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## metrokid (Dec 30, 2011)

I have to say I don't have any of those problems. Everything works perfect for me.


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## Paper Samurai (Oct 1, 2009)

I think some firefox extensions make the browser unstable - or maybe it's the combination of certain extensions that does it.

I've only activated a few important ones myself, and have no problems.


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## rotten (Aug 6, 2013)

I've not had hardly any problems with Firefox. In fact, I prefer it more than Chrome. My Firefox currently has 7 extensions while Chrome only has maybe 3-4. I use both depending on what it is I'm doing.


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## gorbulas (Feb 13, 2004)

firefox is actually the best now, then chrome, then IE.
the sad thing is that not all sites support chrome so IE is often the go ahead browser since its probably installed on your computer. 
chrome just got released at the right time when browsers became bloatware and everyone switched over. add to the fact that google has a software bundle. no one wanted to switch back.


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## LeeMann (Nov 29, 2012)

Google actually took many of the Mozilla's Firefox developers to work on Chrome. This was inevitable.


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## Richard Pawgins (Jul 11, 2013)

as long as chrome doesn't have something equivalent to Firefox's "No scripts" then I'll continue to use Firefox


plus honestly I don't trust anything google makes for some odd paranoia filled reason.


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## changeme77 (Feb 22, 2013)

I switched to Chrome because I found Firefox to be frustratingly slow when you had multiple tabs open.


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## Charmander (Sep 5, 2012)

Firefox runs only slightly better than IE on my PC. Always has for some reason, whereas for others Chrome doesn't run properly on theirs.

I think Chrome is fine though. Not sure about their latest update because I can't seem to find my recently closed tabs button anymore.


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## Fledgling (Jan 1, 2013)

I've been a Chrome user for the past year or two. I still open Firefox but its speed is easily trumped by the former. It's even more obvious when I'm running multiple tabs and such.


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## ASB20 (Jun 5, 2013)

Yeah, I've had Firefox getting increasingly sluggish when I have multiple tabs open that have more activity going on (ie, youtube music, stock charts, live game scores) and I've had those work much faster in Chrome with no real delay.

I've been a Firefox user forever and am way more comfortable with the browser than any other, but Chrome's slowly winning me over.


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## red3002 (Sep 11, 2013)

I stay with Firefox because I hate google.

On my mac firefox triumphs chrome, but they are about the same.
On my olllddd PC firefox is slow as hell and always crashing while chrome runs smoothly


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## Paper Samurai (Oct 1, 2009)

If you like the idea of google having your personal data and tracking you (NSA related) then use Chrome :s 

I use Firefox + DuckDuckGo as my search engine now.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

red3002 said:


> I stay with Firefox because I hate google.
> 
> On my mac firefox triumphs chrome, but they are about the same.
> On my olllddd PC firefox is slow as hell and always crashing while chrome runs smoothly





Paper Samurai said:


> If you like the idea of google having your personal data and tracking you (NSA related) then use Chrome :s
> 
> I use Firefox + DuckDuckGo as my search engine now.


 Agreed on both counts. Though realistically, if the government wants to spy on you, it's not going to matter what browser or search engine you use. It's the government. They can do it if they want to and it doesn't matter if you've been promised the people who own/run the search engines or whatever won't cooperate with them.

My main reason for disliking Google is they just have their hands into too many things now and I don't much like monopolies.


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## always starting over (Mar 15, 2013)

Jcoj613 said:


> Chrome da best


I'm also having huge problems with this site on Chrome. I have to let it sit and wait 5 times longer than I normally would for a page to load. Sometimes it crashes my entire browser.


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## Raphael200 (Aug 18, 2012)

Works fine for me,my computer hates chrome and explorer.


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## zstandig (Sep 21, 2013)

try pale moon instead, it's like firefox but it's optimized and actually comes in a 64 bit version.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

zstandig said:


> try pale moon instead, it's like firefox but it's optimized and actually comes in a 64 bit version.


 I tried it once and didn't see the point. It seemed exactly like Firefox to me with a slightly different look. Worked exactly the same speed


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## Glass Child (Feb 28, 2013)

Never had a problem with Firefox.

