Firefox 57

[dougules]

I'm curious what anybody's take on the new Firefox.  I'm not a fan so far.  I tried to post, but it wouldn't submit it.  I'm writing this from IE. 

[Travis]

I don't like radical changes like this to any system. The tab that has my most-visited sites is now smaller and clogged with stuff I don't want.  It's more difficult to find my bookmarks as well.  They're right that pages do load a bit faster though.  While Firefox is my go-to browser at home, I've never liked the fact that the right click menu has almost nothing useful in it.

[Monocle Money Mouth]

It works fine for me. I've been using it on Linux for the last few days and Windows at work. No issues so far. It does prompt me to load the Flash plugin, but a lot of browsers are trying to nudge web developers away from Flash.

[Just Joe]

It is noticeably zippy. Only using on Linux as I don't use Win hardly at all these days.

Am still only using it for work. My fun stuff is all done on Vivaldi browser. Keeps from mixing accounts and passwords.

[Frankies Girl]

At least they fixed the text encoding errors I had been experiencing for the last couple of months. Denied this was an issue and yet there were so many tickets and complaints on the Mozilla site about it...

[topshot]

I got so annoyed in the first 2 days that I finally switched over to Chrome at home (been using it at work).

They made it harder to get to bookmarks though I managed to get it pretty much the way it had been but it got MUCH worse in memory usage. Note that I always leave it (and Thunderbird) running. It's always eaten up memory where I'll need to restart it but I've noticed it has gotten worse over time. Moving to 57 though I had to restart several times in those couple days instead of a few weeks. This was on Win 7 and using the NoScript and ABP plugins.

[kayvent]

I’ve been using it for nearly two months now (beta). I like that it uses a lot less CPU.

It’s biggest draw, as always with Firefox, is how customizable it is. The addition of WebExtensions expands this. The customizablility leaves vanilla lacking.

Google, and Chrome more relevant to this discussion, tends towards crooked practices when a product gets significant market share. Some recent events with Chrome worry me deeply. I am hopeful that Quantum can regain some of Firefox’s support to prevent the growing monopoly.

[Michael in ABQ]

I've thought about switching as I still use IE 11 about 95% of the time. However, it's to the point now that multiple websites just don't work with IE or are so slow as to make them almost unusable. I have Chrome for those times but I don't really want to switch over to it. Google has enough of my information from Gmail, I don't want to give them every bit of data they can extract from my browsing habits. At this point I feel like Microsoft is less of a threat than Google.

[kayvent]

Don’t have Windows 10 or don’t like Edge?

[Optimiser]

I mostly use Chrome, but I've tried out the new Firefox a few times and I like. I has been quite a few years since I have used Firefox regularly so I was used to the old version so that helps.

[jgoody]

I haven't noticed performance differences, but my eyes definitely don't like the change.  They were clearly going for a new/different look, but as far as I'm concerned, the new look is a fail.

[RWD]

Seems to be working fine for me. I decided switch back to Firefox from Chromium with this new version.

The tab that has my most-visited sites is now smaller and clogged with stuff I don't want.

The new tab page is somewhat customizable. Not sure if you can get it back to the way you like it (I never used it before myself anyway), but worth fiddling with at least. The first thing I did was disable the recommendations stuff and "Snippets" and left only the top sites and highlights. There might also be some extensions that can alter the behavior further.

[WootWoot]

I'm using 52.5 and I have problems with it, so I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon.

Pages load slowly, and sometimes if I have a lot of tabs open, I get white spaces instead of page content. I had the IT folks here at work look at my previous version, and they installed a different version (52.5) and I still have issues.

[Financial.Velociraptor]

Has much better flash performance for my Pandora listening.  Goes much longer before grinding down the available memory and needing a browser reboot.  But sort of hard on the eyes.

[Michael in ABQ]

Don’t have Windows 10 or don’t like Edge?

Still using Windows 7 but I just got a new work laptop that has Windows 10 so I'll be making the switch soon. Actually I got it a month ago but I can't afford to take a day to get it all setup. Maybe after Thanksgiving.

[Paul der Krake]

Love it. Glad that U2F support is finally here, major websites should start supporting Firefox soon.

[Financial.Velociraptor]

Alexa toolbar still not compatible with 57.

[MandalayVA]

As a longtime Firefox user I like it--it's noticeably faster and script hang-ups are gone.

[Optimiser]

I've been using it more and more lately and I'm really liking how fast it is

[Debts_of_Despair]

I gave up on FF after it became a resource hog.  Uses way more memory and CPU compared to Chrome.

