Firefox’s Stability?
Today several colleagues started talking about something I had, until the conversation started, taken for granted: the stability of the Firefox browser. It seems that some people are experiencing frequent crashes, hangs, and other annoying behaviors. Several have taken the radical (and undesirable) step of removing the application completely, migrating to another product like Chrome or Safari.
If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, don’t think it means IE is better. The same people said they disliked Microsoft’s product as “too clunky,” “too slow,” or just plain annoying. I don’t know which version they were referring to, but since most of the discussion was from science writers I doubt they were using some ancient and unsupported version. These folks tend to be pretty current with their technology.
The whole discussion made me curious, since I (and many others) use Firefox daily with absolutely no problem whatsoever. Many suggestions were made in terms of possible diagnostics or causes, so it only seems reasonable to pass them along. After all, if a few writers are experiencing browser problems it seems likely others are as well.
First, many users suggested specific websites might be more problematic than others. One noted that (of all things) scientificamerican.com relied on lots of heavy mouse-over advertisements and odd popups that could cause browser problems. The solution (if you’re using Firefox) is to install the wonderful AdBlock plugin, which should disable most, if not all ads found on these websites. Installing any ad blocker might help, but this seems to be one of the best. Plus, it’ll save bandwidth by preventing the download of all that cruft.
Second, a plugin like NoScript (also Firefox only) could easily cause slow page loading in some cases. This is because whole sections of a site might be blocked by the NoScript application; if these are somehow critical to the page, bad things might happen. This said, NoScript is a very handy application that can easily save your PC from infection by a bogus website. So don’t disable it unless you’re really certain a given site is safe.
Next, it’s possible that cruft (junk) from older installations is causing Firefox crashes. One user said they’d totally cured their browser-crash problem by completely uninstalling and re-installing Firefox 3.5.3.
All in all, Firefox is a great browser. But like any piece of software, it can run badly in certain contexts. Outside applications, not to mention viruses or other malware, could affect its stability. If you’re having browser problems, try to isolate the type of crash you’re having (i.e. is it caused by a certain website or action). Hunt around the net for help. Ask a friend. Make sure it’s not badly outdated or no longer supported. Try removing and re-installing it.
If nothing else works, try another browser. If that also crashes, you have much bigger problems to worry about.