As long as it isn't IE. *shivers*


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## Jcoj613 (May 1, 2011)

always starting over said:


> I'm also having huge problems with this site on Chrome. I have to let it sit and wait 5 times longer than I normally would for a page to load. Sometimes it crashes my entire browser.


Weird, I'm using chrome and it works perfectly on this site.


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## Nono441 (May 14, 2012)

Heh. Anyone remember Opera 9 or 10? Now that was a real browser. But somehow they have all converged to become clones of one another these recent years. Seriously, take any two mainstream browsers, compare them, you can't help but notice.

I do miss 2000's software, I have always had a soft spot for those cool freeware applications you could download off sites like CNET before they became spyware-infested toolbar providers. Nowadays everything just feels so synthetic. I don't really know how to describe it. The internet no longer feels like a place where individuality is valued, everything has been streamlined to optimize efficiency, but the human factor has been all but lost in the process.


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## will22 (Mar 28, 2011)

Paper Samurai said:


> If you like the idea of google having your personal data and tracking you (NSA related) then use Chrome :s
> 
> I use Firefox + DuckDuckGo as my search engine now.


Exactly, I'm willing to give up speed for privacy and freedom. Google is involved in PRISM, and Opera isn't free software.

I really need to start switching to DuckDuckGo or whatever that other one is.


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## Paper Samurai (Oct 1, 2009)

will22 said:


> Exactly, I'm willing to give up speed for privacy and freedom. Google is involved in PRISM, and Opera isn't free software.
> 
> I really need to start switching to DuckDuckGo or whatever that other one is.


Have a look here btw: https://prism-break.org/

plenty of non-NSA alternatives for a whole range of things.


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

I created a new profile and my issues seem to be fixed for now.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

InfiniteBlaze said:


> I created a new profile and my issues seem to be fixed for now.


 When you get a profile that you're happy with and that works exactly the way you want to, use FEBE and back it up. For a long time I just redid my whole profile every time something went wrong and it was a major PITA. Now it takes a couple of minutes to restore everything to exactly the way I like it.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

The really cool thing about FF is that it works as well on Linux as it does on Windows. There are aspects of Linux that are just "WTF?" bad but as long as I'm using FF on Linux, the transition between Windows and Mint is pretty much seamless. Now if I could just find a music player that works exactly like Foobar.


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## Clockworker (Aug 28, 2013)

Firefox works fine here. Whenever they come up with a stupid design change, I can just switch it to what it used to be.

Chrome is fine but, while I don't really remember the reson at the moment, I usually revert to Firefox after using it for a while, probably due to performance issues or just being too used to how Firefox works.


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## WhatBITW (Jan 26, 2013)

Recently switched back to Firefox after a long run on Chrome because Chrome kept having lag issues when there was a lot to process like multiple tabs with lots of HD video. So I went to FF and it was good at first but then eventually it just became like Chrome was. So now I'm back on Chrome and the lag's still there - though now I think it's ISP related I've had a slow connection on my Ipod and phone.


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

Firefox is being stupid again

The text was looking weird so I googled the problem. I found I had to disable hardware acceleration to make the weird looking jagged/blurred text go away.

Now I'm getting the same thread glitch, probably due to me disabling hardware acceleration in the options. The thread glitch began to happen right after disabling it.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

InfiniteBlaze said:


> Firefox is being stupid again
> 
> The text was looking weird so I googled the problem. I found I had to disable hardware acceleration to make the weird looking jagged/blurred text go away.
> 
> Now I'm getting the same thread glitch, probably due to me disabling hardware acceleration in the options. The thread glitch began to happen right after disabling it.


 What's your refresh rate set to on your graphics settings?


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## DeeperUnderstanding (May 19, 2007)

Firefox works well on macs, but Windows Firefox and Linux Firefox is terrible. Chrome is what works best on those last two OS.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

DeeperUnderstanding said:


> Firefox works well on macs, but Windows Firefox and Linux Firefox is terrible. Chrome is what works best on those last two OS.