[RWD]

I gave up on FF after it became a resource hog.  Uses way more memory and CPU compared to Chrome.

So you've come back now that it has been redesigned for improved efficiency?

[alsoknownasDean]

I've mostly used the Android version, and I'm happy enough with it. Only a handful of things I still need to use Chrome for.

Just updated on the desktop, but most of my desktop browsing is with Safari.

[NoraLenderbee]

It's always eaten up memory where I'll need to restart it but I've noticed it has gotten worse over time. Moving to 57 though I had to restart several times in those couple days instead of a few weeks. This was on Win 7 and using the NoScript and ABP plugins.

I used to have to restart FF every couple of days because it consumed more and more memory until there was no free memory left. FF 57 consumes memory even faster. It also starts multiple processes--like five or six even one only one tab is open. It's faster to load pages, but having to restart all the time is getting old. I hate Chrome, though.

[ketchup]

Love it so far.  Been using it since the first day it was available (three different systems total, all Windows 10).  Way better than Firefox was recently, and even a bit zippier than Chrome (which has gotten bloated as of late too).

[topshot]

I used to have to restart FF every couple of days because it consumed more and more memory until there was no free memory left. FF 57 consumes memory even faster. It also starts multiple processes--like five or six even one only one tab is open. It's faster to load pages, but having to restart all the time is getting old. I hate Chrome, though.

Interesting that you have had pretty much my experience yet most in this thread apparently haven't. It annoyed me enough to move to Chrome since I use it at work.

I wonder if doing a clean install of FF57 would help? It's just continued to update itself for at least 15 years so maybe time to start fresh. I'm still using Thunderbird.

[sailinlight]

Because of this thread I just installed Firefox and am really liking it compared to Chrome and Opera. The keepass plugin works better than in Chrome and overall it seems really snappy

[dougules]

I used to have to restart FF every couple of days because it consumed more and more memory until there was no free memory left. FF 57 consumes memory even faster. It also starts multiple processes--like five or six even one only one tab is open. It's faster to load pages, but having to restart all the time is getting old. I hate Chrome, though.

Interesting that you have had pretty much my experience yet most in this thread apparently haven't. It annoyed me enough to move to Chrome since I use it at work.

I wonder if doing a clean install of FF57 would help? It's just continued to update itself for at least 15 years so maybe time to start fresh. I'm still using Thunderbird.

I'm having the same issue. 

[NoraLenderbee]

I used to have to restart FF every couple of days because it consumed more and more memory until there was no free memory left. FF 57 consumes memory even faster. It also starts multiple processes--like five or six even one only one tab is open. It's faster to load pages, but having to restart all the time is getting old. I hate Chrome, though.

Interesting that you have had pretty much my experience yet most in this thread apparently haven't. It annoyed me enough to move to Chrome since I use it at work.

I wonder if doing a clean install of FF57 would help? It's just continued to update itself for at least 15 years so maybe time to start fresh. I'm still using Thunderbird.

If I have a chance, I'll try doing a clean install this weekend and see if anything improves.

[jinga nation]

I used to have to restart FF every couple of days because it consumed more and more memory until there was no free memory left. FF 57 consumes memory even faster. It also starts multiple processes--like five or six even one only one tab is open. It's faster to load pages, but having to restart all the time is getting old. I hate Chrome, though.

Interesting that you have had pretty much my experience yet most in this thread apparently haven't. It annoyed me enough to move to Chrome since I use it at work.

I wonder if doing a clean install of FF57 would help? It's just continued to update itself for at least 15 years so maybe time to start fresh. I'm still using Thunderbird.

I'm having the same issue.

I have v57 64-bit on my MacBookPro as the default browser. Usually 5+ tabs open per window, multiple windows. Use it for web debug, etc. No issues. Had too many issues with Chrome. Leave it open for over a week, sleep and resume, still no issues. Safari is just bollocks.

[sherr]

I've been a firefox user for many years, but I'm still a fan of 57. The javascript performance is finally on-par with chrome, which (sadly) is a requirement for many webapps.

I used to have to restart FF every couple of days because it consumed more and more memory until there was no free memory left. FF 57 consumes memory even faster. It also starts multiple processes--like five or six even one only one tab is open. It's faster to load pages, but having to restart all the time is getting old. I hate Chrome, though.

Interesting that you have had pretty much my experience yet most in this thread apparently haven't. It annoyed me enough to move to Chrome since I use it at work.

