Thread: Firefox memory leaks?

  1. #16
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    California
    Posts
    3,268
    According to this test, firefox actually does remarkably well in the memory department.
    (If you are wondering why Chrome looks so bad in that test, read this)

  2. #17
    Registered User Sharke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    NYC
    Posts
    303
    Jeez, what are you guys doing to have 40+ tabs open at once? Surely there can't be that much smut worth looking at.

    Firefox works fine for me, I've never noticed any slow downs in all the years I've used it. Can't stomach any other browser. Done enough web design to put me off IE for life, Opera sucks and Google Chrome doesn't even have smooth scrolling.

  3. #18
    Registered User ssharish2005's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Cambridge, UK
    Posts
    1,732
    The browse issue has been there for me for a long time. I always realise that my browser is pretty slow in rendering. I don’t know if this is to do something with the html download from the internet or just the rendering. Really annoying while loading up the page.

    What I’m thinking is that there might be some Trojan or any other processor sitting behind somewhere eating my memory.

    Is there any free tool to check if there her anything still hanging around and antivirus software i could probably scan and find out.

    Cheers guys!

    -ssharish
    Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving - Einstein

  4. #19
    Guest Sebastiani's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Waterloo, Texas
    Posts
    5,708
    >> What I’m thinking is that there might be some Trojan or any other processor sitting behind somewhere eating my memory.

    It's possible. IE has *lots* of security holes. You should avoid it like the plague. Another problem with IE is that it doesn't really give you full control over what components are installed, and as a result so many objects loaded at once (even if their all legitimate) can bring the browser to it's knees. I use Firefox, and strictly limit what components are installed and enabled, and the browser runs like the gentle wind for me. Besides the browser itself, though, processes running on your system can have a signifgant effect on your browsing experience. I always keep a tight grip on what non-system processes are allowed to run in the background or loaded on startup (usually 0), as well as the services that are loaded (usually 5 or 6). The only time I ever have performance issues these days is when running Flash or Java. Otherwise, my system is always snappy and responsive.

    >> Is there any free tool to check if there her anything still hanging around and antivirus software i could probably scan and find out.

    I don't use any antivirus software myself, as I've found that most seem to have negative effects on the system. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, though. Personally, I've found a "do-it-yourself" approach to most effective. Tools like Sysinternals Filemon, ProcessMon, RegMon, PortMon, etc allow you to monitor in real time what's going on in your system, and I've found them immensely useful in keeping everything running optimally. Unfortunately, Microsoft bought them out, and only offer a handful of the complete suite, so you'll either have to find them elsewhere (such as the WayBackMachine) or else use some other product.
    Code:
    #include <cmath>
    #include <complex>
    bool euler_flip(bool value)
    {
        return std::pow
        (
            std::complex<float>(std::exp(1.0)), 
            std::complex<float>(0, 1) 
            * std::complex<float>(std::atan(1.0)
            *(1 << (value + 2)))
        ).real() < 0;
    }

  5. #20
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,229
    Running Firefox 3.5 (actually Shiretoko... wait, did they just change the unbranded name? EDIT: nvm, that's the official codename) with 18 tabs open. Flash disabled (I use a plugin that disables all flash animations until I click on them). Memory usage is fine (~150MB). CPU usage isn't, though, at almost constant 50%, and I'm not touching anything (not loading any pages, etc). This is certainly not good for laptop battery life...

    Taking suggestions for a new browser (Linux). I want to give Konqueror a try, but I run GNOME, so it's not integrated well.
    Last edited by cyberfish; 06-24-2009 at 10:54 PM.

  6. #21
    Guest Sebastiani's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Waterloo, Texas
    Posts
    5,708
    >> Running Firefox 3.5

    Yeah, I tried it out myself and it seemed to run slower and was more CPU-intensive than the earlier release. Hopefully, that won't be the case with the final release.

    >> Taking suggestions for a new browser (Linux).

    Have you tried Opera? I haven't used it in a while, but I remember it being pretty good. It has a lot of cool features, too, like mouse-motion and voice-enabled browsing.
    Code:
    #include <cmath>
    #include <complex>
    bool euler_flip(bool value)
    {
        return std::pow
        (
            std::complex<float>(std::exp(1.0)), 
            std::complex<float>(0, 1) 
            * std::complex<float>(std::atan(1.0)
            *(1 << (value + 2)))
        ).real() < 0;
    }

  7. #22
    and the hat of copycat stevesmithx's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    587
    Quote Originally Posted by cyberfish View Post
    Running Firefox 3.5 (actually Shiretoko... wait, did they just change the unbranded name? EDIT: nvm, that's the official codename) with 18 tabs open. Flash disabled (I use a plugin that disables all flash animations until I click on them). Memory usage is fine (~150MB). CPU usage isn't, though, at almost constant 50%, and I'm not touching anything (not loading any pages, etc). This is certainly not good for laptop battery life...

    Taking suggestions for a new browser (Linux). I want to give Konqueror a try, but I run GNOME, so it's not integrated well.
    Heh, Luckily I didn't install 3.5, although i was considering to install it soon. But with beta releases who can say what would happen?. Only very few i know had worked well(*cough* windows *cough* 7).
    btw, I use chrome whenever i find fx working sluggishly but only use it as a secondary browser.
    Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted
    - Albert Einstein.


    No programming language is perfect. There is not even a single best language; there are only languages well suited or perhaps poorly suited for particular purposes.
    - Herbert Mayer

  8. #23
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,229
    I will try Opera next. I was trying to keep my computer open source... but well... it's free =P.

    Will also try Chrome once the Linux version matures (the current Linux preview is reportedly missing a lot of features)

  9. #24
    Cat without Hat CornedBee's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Posts
    8,895
    Still a 3.0 here, but with 24 tabs, after loading, the CPU goes down to 0% as it should. (600MB RAM - but those are very heavy pages I have open.)
    All the buzzt!
    CornedBee

    "There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be, any programming language in which it is the least bit difficult to write bad code."
    - Flon's Law

  10. #25
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,229
    Trying out Opera right now. Loving it so far. Just so much snappier (scrolling, changing tabs, etc), even on my slow laptop. But why does it have a "Download Opera" link in the default bookmark list...

    And I love SpeedDial!

  11. #26
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    3,229
    I tried Opera for a week or so. Not much better in terms of resource consumptions compared to FF. I think I will go back to FF (since I use GNOME, and FF is better integrated).

    Maybe it's my desktop environment... I will give XFCE a try.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Checking for memory leaks
    By Bladactania in forum C Programming
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 02-10-2009, 12:58 PM
  2. memory leaks
    By TehOne in forum C Programming
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 10-10-2008, 09:33 PM
  3. Tons of memory leaks
    By VirtualAce in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 11
    Last Post: 12-05-2005, 10:19 AM
  4. COM Memory Leaks
    By subdene in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 06-07-2004, 11:57 AM
  5. about memory leaks with this simple program
    By Unregistered in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 04-07-2002, 07:19 PM