# Sorry Firefox, but . . .



## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

I can't spend much of my remaining life waiting 15-30 seconds on each click while it only takes 3-8 seconds on Chrome. I know my computer is not the best but still, I should not be waiting SO LONG after each click. And yes, I have tried refresh, etc. And I am not even using an adblocker on Chrome. 

So even though I am not crazy about supporting the monopoly, I must switch.


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

I have been having firefox issues as well. Must be updated into a beta version or something. It is especially annoying on youtube.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I keep telling people it isnt slow computer. It isnt a slow connection (unless you are still on 24k dialup.) It isnt your browser.

Its that in modern internet, every website is trying to leach your bandwidth to run huge number of scripts. You wont see them trying to load and run, its all hidden. Also if you are using windows, it has its own agenda trying to run silently in background.

I use latest firefox both under linux and win10. I stripped win10 of unnecessary garbage they really dont want you to uninstall, and blocked it phoning home. Its now pretty fast, well at least ok, even on minimal spec machine. Anyway, I use firefox and addon called NO-SCRIPT, so I see and can control background scripts trying to run on websites. I also use ad blocker ultimate and self destructing cookies. The cookie thing really of controll, every script tries to read all your accumulated cookies and add more of its own. It does slow things down. Unless you whitelist a site, self destructing cookies destroys non-whitelisted cookies when you leave the site. It works far better than setting your browser to delete cookies when you close it. Lot times cookies are resistant to browser deleting them, but have yet to see any resistant to self destructing cookie addon.

Its amazing just what these three addons accomplish. Now NO-SCRIPT can be frustrating at times as you have to guess which scripts are actually necessary to navigate the site and which are just money making fluff. Sometimes can be very frustrating as websites have learned to interlace some of the fluff so if you dont run it, the rest doesnt work either. Sometimes if you truly want to deal with a certain website you have to temporarily allow the whole page. I just keep Palemoon browser installed to use on such sites and ONLY such sites. It rarely gets used so not a problem running it bareback.

There is a less powerful but easier to use program to control scripts called Ghostery (its also available for Chrome). The trick with Ghostery is that it comes preloaded with a whitelist of crap, that you need to delete. You can create your own whitelist if you should so desire. I think they make money from including companies that pay on that default whitelist. Anyway the tracking and data collection stuff changes frequently, so you need to allow Ghostery to update its lists at will. Once you first delete that default whitelist, it doesnt try to reload/change it.

It comes down to having to lock down your computer and connection so its serving ONE master, not everybody and his brother trying to make a buck off you wasting your time and bandwidth in process.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

Declan said:


> I have been having firefox issues as well. Must be updated into a beta version or something. It is especially annoying on youtube.


Ya I even use Chrome once in awhile along with my Safaris'. Like for Youtubes that ofer 360Âº viewin, which is not supported by my iMacs Safari, but is, in Chrome. YEAH. It is so neat to look all aorund in a 360Âº view sometimes. Cool.


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## disk_55FL (Jul 21, 2014)

There's nothing wrong with Firefox .......... been using it for years. 

Hermit : Good tip on the Script blocker ......... I used to use it but I forgot to add it with my last build.

I like to prevent the OS and other Apps from phoning home using Win 10 Firewall Control.


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

disk_55FL said:


> There's nothing wrong with Firefox .......... been using it for years.
> 
> Hermit : Good tip on the Script blocker ......... I used to use it but I forgot to add it with my last build.
> 
> I like to prevent the OS and other Apps from phoning home using Win 10 Firewall Control.


There sort of is something wrong with firefox I have learned since last posting in this thread. Apparently the most recent version of FF has caused many add-ons to stop working completely or working sporadically and several of these developers have to rebuild their add-ons to work with the latest version.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

For some years I've been using Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release). It's intended mainly for large organizations that don't want the support hassles caused by frequent upgrades to bleeding-edge stuff that may or may not have been adequately tested before release. So it's great for those of us who just want our computers to work, without having to constantly chase down problems caused by overeager developers who push out updates way too frequently.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all/


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

I was a Netscape user since about 1995. It later morphed into Firefox which I used. Netscape/Firefox has been my sole browser for almost 20 years and I was always a staunch supporter.

Over the last year, Firefox has fallen behind. It is buggy and support releases are slow and don't address outstanding problems.

Over the last 3 months, I have been fighting Firefox in terms of memory usage. There must be a leak somewhere. When started it uses a reasonable amount of memory (~200MB) but as time goes on it bloats. I have seen it over 3GB. Things get real slow when it bloats.

I decided to try an alternative for a while and see if they offered a reasonable replacement option. Chrome has emerged as my goto browser and I never use Firefox anymore.