 What is so terrible about it? The only problems I ever have is sometimes Youtube videos hang for no apparent reason. Not entirely sure FF is to blame for that one.

Other than that? I tried Chrome and wasn't impressed. People rave about how fast it is but honestly, it probably doesn't matter unless you have a really fast connection. And even then I don't really see how microseconds are really going to matter too much. I did not notice pages with a lot of media or links loading significantly faster with Chrome (if at all).

This is my counter to the thread title. Why is Firefox so much worse than Chrome? I have 28 add ons active right now and 14 tabs. Most pages open almost instantly.


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

WillYouStopDave said:


> What's your refresh rate set to on your graphics settings?


60Hz


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

InfiniteBlaze said:


> 60Hz


 Mine looks better if switched to 75


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

WillYouStopDave said:


> Mine looks better if switched to 75


Apparently my monitor can't display anything above 60 properly.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

InfiniteBlaze said:


> Apparently my monitor can't display anything above 60 properly.


If you're using Windows you can try enabling ClearType but I'm not sure how much difference it makes. It used to make a pretty big difference. I remember when I used to have issues with horrible looking text (in general) and that would usually fix it.

It used to be a simple on and off switch. Now it shows you a bunch of text examples and asks you which one looks better. Which I guess wouldn't be so bad if they didn't all look the same.


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

WillYouStopDave said:


> If you're using Windows you can try enabling ClearType but I'm not sure how much difference it makes. It used to make a pretty big difference. I remember when I used to have issues with horrible looking text (in general) and that would usually fix it.
> 
> It used to be a simple on and off switch. Now it shows you a bunch of text examples and asks you which one looks better. Which I guess wouldn't be so bad if they didn't all look the same.


I have ClearType on by default.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

InfiniteBlaze said:


> I have ClearType on by default.


 Which version of FF are you using?


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

Also. I don't know if it will do anything for you but if you go to about config in FF and run a search on "smooth" there's an option to enable text smoothing. It doesn't seem to make a difference on mine but my text was already OK.


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## InfiniteBlaze (Jan 27, 2011)

WillYouStopDave said:


> Which version of FF are you using?


24


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

InfiniteBlaze said:


> 24


 OK. I was just thinking I hadn't seen the hardware acceleration setting in my settings for a while but I just looked and it's still there. I guess I just didn't notice it.


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## love4all313 (Oct 6, 2013)

*As long as its not Internet Explorer*

Although Firefox has its issues, I prefer it to the dreaded Internet Explorer. Did you notice that you cannot purchase ANYTHING using the darn thing?

And its just bad all around. I could rant on IE for months at a time. Firefox still gives me hope. LOL


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## Nono441 (May 14, 2012)

love4all313 said:


> Although Firefox has its issues, I prefer it to the dreaded Internet Explorer. Did you notice that you cannot purchase ANYTHING using the darn thing?
> 
> And its just bad all around. I could rant on IE for months at a time. Firefox still gives me hope. LOL


Why are you rambling about obsolete technology...


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

love4all313 said:


> Although Firefox has its issues, I prefer it to the dreaded Internet Explorer. Did you notice that you cannot purchase ANYTHING using the darn thing?


 I actually hadn't even used IE for years until very recently when I did a Windows reinstall and hadn't thought to have a copy of Firefox ready to install. So I launched IE and let's just say that was a painful experience that I don't care to repeat in the near future. Horrid isn't the word. The thought that anyone would compare FF to that is beyond strange.


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## Kalliber (Aug 18, 2012)

Firefox hated my laptop, I use chrome


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## DeeperUnderstanding (May 19, 2007)

Chrome has had no issues.

I actually think Chrome and Safari (at least the current build on Mac) is about equal. Then there's Firefox, then IE is at the very bottom.


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## WillYouStopDave (Jul 14, 2013)

DeeperUnderstanding said:


> Chrome has had no issues.
> 
> I actually think Chrome and Safari (at least the current build on Mac) is about equal. Then there's Firefox, then IE is at the very bottom.


 Except that Chrome is Google and Google is no.


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