I wonder if doing a clean install of FF57 would help? It's just continued to update itself for at least 15 years so maybe time to start fresh. I'm still using Thunderbird.

A more likely explanation is plugins / extensions. Try dropping extensions you don't really use. Also take a look at about:plugins. If you have flash there, consider figuring out how to disable it. The modern internet doesn't really need flash and it's the root of many evils.

Edit: Actually, THE most likely explanation (and I feel stupid for leaving it out) is that you are not using the uBlock Origin extension. Do it. It is IMO the single greatest security and performance enhancer that you can get for your computer.

[sherr]

I'm having issues with adblock plus with it. I have whitelisted mint, but somehow it keeps getting hung up on the investments page.   I think I found a workaround (open that page in a new tab), but it is annoying.  I hate hate hate software changes.....

The Mint Investments page is like the one thing on the internet that I can't use because it still requires Flash. So if that's the only thing you're having a problem with it's probably because you're having trouble with Flash Player, not Adblock Plus. I choose to live without it. That page is not that useful for me, and it's not worth opening your computer up the Flash security vulnerabilities.

[Debts_of_Despair]

I gave up on FF after it became a resource hog.  Uses way more memory and CPU compared to Chrome.

So you've come back now that it has been redesigned for improved efficiency?

Nope.  Memory usage when looking at this page:

Firefox: around 600 MB
Chrome: around 100 MB

Latest version of each.

I was a FF fan going back to the very beginning but that is totally unreasonable.

[Paul der Krake]

Memory usage doesn't mean shit unless it's a documented memory leak. All browsers cache stuff for speed. So long as the OS can reclaim it and doesn't start swapping, it's all good.

[kayvent]

Don't look at memory usage on a modern computer using modern software. There are far too many layers and technologies playing together for an apples to apples comparison to work. (ex is Firefox using x mb because it only runs its garbage collector when its memory pressure is high?)

I'd suggest looking at CPU usage and how the computer & browser 'feels'.

[Debts_of_Despair]

It IS slower, that's why I stopped using it.

[CoffeeR]

I'm having issues with adblock plus with it. I have whitelisted mint, but somehow it keeps getting hung up on the investments page.   I think I found a workaround (open that page in a new tab), but it is annoying.  I hate hate hate software changes.....

Switch to uBlock Origin as your adblocker. Dump Adblock Plus.

[topshot]

A more likely explanation is plugins / extensions. Try dropping extensions you don't really use. Also take a look at about:plugins. If you have flash there, consider figuring out how to disable it. The modern internet doesn't really need flash and it's the root of many evils.

As I said in my original post above, I use NoScript and ABP. I guess I should add Avast to that well, which is also a requirement.

Don't look at memory usage on a modern computer using modern software. There are far too many layers and technologies playing together for an apples to apples comparison to work. (ex is Firefox using x mb because it only runs its garbage collector when its memory pressure is high?)

While I would typically agree with that, the fact is the FF is NOT cleaning up memory like it should in my opinion. I could care less that it's using 3GB (of my 8GB), but when the OS is giving me notices that I'm running out of memory, FF needs to behave better. As a desktop software developer myself, I find that unacceptable.

[jinga nation]

I'm having issues with adblock plus with it. I have whitelisted mint, but somehow it keeps getting hung up on the investments page.   I think I found a workaround (open that page in a new tab), but it is annoying.  I hate hate hate software changes.....

Switch to uBlock Origin as your adblocker. Dump Adblock Plus.

+1 to uBlock Origin. Or use Ghostery.

[NoraLenderbee]

I used to have to restart FF every couple of days because it consumed more and more memory until there was no free memory left. FF 57 consumes memory even faster. It also starts multiple processes--like five or six even one only one tab is open. It's faster to load pages, but having to restart all the time is getting old. I hate Chrome, though.

Interesting that you have had pretty much my experience yet most in this thread apparently haven't. It annoyed me enough to move to Chrome since I use it at work.

I wonder if doing a clean install of FF57 would help? It's just continued to update itself for at least 15 years so maybe time to start fresh. I'm still using Thunderbird.

If I have a chance, I'll try doing a clean install this weekend and see if anything improves.

No clean install, but I updated to 57.0.1. FF is running 5 processes now. All together, they are using 1.2 GB of memory. However, no one process is over 450 MB (so far). FF doesn't bog down the computer like it did, especially when I wake it up. That was the worst--I used to have to force quit a lot. We'll see how it goes, but so far it's better.