Google has always scared me with how much data they collect about what I do. That alone kept me from even considering Chrome in the past. But I guess times change. I now have an android phone, I use Youtube lots, and I converted to Chrome. So google has gotten its hooks into me from several directions.

But.... I still refuse to use google for searching. I use Yahoo for search and email. Shoot, I'd probably still use AltaVista if it was still around.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

The one thing that I haven't been able to accomplish with Chrome is being able to download youtube videos. I've tried a couple of plugins but no luck. Anyone have a good plugin for Chrome that allows for downloading from YT?


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

logbuilder said:


> The one thing that I haven't been able to accomplish with Chrome is being able to download youtube videos. I've tried a couple of plugins but no luck. Anyone have a good plugin for Chrome that allows for downloading from YT?


 Gee I have never downloaded any plugins for use with Chrome and I can watch YT any time. In fact this one here I just watched to make sure everything was working fine in Chrome.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxgDZOXIk_k"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxgDZOXIk_k[/ame]


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

I can watch them fine. When I say downloading, I mean to save it to my computer so I can watch offline.


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

logbuilder said:


> I was a Netscape user since about 1995. It later morphed into Firefox which I used. Netscape/Firefox has been my sole browser for almost 20 years and I was always a staunch supporter.
> 
> Over the last year, Firefox has fallen behind. It is buggy and support releases are slow and don't address outstanding problems.
> 
> ...


I occasionally use Opera. the lack of a menu bar in the newer version drives me nuts. It is why I only use it occasionally. I don't use Chrome just because I am not a fan of Google's version of gathering total information on its users. They are evil. I don't like IE (besides some sites totally funk out on it) because Microsoft products have a way of doing things you tell it not to do. My Windows 10 is extremely bad about that. You can tell it not to share and it shares; you can tell it not to organize media, and it does it anyway; you can tell it to wait for later to install updates and it will proceed to install them as soon as you touch the button not to.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

Declan said:


> I occasionally use Opera. the lack of a menu bar in the newer version drives me nuts. It is why I only use it occasionally.


Isn't it interesting how little things can bug us? Like in Chrome, I am quite annoyed that the Home and Reload buttons are on the left side rather than the right. I'll get used to it but for now, I'm annoyed but not enough to make me abandon it.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Declan said:


> Microsoft products have a way of doing things you tell it not to do. My Windows 10 is extremely bad about that. You can tell it not to share and it shares; you can tell it not to organize media, and it does it anyway; you can tell it to wait for later to install updates and it will proceed to install them as soon as you touch the button not to.



Win10 is a swiss cheese. You cant trust it to have any communication with the mothership (it will happily lie to you). Meaning you seriously block such communication via a firewall, not just checking little boxes that it ignores and changes at will. Preferably an external hardware firewall, but so far I havent seen it attempting to get through its own built in software firewall. At least it hasnt tried to make any noticable changes.

You do need a friendlier front end for the built in firewall, its sorely lacking in easy set up to control outgoing communications. By design I am sure. I use http://www.evorim.com/en/free-firewall. Set it to paranoid and it informs you when any software is trying to connect to internet. One little bug in this firewall that will cause win10 to make little popup telling you to turn on windows firewall. Ignore it, the windows firewall is active, just that this frontend is in control (check the option in "freefirewall" for it to cooperate with settings in windows firewall). I think they plan to correct that bug in upcoming release. If anything truly annoying about windows is those nag popups and they went to extremes in win10 to prevent you disabling them. There is no option to tell it, yes I know and I want to keep it that way! And apparently no registery hack or whatever to disable it either.


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## rzrubek (May 13, 2004)

logbuilder said:


> The one thing that I haven't been able to accomplish with Chrome is being able to download youtube videos. I've tried a couple of plugins but no luck. Anyone have a good plugin for Chrome that allows for downloading from YT?


Chrome is google YouTube is google they don't allow down loading. I use Firefox when I want to download YouTube video.


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

Saw the preview of the new windows 10 coming out later this year. Microsoft is never going to learn that people who use desktops do not want touchscreen style interfaces. Say goodbye to the taskbar and frames around your open windows.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

Declan said:


> Saw the preview of the new windows 10 coming out later this year. Microsoft is never going to learn that people who use desktops do not want touchscreen style interfaces. Say goodbye to the taskbar and frames around your open windows.


I use Classic Shell. It hides the tiles and gives me the Win 7 start menu. It is free. Love it.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

rzrubek said:


> Chrome is google YouTube is google they don't allow down loading. I use Firefox when I want to download YouTube video.


I'll keep FF around for this.


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