Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

xnooby2 · 2007-08-20 02:09:27

When I use Firefox ("Bon Echo" ?), it usually times out when I open 10+ tabs. It works fine on Windows, and a little better on Ubuntu - so I think I must have something configured wrong on Arch.

I am now trying the Fasterfox, NoScript, and AdBlockPlus add-ons. It's better, especially if the pages are already cached, but it is still slow and often times out.

When I open lots of tabs, the spinning wheels just keep going and going. The pages have their HTML, but are usually missing pictures and flash objects. It's pretty annoying since I am use to it working. Single pages work fine.

I have a pretty fast PC and a fast Ip connection, plus it works on other OSen. I hate Opera, so I'm not going to use that. I also use Foxmarks for syncing my bookmarks.

Is there a way to speed it up?

veek · 2007-08-20 02:24:22

I don't really have a solution for improving Firefox speed that you're not already trying, except maybe
try Swiftfox, an optimized build of FF. Not sure how much it helps, but might be worth investigating.

After reading this thread by synthead (A little further down this section, actually): http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=36161, I've started using the browser Kazehakase, and I love it.

For me it's really, really fast and has all the essential features I want like tabs, mouse gestures, etc.
I especially like the tab handling, I have 13 open right now, and don't seem to take a performance hit.
I also have the tabs on the right side of the screen, that way they stack up vertically and leave room for
a lot of simultaneous tabs.

Anyway, synthead does a good job of describing it in the thread I linked.

Last edited by veek (2007-08-20 02:27:14)

xnooby2 · 2007-08-20 02:52:43

It looks interesting, but I rely on on AdBlock and FoxMarks rather heavily.

Lone_Wolf · 2007-08-20 11:57:47

Try changing some of the settings for firefox directly :
put about:config in the address bar
Enable network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining .

Some people swear by setting the value of network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 30 instead of the default 4, but for me anything above 10 slows things down instead of speeding them up.
Experiment with the value to find what works best on your system

Note : fasterfox seems to change these settings also, but i've seen many posts where directly changing the settings without fasterfox installed works better.

buttons · 2007-08-20 13:23:20

Couple of things:

1) Yes, kazehakase is better. But...addons. I don't use it either, but I kinda wish I did.
2) Swiftfox is faster. But it's a binary blob with a sketchy author. Disclaimer: I use it anyway.
3) http://www.ubuntugeek.com/speed-up-fire … owser.html

That last one helps immeasurably. It's the first thing I do to any mozilla-based product. Come to think of it, it'd be lots easier if I just made that whole guide a user.js and stuck it in the directory of every xul-running thing I use. As it is I just copy the whole prefs.js over afterwards. It's like night and day, honestly.

Oh...and flash_plugin leaks pixmem violently. I recommend flashblock.

qlus · 2007-08-20 18:57:08

Try disabling pango, Fx would be faster.

buttons · 2007-08-20 21:06:38

For those that don't know, that's

echo "export MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1" >> ~/.profile

then restart X.

Last edited by buttons (2007-08-20 21:06:56)

fernux · 2007-08-21 01:41:41

Try opera pacman -S opera
It has adblock funktion also as ff

Last edited by fernux (2007-08-21 01:42:34)

xnooby2 · 2007-08-21 03:23:41

buttons wrote:

Couple of things:
1) Yes, kazehakase is better. But...addons. I don't use it either, but I kinda wish I did.
2) Swiftfox is faster. But it's a binary blob with a sketchy author. Disclaimer: I use it anyway.
3) http://www.ubuntugeek.com/speed-up-fire … owser.html
That last one helps immeasurably. It's the first thing I do to any mozilla-based product. Come to think of it, it'd be lots easier if I just made that whole guide a user.js and stuck it in the directory of every xul-running thing I use. As it is I just copy the whole prefs.js over afterwards. It's like night and day, honestly.
Oh...and flash_plugin leaks pixmem violently. I recommend flashblock.

Regarding #3, Fasterfox must have set the first few values, i set the rest by hand. It certainly seems faster. The menus are almost too fast. Some pages still timeout, but overall it seems a lot better.

Thanks!

Arch Linux

#1 2007-08-20 02:09:27

Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#2 2007-08-20 02:24:22

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#3 2007-08-20 02:52:43

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#4 2007-08-20 11:57:47

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#5 2007-08-20 13:23:20

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#6 2007-08-20 18:57:08

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#7 2007-08-20 21:06:38

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#8 2007-08-21 01:41:41

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

#9 2007-08-21 03:23:41

Re: Firefox is slow when opening several tabs.

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